Guest Author - Paula Petrie

Is it really OK to be drugging our kid’s brains in the name of higher education? A performance athlete would be sent packing for enhancing his physical ability. Yet when it comes to the delicate issues of the brain, emotion, developing skills to suit each person’s own unique style, we choose the path of least resistance.

By drugging kids at a phenomenal rate, are we ignoring the realities; that it is not possible to teach kids one way, by mainstreaming through the subjects and that most kids need individual attention to thrive, and they need it often.

Drugging enhances a child’s ability to focus. Granted, some kids really need this. But, I am concerned that for the rest, the natural state of gradual growth and learning; the getting it touch with yourself part, becomes stagnant. It worries me that the gains in confidence, GPA, and functioning, are only valid as long as the child takes the drug. A child that learns with support other than drugs, during the school years when the safety net is available, stands a better chance of developing “real” skills to cope and learns to fly on her own.

Through increasing the amount of diagnosed ADD kids by more than 500% in the last few years we have inadvertently taken the burden off of ourselves to demand food manufactures provide healthy choices; and can conveniently ignore the looming threat of processed food and chemical additives, causing attention problems (and other issues,) in our homes.

As well, we get to ignore (barely) the immediate need for an overhaul in our school institution; to take schools back to a time when teachers were allowed to teach. Some, who have the option, avoid these issues with home schooling and organic home cooking.

But, I understand these options are not for everyone. Paying for a tutor or finding the extra time after a full day, to see that your child “gets” the latest concepts in Math and English, are barely options for many. And the issue of organic cooking, and additive free choices can be as overwhelming as it is expensive. Although, those who try may find a little helps a lot, and maybe it isn't as difficult as it first appears.

The answer seems to lie in helping our own kids discover how they learn, so they can better decipher information. A good place to start with this is Mel Levine's, All Kinds Of Minds website: www.allkindsofminds.org/
Mel Levine wrote the inspiring best seller, "A Mind At A Time." In this book Mel shows us the learning troubles kids can have. And we gain an understanding that, just as all bodies are different, all minds truely are unique.

At any rate, this is where we are and these are the problems that many of us must face. One University study, (sponsored by whom? I don‘t know) states that kids who take ADD drugs have a healthier esteem and therefore are less likely to become tangled up with street drugs and alcohol. Another current study is looking at the possibility of certain kids becoming addicted to drugs, such as cocaine, later in life since the ADD drugs are of the same makeup.

But, as time passes kids are dying from the drug use (currently about 200.) And there is a call to investigate connections between psychological drug use and school shootings. I have had to take these issues to heart recently. I was greatly aided by Jan Zeiger, Bellaonline's Natural Living editor. I have included a link to her personal website at the bottom of the page. She has a lot of ADD information available, there.