Now this is one I could go on and on about ... but here's my take and it's from first hand experience:
1. Our education system (be it public, parochial or private), and by education system I literally mean the delivery system whereby the information is relayed to the students, in short, is fucked up (and I'm not debating the whys or wherefores, this is just one parents opinion). It's a cookie cutter system and that cookie cutter effectively excludes a certain percentage of children. The "standard" way our kids are taught is NOT effective for X-Y-Z percentage of kids, but the teachers teach the only way they know how to learn themselves. Also, there are only so many resources.
I also believe that there is a factor a lot of people kind of overlook. Most teachers in early education are women and frankly, unless a woman has ACTUALLY RAISED boys, they don't understand the differences in the way the male brain (your basic normal, rowdy physically going boy) operates versus a female brain (generally more verbal at an earlier age).
2. MOST humans are a bit "ADD/ADHD" it's the reason we're ALIVE, as a species. The focusing on the little details, every little sound and movement catching your attention. Until quite recently, in terms of history/evolution, we were PREY animals. Being hypervigilent is an instinctive survival skill.
3. Diet bears a LOT of the blame. Sugar, processed foods, artificial sweeteners ... shit, shit and more shit and a lot of kids turn into human pinballs because their parents don't know about food/don't have the time to prepare decent food/don't have the money to BUY decent food.
4. Our culture ... too many kids sitting on their asses for too long. Gym class is a joke, and kids don't go outside and play anymore, they stay home and push buttons. Kids have bodies that need to be MOVED, muscles and bones that are growing, neural systems that need testing and training.
5. This actually references back to point #2 ... some kids do GENUINELY need the meds because they were born with underactive frontal lobes (great for hunter gatherers, lousy for sitting still in a classroom situation). It genuinely pisses me off because there are kids who REALLY do need the meds to function in a school society, shit, to function at home, and their parents are labeled as schmucks because they put the kids on the meds. Until you've seen the frustration of a child who can't concentrate for ten seconds on something, and you know the kid has a good diet, gets out, runs around, is inherently intelligent but is STILL constantly in trouble at school because their brains operate differently and they are fidgety and disruptive say what you will. Until you've known a child who can't concentrate enough to look you in the eye when you talk to them and then the first time, in their LIVES they are actually focusing and listening to you because of a stupid pill, and then to be told you're a bad parent?!
It frustrates me when everything is whitewashed ... I think the meds are overprescribed, but the meds have real value for people who really need them when all other recourse has been eliminated.
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