| My heart goes out to those children who have been
labeled "ADHD" ("attention-deficit and hyperactivity
disorder"), the latest "learning disability" label.
Many educators and researchers now believe that these children and
their families have been profoundly deceived by the use of these
labels. Dr. Thomas Armstrong, a former learning disabilities
specialist, changed professions when he "began to see how this
notion of learning disabilities was handicapping all of our children
by placing the blame for a child's learning failure on mysterious
neurological deficiencies in the brain instead of on much needed
reforms in our system of education."
"ADD" and "ADHD" are
fictions. They are nothing less than self-fulfilling pseudo-diagnoses,
used as an excuse to give children powerful drugs so they can be
fitted into the unnatural environment of a classroom. Overburdened
teachers, and parents made anxious by the school institution have
unrealistic and unfair expectations about what a "normal"
child should be able to do. The high energy of many young children -
especially boys - is normal for a healthy child. A child's natural
energy is something to celebrate, not a problem that we need to fix
with mind-altering drugs. It is only a problem when we force children
into a boring environment where they have little voice or power.
The abnormality is in the school, not in the
child. It is normal and natural for a healthy child to be active and
energetic, much more so than our society wants us to believe (see "The
Child Who Never Sits Still" by Robert Mendelsohn).
Subjective and unreliable behavioral
observations by those who hold to society's
skewed expectations of what "normal" behavior should look
like in a classroom (meaning, behavior that meets the needs of the
teacher and ignores the needs of the child) is a far cry from a
"diagnosis". As neurologist Fred Baughman wrote:
"Twenty five years of research, not deserving of the term
'research', has failed to validate ADD/ADHD as a disease." And
the "cure" is so dangerous. Ritalin is a form of speed, with
many potential dangers and side effects - even death. As reported by
The Australian, "Children as young as five have suffered strokes,
heart attacks, hallucinations and convulsions after taking drugs to
treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder."1
If ADD and ADHD were true diseases, surely they
would be found in the same proportion in all populations of children.
Yet neither of these so-called "diseases" are seen in
homeschooling families unless the child has recently been in school.
Homeschooling parents would have no reason to force unnatural behavior
like sitting still for long periods or studying something that is of
little interest to them that day. Compassionate parents understand and
celebrate a child's natural energy and enthusiasm. In such an
environment, there are no "learning disorders". The National
Institutes of Health admitted in 1998, "….We do not have
an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there are no data to indicate
that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction."
It is one of our society's greatest ironies that
the same educators who admonish children to "just say no" to
drugs are at the same time handing out
powerful drugs to millions of children for a fictional disorder in an
attempt to counter the very normal reactions of healthy children to an
abnormal environment.
The fault is not within our children, but in our
society's attitudes toward them. A healthy child is naturally active,
curious, and even rambunctious. When will we let a 6-year-old act like
a 6-year-old and not expect him to act like he's 36? When will we let
children be children?
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