writes:
I don't like our culture's dependency on Ritalin either; it's evidence of
priggish instance that everybody ought to be the same, or that keeping a
classroom quiet is more important than making sure that children get the
parenting and teaching they actually need. I suspect that in lots of
cases hyperactivity is a side effect of sloth--too much time eating sweets
in front of a TV and not enough playing and running around outside. There
also seems to be a bizarre assumption that a six-year-old's natural state
ought to be quiet, attentive obedience, no matter how boring or inane the
class....
I almost never disagree with Marvin and I am also skeptical of
"medicalization" of behavior. But from personal experience with kids of
friends who are truely unable to function in a school environment without the
drug and from my professional interactions with cognitive scientists for whom
I have enormous respect, I must demure here. This a real disease (or at least
a developemental disorder) of the brain which can now be demonstrated and
Ritilin does help those children with this disorder.
