by Jan Hunt

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).

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