Are you interested in your child’s education? Well, duh. Of course you are. (-:
Watch this video by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renown education and creativity expert. It’s definitely worth watching. A friend was telling me she had seen a “fascinating video about the history of education that also shows a map of how the (so-called) ADHD epidemic spread across the U.S. It shows how there aren’t too many prescriptions in California but then the epidemic starts up somewhere in the mid-west and by the time you get to Washington D.C. (where I am, a place I call the Land of Over-Achievey Parents), it peaks.”
Interesting.
He’s not saying ADHD doesn’t exist. What he is doing is using animation to underscore the statistics so people like me (people who have ADHD but have somehow gotten through life without being medicated) can understand him.
All the things he has to say about how our current model of educational systems is built on the Industrial Age (modeled after factories – how outdated is that?), fascinates me. He says we are using an outdated mode of education for our children – we’re boring them, basically. Teaching them that there is just one way to answer a question and it’s in the back of the book. And to add insult to injury we’re punishing them for being bored. So we’re anaesthetizing them through their boring education with drugs.
I don’t want to offend anyone whose child needs to be on medication for ADHD – I know people whose children are being treated for ADHD with medication and who clearly need it, and benefit from it. But the thing is, as a lay person watching the ADHD trend from the sidelines right smack in the middle of the Washington D.C. metro-area – it just seems too common. Seems to me like too many kids are being medicated – not just the ones who need it, but most of them. It seems like it’s become a cultural trend, something people – teachers, other moms, grocery clerks – will suggest, because it’s that common.
And that disturbs me. Americans are getting so used to drugging themselves for everything – bad diets, high cholesterol, sadness, sexual dysfunction – you name it, there’s probably a pill for it. And now it’s trickling down to our children.
Anyway this video really made me think, about education, about our children, and about ADHD.
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We watched this last month in my sociology class! As a non-ADHD person (as far as I know, anyway), I found it hard to keep up with– I wanted to go back and look at the illustrations because they disappeared from my screen too quickly. It was a thought provoking video though.
Found you via Twitter. Love Sir Ken Robinson and his thoughts on education! I agree about the overmedicating. There is so much more at play than “behavior issues? Throw some medication at it.
Twitter: kimahall
Hi Kim, I’ll go find you on Twitter. This was actually the first time I’d heard of Ken Robbinson! I must go read some more of his writing, I just loved this video – as I said, really made me think! (-:
Fascinating video! Thank you for posting it. I’ll be researching Sir Ken a little more.
Twitter: itsmelsc
Thanks Leslie, me too! (-:
I’m glad you posted this…it’s full of thought-provoking information. Living in Virginia, DC is not too far from us and I hadn’t thought about how adhd increases the further east you get. I remember seeing this video last year, but I picked up on a few things I missed the first time I saw it. Very interesting stuff. I’m taking my 8yr old in for adhd testing(her father has it) soon and they are already talking medications. I’m not going for that and I have nothing against parents who choose to use them.
Twitter: mahoganywaymama
Darcel, I wasn’t aware of that ADHD map either until a friend showed it to me the other day – it was so eye-opening. Although I have ADHD (was only diagnosed a couple of years ago) I don’t take anything for it and I got through life just fine – in fact turning my ADHD into marketable skills (my “distraction” enables me to “multitask” in “fast-paced” environments etc.). My kids don’t have it so I’m not in the position that you and so many other parents are. The one thing that would worry me on the “do I/don’t I” medicate them front is the fact that we don’t really know what the long-term effects of these drugs on children are or will be. That said I do know several people who truly benefit from the medication and for them it really does help. Even parents who were anti-medicating to begin wtih. Anyway…good luck with that Darcel, keep me posted.
I’m willing to listen to what they have to say, but initially I say no because we homeschool. I would probably feel differently if she were in public school. I’ll never say never. I also just found out she’s Dyslexic, like me. We have a little challenge ahead of us. It’s sure to be interesting and exciting.
Twitter: mahoganywaymama
I just really don’t like the idea of medicating kids. I would listen, but still be thinking(no)in my head. Like you said, we don’t know the long-term effects. I don’t think it’s fair that everyone has to abide by one way of living. It’s just wrong. Everyone thinks and acts differently adhd or not.
Twitter: mahoganywaymama
I’m not in your shoes but I’m personally wary of medicating and of drugs. That said if my child clearly needed it I would do it, I would have to keep an open mind to all avenues to help my hcild. And like I said, I was diagnosed with ADHD (an “off the charts case,” apparently) as an adult. I got through life turning my “weakness” into strengths, without even knowing I had ADHD or that’s what I was doing. I wonder if I had been medicated how it would have been different. Good luck!!
Do you care about your child’s education? Watch This Video: It Really Makes You Think http://t.co/Pn1kdxGjTF via @adothemamolog
Watch This Video: It Really Makes You Think http://t.co/pwh2v7kEYb