"I am very concerned about our public schools. I feel they are being overcome with behavior modification drugs especially Ritalin. It is inconceivable to me how a child can be given a mind-altering drug under the pretense of "Attention Deficit Disorder" or the like. I think lack of understanding by the child is being distorted into a "medical" issue that could be resolved by more complete instruction.

Having matriculated through the Ann Arbor Michigan public schools in the 1980s, I know there were major deficiencies in teaching the English language then. If a subject or even a word is not understood it is a natural behavior not to pay attention to that subject or word. I see this in my own life. Only with maturity have I been able to go back and ask the question "what was that again?" and to come to a much higher understanding of the English language among other basic subjects.

Based upon the above phenomena and my own experience, I think all chemical treatments for behavior issues should be banned. Instead of financially supporting behavior "modification" techniques I think those funds should be used to acquire additional instructors and easier to understand school materials.

Finally I want to say I feel our children are not animals to be controlled but the future citizens of our Nation. They should be afforded the time to grow up, to understand their lessons and to mature into tomorrow's citizens and leaders. " M.Bonnell - October 2000                            

Visit  his wallpaper site   www.mikebonnell.com       

I completely agree with you. I heard on the news this morning that hundreds of thousands of kids are being doped in our primary educational institutions. If this is true it is horrifying. Our schools are being run like everything else in this "free market economy" to be cost efficient with little regard to the effect it has upon the individual. The schools seem mostly interested in cramming a child's mind full of facts, many of which are completely meaningless. If they are able to remember the facts long enough to answer the questions on a test they are moved forward to the next grade level. Because of this obsession with "fact loading" little attention is giving to the art of thinking and understanding and even less attention is given to help a child enjoy and develop the art of imagination.

Thinking about this topic makes me furious. Doping the children is often simply a means to make them conform to an educational approach that is not concerned with the child's well being at all but is simply designed to create a barely literate "product" upon graduation that will fit right in as an employee of the corporate capitalists. In this system of consumerism, school is where we first learn how "glorious" it is to be able to get a good paying job so one can afford to buy all kinds of gadgets with which to fill up an otherwise miserable empty life. Empty because of what they were denied in a emotional developmental sense within the school system.

Let me just say the situation in our schools is indicative of society as a whole. As our schools are quickly taking on the armed guard quality of a prison system, i.e. metal detectors, cops routinely patrolling the school hallways and campus etc to make sure the status-quo is maintained, we are continuing to loose our civil liberties outside of the class room as well. There are too many examples to go into here , but just to mention a couple there is government intrusion into our private life's as well as many draconian measures to chillingly clamp down on free speech and freedom of expression. And an all pervading suspiciousness about everybody else's actions. 1984 sixteen years late but finally here. Even teachers (primary care givers to children second only to parents and in some cases parental substitutes) are afraid to touch a child or to be alone with them in a classroom for fear someone will think they are up to no good. I read recently about a case where a male teacher was outside on the playground during an elementary school recess and was standing near where a little girl was swinging on the monkey bars. He claims that her hand slipped and she fell onto the ground hurting herself. He later told his peers that he could have caught her and prevented her from hurting herself but was afraid that if he had caught her he would have lost his job for inappropriate contact with a child or perhaps even been charged with some sort of a sex crime. (NO, I'm Not Kidding!!) Even the teachers union to which he belonged claimed he had done the right thing. And went on to advocate that a teacher (especially a male teacher) should never touch a child and should try to maintain a physical space between themselves and their young students of a minimum of three feet. i.e. beyond arms reach. Now this flies in the face of much recent research that shows that touch plays a vital role in the formation of brain circuitry and the development of emphatic or compassionate responses to others later in life. But since this has no "bottom line value" to corporate capitalists, the children's' ability to relate and put themselves into another's shoes is not developed like it could and should be. In fact I believe it is intentionally devalued for the sake of the almighty dollar, and to encourage the development of a hard heart. When I was a child many moons ago if a child was hurt at school even emotionally hurt nobody thought twice about a teacher holding and comforting that child. We have become such a cold cynical suspicious society that it really frightens me. Doping children so they fit in with the program with less resistance is a clear manifestation of the downward dehumanizing spiral of values promoted by our "market value economy." I am only getting started on this subject (sorry for the long vent) I will cut it short but I sense we may see things in a similar light. BTW have you ever read John Holts book Why Children Fail? 

I'm not sure if hiring more teachers will solve the underlying problem, but I certainly agree that doping kids so they don't cause waves in the current system is a morally bankrupt approach to take.