Yes

8 of 11

by Sandra Gillhouse

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The real problem begins with the diagnosis. The label Attention Deficit disorder leaves too many doors open. Is little Sue the gymnastic enthusiast ADD because she doesn't want to sit still eight hours a day or does she just have other interest? Do you consider Billy ADD because he's bored with the story about little ducks and kittens so he wanders out of the room looking for more active things to do?

Is there even a model child that simply sits through every minute of the class without showing some loss of attentiveness? If so, I would say that child is abnormal. Or more likely a child that has not spent hours in front of video games. Or hours watching action packed TV the night before.

We have a whole new generational attention style to attend to now. Technology is creating a new way of learning. Video games have the potential to help these kids learn with the attention grabbing videos in real time success. Our kids may have a deficit attention span for the classic classroom model. But putting them to sleep in the back of the classroom loaded with drugs is the cop-out of the century. If sending kids to school for education then our schools owe it to us to educate. "Insane is doing something that doesn't work over and over again." I myself believe that our kids have actually gained skills that will carry into the next century from playing difficult games and figuring out levels of challenge that are beyond my understanding. Maybe the real problem is not that the kids have an attention deficit but the educators have a deficit to new attention grabbing ideas.

To err on the side of caution it seems to me would be wiser to reduce the numbers of prescribed drugs to our kids. Not enough study has been done to understand the long term affect of these drugs. But more importantly not enough study has been given to the actual causes of ADD. Now whenever a child misbehaves in the class room it seems to become the handy excuse for teachers to not deal. Send them off to be tested. Sadly some of these problems were birthed at the onset of NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND; with its heavy burden of demand laid on school districts to produce high test scores yet not given the money or tools to bring those scores up. It boils down to the numbers. If you can't get the kids to produce high scores with whatever curriculum you are afforded. The next best reach for those dollars is through special education. Something to wonder about.

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