In response to an earlier article by psychologists and social workers about abusive tactics in certain schools in Texas, this parent wrote the following comment:
Quote from the above article: ” During the same 30 years when A.D.H.D. diagnoses increased, American childhood drastically changed. Even at the grade-school level, kids now have more homework, less recess and a lot less unstructured free time to relax and play.”
In my children’s school, the principal thinks ADHD meds are “steroids for the brain” and has a standard recommendation for all parents whose children can’t sit still for 8 hours of drill each day. Last year, when my 7 year old son could not sit still in 2nd grade for two days of four hour STAAR test practice, it was recommended that I take him to the doctor and say that he could not “focus” on his schoolwork. All the doctor did was write out one sentence stating an ADHD diagnosis and a script for meds. The doctor seemed to be under the influence of the school? I decided it was not my son that needed changing, it was the school! I changed both my son and daughter to a private school this year, even though we cannot afford it. What is happening in elementary schools of Texas is abusive. I’m glad it is finally being called what it is:
Mental and Physical cruelty for children is psychological abuse!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I am a parent as well of an ADHD child and he is also in private school paid for by the state because they can not provide him with an appropriate educational program within the system. Our educational system is failing children who have iEP’s and/or different learning difficulties. I do not have faith in the system any more. Find the best solution for your child. That is what it comes down too. Good luck!!! Your kids are some of the lucky ones because you care.
A second grader who cannot sit still for two four hour test sessions is NOT ADHD! It is hard enough to imagine a school that recommends a child be medicated under those circumstances, but a doctor who will write a script should not be allowed to practice.
” It is hard enough to imagine a school that recommends a child be medicated under those circumstances,. . . ”
It is ALSO hard enough to imagine that a school recommends a second grader to sit still for four hour standardized testing sessions.
I became an advocate for urban private schools, and rural public schools, when I noted that the city public schools eliminated free play and recess in kindergarten. I tell my friends who are looking for schools to ask how much recess their child(ren) will have during the day. The majority of my friends have gone the montessori route.
It’s interesting that the principal is recommending medications. In Utah we are not allowed to suggest medications AT ALL, EVER. If someone from a school suggests medications, the school district has to pay for them. I’m really frightened that a principal would even THINK that it’s a good idea to suggest medications. He or she is not a medical professional.
Same here in Connecticut. I would imagine there are similar laws in place in most, if not all, states.
I cannot imagine the anguish that these parents are experiencing and I extend to them my sympathies. ZenQI’s advice to “Find the best solution for your child. That is what it comes down too.” is not unreasonable. And yet, in seeking solutions because the reforms are helping our systems to fail our children, their parents and society, we run the potential risk of doing exactly what the reformers would both recommend and advocate perhaps furthering the demise of public education.
GE2L2R: thank you for pointing out the difficult, sometimes impossible, situations created by “education reform.”
Yes, sometimes it’s more than “caught between a rock and hard place” but “damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
Diane, I have started a Facebook page for mental health professionals who are opposed to the Common Core. My goal is to get 100-150 mental health professionals throughout the nation to sign a document opposing CCSS. It’s called Mental Health Professionals Against the Common Core website: www (dot) facebook (dot) com (/) groups (/) 203076249876429 (/)
Fine idea Mary. I would encourage you and your co-signers to cite as many specific examples as possible of the types of abuses that concern you and why you view / perceive them as either dangerous or worse, abusive.
That’s the goal. I am hoping to get a few people from different work settings to help develop the document. This was we get a broad spectrum of experiences represented.
How are you approaching them? Here in Minnesota they wouldn’t even write specific letters to the school requiring desensitization for anxiety-based school refusal. I can’t imagine any of them signing a petition.
4 hours of test practice for a 7 year old?!
No matter how you slice it that is just insane.
Does anyone else clearly remember enjoying school, especially in the primary grades?
We all must remember what we are fighting for.
We must put a stake through the heart of all this nonsense.
Ang: after five years on ed blogs as well as reading a fair amount about standardized tests and how the tail of measurement is increasingly wagging the dog of learning and teaching, I think your statement is simply good sense:
“We must put a stake through the heart of all this nonsense.”
😎
Another is to kill the “Dandy Lion” (standardized testing sure is the “dandy” boy of the edudeformers) by pulling out the main root not just lopping off the greens and flower.
Sheer insanity is what it is. With the Common Core I am now tasked with getting my students up to speed with the new standards, while somehow staying with the pacing guide. Right now I’m two weeks behind, but I refuse to throw material at my students in the hope that some of it will stick. We’re taking our time and doing it right. Yeah, I’ve already been lectured about it, but I’m past the point of caring what administrators with little to no early childhood experience think anyway. On the day before Thanksgiving we actually took time for an art project. It saddened me to see how excited they were over it: their joy clearly illustrated how rare these opportunities are in second grade, otherwise known as The Year Before the Big Test.
Lehrer,
I applaud you for doing your best to not be a GAGAer!
Gotta think of a good acronym for the opposite of a GAGAer.
Help me out folks!
You’ll have to first define GAGAer, Duane!
Go Along to Get Along.
Not only did students enjoy school and learn more in the days before NCLB, teachers enjoyed teaching and were able to truly teach more.
I$ it any wonder that Pear$on acquired the company that does the ADHD testing? I$ this part of their busine$$ $trategy? Cau$e the problem, then have the $olution.
http://www.pearsoned.com/pearson-acquires-adhd-testing-company-biobehavioral-diagnostics/#.Upt8_qCop_c
And what new expertize is Pearson bringing to the table that is not already available to the professionals who are responsible for diagnosing ADHD? Absolutely none!
The expertize of being able to identify that many more students as needing Pearson’s “Magical Mystery Mastery Advanced Design Hyper Diagnostic Worksheets” (MMMADHD©) which if given upside down and backwards will instantaneously cure any student of any malady that prevents them from completing 100% correctly all answers to all standardized tests they will ever take!!
Reblogged this on Roy F. McCampbell's Blog.
I did the same for my grandchildren. Sad day for public school children who do not have this option. This seems to be the plan by the upper 1% so they can pay lower taxes or no taxes and not have to support a system that does not benefit their own children. Fewer students in public schools means less money needed to educate them. It seems to be working for them across the country. Some of the 1% have even figured out how to increase their wealth by altering the school system to benefit their own pocket book. That is why they are members of the 1% country club!
Since we are all mandated reporters who are required by law to report conditions that are harmful to minors, what would happen if we inundated the powers that be with phone calls?
Not much would happen, except maybe the loss of our jobs. I have seen children returned to neglectful families several times in my career. The Department of Children and Families has its hands full and can only go after the most severe cases.
In LA , reporting an abusive colleague has cost many teachers their jobs, myself included . Besides being close to vested, the reason many teachers find themselves in runpbber rooms or teacher jails is reporting abuse. It is usually in the contexts of an abusive colleague that instruct has been protecting, but there are many cases where reporting parents has cost teachers their careers . My experience has been npbleak as far as Child protective services and law enforcement goes. Every time I made a report , the child was sent back to the abusive home where things got worse after the authorities visited the home. Pregnant girls with angry fathers were beaten, one was choked out by dad and still sent back. She ran away and had her baby, as did another worse father stormed the hallways looking for his daughter after beating the hell out of her. Girls raped by brothers, foster children denied soap and water, even a 15 year old sent to work the streets by her drug addled prostitute mother were betrayed by the system set up to protect them.
Yet you try and home school a kid and watch how swiftly social workers swoop in and take your kids away because the house is a little unkept or they decide your religious beliefs are unfit. The system is worse than broken. It has become our sworn enemy.
This question comes up often. We cannot report a school to CPS. They only take reports on people with whom the child resides. CPS will tell you that anything else needs to be reported to law enforcement. While I agree this is abusive, calling 9-1-1 is a huge step and is likely to result in people getting fired. Now I’m hoping someone files a lawsuit charging emotional damages…
This is a slippery slope. If you call the official hot line that is designated for your area and you are a mandated reporter, they must accept your report and investigate. You will have to be prepared with documentation of specific incidences and evidence of abuse, so that your report is considered to be made in good faith and you are covered by the whistle blower’s protection clause.
Here’s the hard part: You will be asked to identify the abuser. Who will you say? The testing company, the federal government, the state, the school district, the principal or the teacher? In the end, the adult who is responsible for actually administering the tests (even if students complete them on computers) might be considered the abuser. “Just following orders” is not an acceptable defense for crimes against humanity.
Teachers really need to band together, in collaboration with parents, follow their consciences and do what they know is right for children.
The principal’s ‘standard recommendation’ is illegal. Know your rights. https://www.cchrint.org/issues/childmentaldisorders/
I have taught many at-risk teens in my career, including many who tell me that they have ADHD diagnoses. Honestly, I’ve only had a few I would say almost definitely have it. The rest are strongly kinesthetic learners who do better if they can move as they learn. Take care of that, and you take care of the “problem.”
ADD is much different than ADHD yet there is a tendency to confuse the two. An over prescribed pharmaceutical is not the the answer for either one, but sometimes the drugs are a buffer for behavior problems that may be the result of frustration. Diet, of course, should be the first response to any problem child as we know a week without sugar can be the miracle parents pray for, and it is right under their noses. Doctors should know this and resist the prescriptions until they have afforded the child healthier options. Exercise is also very helpful–finding an outlet that the child feels good about with diet and exercise is much more effective than harsh chemicals. No matter what ails him .
Also educators should have PD that helps them recognize the Various conditions that get in children’s way. ADD is more debilitating than ADHD which actually has many advatages for the people afflicted with it. I dont think enough of that is available to teachers. I also suspect ADD symptoms are mirrored in over stimulated , sugared up kids without displine or positive activities to direct their energy. A truly ADD child is physically restless, unable to focus and typically struggling academically and socially in school. ADHD students can focus. In fact, they hyper focus, which is why they can excell when a topic or activity engages them. They tend to be very bright, but can also have episodes of frustration ( who doesn’t?) and inappropriate emotional reactions to the world at large. While ADD students may not be self-contained or self-aware enough to correct themselves, ADHD can allow someone great joy in his or her own company. Many great minds have been attributed to ADHD. ADD is more likely to excell in sports , and tends to respond better to te drugs than ADHD. Frankly, Behaviorists seem best at addressing the needs of individuals who have these conditions. The drugs are a temporary measure to help children adapt but therapy and discipline ( not punschment but routines and practice) should be the first line of defense for parents after knowledge. There are plenty of great books out there. It is troubling to hear school administrators infliflict this misinformation to parents in such a cavalier fashion. Parents assume a principle is an expert. They do not understand how little training we have or how often the school site leadership is incompetent, indifferent and irresponsible when it comes to our kids.
One of the things that really is wrong with our public schools is that administrators and text book hustlers have no training in early child development. Something is very wrong when large numbers of children have to be drugged in order to submit to the demands of school. It is worse than Dickensian. Where is the AMA on this?
Folks might want to take a look at this technical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics, “The Lifelong Effects of Early Childhood Adversity and Toxic Stress” http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/129/1/e232.full
I think more details are needed before we blame the school. First, I’d say that clearly a psychologist or doctor who simply takes a report from school and, based solely off of that, makes a diagnosis and writes a prescription is not practicing appropriately. This isn’t the school’s fault that the doctor isn’t following protocol. The school made a recommendation to seek medical advice regarding a behavioral condition, and the parents followed it. It’s up to the doctor to respond appropriately. Somehow blaming that on the schools doesn’t really make any sense.
That being said, there is a legitimate question about how schools should be involved in referring children to psychologists and pediatricians regarding behavioral health issues. My experience has been that few would regard recommendations, when made appropriately, as bad, and certainly not as abusive. A school, however, that made a recommendation to “seek medication,” or made no efforts to support a child’s behavior at school, would be in the wrong. In this situation, do we see evidence of this? Did the school specifically recommend medication, or just seeking a medical opinion?
Three years ago, our son entered 3rd grade. By the second week of school, he was already having a bad reaction to the all-day seatwork and weekly take-home packets of test prep. We initiated a conference with the teacher and the first words out of her mouth were, “I think you should have him tested and get him on medication. He can’t focus. My daughter had the same problem. She’s doing a lot better now.” I suggested that she try some effective teaching strategies, but it seems she was either unwilling or unable. I had no other choice but to transfer my son out of that classroom. Over the next few years, I discovered that many of the neighborhood kids are on Concerta and adderall. The pressure to conform, even if it means doping your kids, is extraordinary here in suburbia.
Ken Kesey wrote a very prescient book in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, in which he depicted an asylum run by power control freak Nurse Ratched, who was determined to overpower her patients with drugs. In the forty plus years since the publication of that book, the expansion of such practices has become all too real.
Another book from the sixties, Triumph of the Therapeutic, by Philip Rieff, condemns the rise of social therapists who are more interested in social engineering than the good of society at large.
As John Lennon once said “Strange Days Indeed.”
Here is a quote from an article that cites compelling research by a clinical psychologist and a health economist from UC Berkeley connecting accountability and testing to rising rates of ADHD diagnosis.
“Specifically, Drs. Hinshaw and Scheffler’s team found a correlation between the states with the highest rates of ADHD diagnosis and laws that penalize school districts when students fail. Some of these laws are what they call “consequential accountability statutes”—that is, laws like No Child Left Behind, which make school funding contingent on the number of students who pass standardized tests.”
Here’s the link to the article:
http://www.childmind.org/en/posts/articles/2013-7-2-are-schools-driving-rise-adhd-diagnoses
Environment plays a significant role in how humans respond/react, but we are not fixing the real issues as they are being masked by quick fixes like drugs. Soon reformers will be handing out a drug to go with testing called CCTR (Common Core Test Relaxer) for test takers.
Our students are being affected by the harmful learning environment contaminated by CCSS. It has not only stiffled teacher creatitivity but student potential as well. The effects are more obvious in low SES schools but don’t let its covert effects on higher SES students fool anyone.
We as teachers have to make the conscious choice to differentiate what has been forced down our gullets to meet our kiddos where they are cognitively. When kiddos (or adults for that matter) start getting “antsy”, it’s time to change it up! That’s where our creativity and flexibility (those “soft skills” that come with experience) get to shine… That’s when we need to interject movement, song, dance – using the same learning outcome/standard, but just changing our product or “expression”, if you will.
“Ody-fied” (Garfield rocks!) optimism aside, the practice of family physicians doling out ADHD diagnoses like post-its in a teacher’s manual needs to stop! Before relenting to my “higher calling” of “teacher”, I worked in therapeutic foster care as a case worker/Behavior Consultant. Being privy to trained psychiatrists teasing out subtle symptoms to determine treatment options was truly an educational experience. One particular psychiatrist shared with me, “With young minds, we don’t always know a specific “diagnosis” – they are still growing and developing. We have to “diagnose” so that insurance will cover the medication treatment of whatever symptoms the child is presenting.” What honesty!
Of a personal note, I have a family member who was erroneously diagnosed with ADHD and treated for such with stimulants. This person had instead a mood disorder which escalated into a manic phase of bipolar disorder. It took years to overcome the personal devestation and complete “debris removal” from this disaster.
Receiving a correct diagnosis from a psychiatrist can indeed be costly. It is also so convenient to engage the services of the family practitioner during a regular check-up for possible attention issues. However, the actual “bill” of an incorrect diagnosis can take years to pay… if ever.
The parent writing this article is on point! Children were not meant to sit on rugs being drilled, being denied proper exercise and not being able to learn through experiential ways. Now add the poor quality of food served to title one children for breakfast and lunch (sugary, salty processed foods “labeled lower sugar” or salt) and you get children who move around or want to move around but are not allowed to and this is only enhanced by the diet. In my county, 6th grade students are in the elementary schools and they are not allowed to have recess! If they were in middle school they would be able to walk the halls to each class at least! This is tatamount to abuse. And everyone is always quick to blame students for being overactive in class. Overactive basically means THEY NEED TO MOVE but are not allowed to.
Often families take their children to the doctor/hospital first, and they diagnose them and then send the parent to the school telling them to get an IEP for the child and to make sure differentiation takes place. This has been my experience as a principal more often than the other way around.
I feel it’s incredibly important to make sure that critiques of abusive and unethical teaching and testing practices do not devolve into frenzied diagnosis-bashing. Faux diagnoses and prescriptions are unequivocally dangerous and damaging, and I completely agree that when schools are forced to focus on high-stakes testing, the number of children referred for diagnosis increases dramatically.
But implying that there’s a direct causal correlation between (vaguely described, un-quantified, un-cited) changes in academic environments and increases in diagnoses of ADHD over a thirty-year period is simply disingenuous. An increase in diagnoses is, statistically, just that; an increase in diagnoses. Given the degree of emphasis placed on rote memorization and repetition in public schools for many decades prior to the 30 years in question, it seems highly improbable that stricter classroom environments alone are to blame for increases in diagnoses of ADHD.
And even if such a correlation were found today, that doesn’t necessarily imply that rates of diagnosis can be accounted for without factoring in the influence of insurance companies, diagnostic criteria, federal disability policies, or increases in public awareness. Neglecting to mention these additional factors when using diagnostic terms as your own rhetorical devices does real harm to those who rely on said diagnoses for access to the supports and medicines they need.
On a more personal note, I say all this as an autistic (college) student with ADHD who attended wonderful, flexible, supportive Montessori schools for elementary and middle school. I am unable to perform most daily academic and life tasks (including many which I really, really enjoy) without the help of medication. Had I not been diagnosed when I was–when I was 16, and had experienced 11 years of well-meaning, but damaging exhortations from my teachers and relatives–I likely would not be alive today. And when I read accounts from educators, parents, and activists, admirably advocating for better funding and support for all students while employing my diagnostic label as a generalized example of “abusive tactics,” it hurts me deeply. It was, is, and would be, abusive to deny me proper accommodations and medical support; just as it was, is, and would be abusive to force any child to take medication they did not want or need.
I simply ask the following: if you want to use the experiences of disabled students like myself as examples of unethical school reform, please refrain from suggesting that our diagnostic labels are as unethical as those who abuse us. Without those labels, disabled students do not exist; instead, we get different labels, like “r******d students” or “lazy students” or “bad students.” I vehemently agree with like, 99% of the sentiments posted on this blog. But please, do not say that in a perfect world with perfect schools, I would be normal. In a perfect world with perfect schools, I would be me, I would be accommodated, I would have access the medications I need.
My apologies if I seem overly self-righteous; I felt the need to speak up, since I know people here to be well-intentioned and open-minded, and I thought my input might be valuable.
Thanks, Your Friendly, Neighborhood Autistic-ADHD Kid, for your perspective and insights.
I think the primary concern here is that environmental stresses associated with schooling today, especially high-stakes testing, test prep and a narrowed curriculum that limits hands-on learning and recess in primary education, might make some children who don’t have ADHD look like they do have it.
A school’s expectation that a child be diagnosed and medicated for ADHD is as inappropriate as a school expecting that a child with pink eye be diagnosed as near sighted and given glasses. There are professionals who are qualified to determine that; it is not the place of principals or teachers to make those calls.
One of the reasons why antibiotics are not as effective today as they were in the past is because of all the doctors who responded to the demands of their patients and issued antibiotics when they were unnecessary. So, we know that some doctors will prescribe medications even when they are not needed just because people expect them, hence the concerns raised over the doctor mentioned by the original poster.
Personally, if I were a parent bringing in my child to my pediatrician today because of his school’s referral, I would take along this American Academy of Pediatrics ADHD Guideline, based on the DSM 5, and ask the doctor to go through it with me: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/128/5/1007.full
I entirely agree, Cosmic Tinker, that said environmental stresses might cause students who don’t actually have ADHD to be referred to a doctor.
At the same time, a quick look at the demographics of ADHD and autism diagnoses in the United States (you can find these stats on the CDC website, I believe) shows that race, gender, and socioeconomic class play a much greater role in determining what “looks like” ADHD/autism than the amount of required standardized testing. If the number of inappropriate fill-the-bubble tests a student takes has a direct relationship with the probability of said student being referred for diagnosis, we shouldn’t see predominantly affluent, white male students receiving diagnoses of ADHD. But we do.
Just as there are undoubtedly a number of students getting unnecessary referrals, many students with learning/developmental disabilities (especially girls, students of color, ELLs, etc.) are never identified as needing additional support. As terrible as it may be for a child to be unnecessarily labeled and prescribed medication, only a very small, select portion of the population is privileged enough to be able to walk into a pediatrician’s office and walk out ten minutes later holding a prescription for a controlled substance. In reality, it is actually much, much more difficult for most people to consistently access and pay for their (or their child’s) ADHD medication, not to mention obtain accurate diagnoses.
On a less critical, and more practical note, I think your proposed plan of bringing along a sheet of “best-practices” DSM-5 guidelines makes a huge amount of sense. Even before any sort of doctor-referral takes place, though, parents can try to push for their child to have a full set of diagnostic cognitive and achievement tests done. Public schools are responsible for making sure that any child suspected of having learning difficulties receives a proper evaluation regardless of their family’s financial status. Since there is, technically, no test that can determine if a student has ADHD or not, “referring” a child to a pediatrician for a maybe-ADHD evaluation allows swamped administrators to avoid the cost of providing the full evaluation necessary to diagnose LDs or autism spectrum disorders. While it doesn’t solve the problem, requesting that your school conduct a full evaluation could slow down the process enough for parents/teachers to get to the bottom of things.
In general, being informed about what these diagnoses mean, and how they’re decided upon (by experienced practitioners) is the most effective means of making sure that kids are neither forced to undergo unnecessary treatments nor left out in the cold because they aren’t white/male/privileged enough to have their faults excused by a diagnostic label. The prevalence of standardized tests likely increases the probability of otherwise normal/calm children acting out. But whether or not a child’s behavior prompts an adult to refer them to a doctor is, in general, best predicted by the knowledge and prejudices of the adult in question.
Thanks for all y’alls constructive and civil discourse!
Sorry, YFNAAK, but I’m both a general ed and a special ed teacher who has had a lot of experience with this and I’ve seen many incidents where doctors readily played along and prescribed meds. Schools often refer families to their doctors for ADHD precisely because it requires a diagnosis from a health practitioner for meds to be prescribed.
Sounds like a perfectly normal 2nd grader to me.