Classroom
This year, nearly six million U.S. children will take Ritalin, a
powerful stimulant with effects similar to cocaine and speed,
driven in no small part, some maintain, by increasing pressure to
achieve at school. No other drug has held such a stranglehold over
its market, says Leonard Sax in World & I
Magazine.
Ritalin has been on the market for 40 years now, but use has
increased rapidly in the last 25 years–and skyrocketed in the last
decade. Ritalin, known formally as methylphenidate, is prescribed
to children with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), who generally feel bored and
easily distracted in the classroom.
Why are so many kids taking Ritalin these days? Do more children
have attention deficit disorders, or are more are being medicated?
According to Sax, there are three major theories to explain the
rise in Ritalin: a dependence on television, the success of Prozac
and the Modern reliance on standardized school testing.
Some researchers note that an apparent rise in Attention Deficit
Disorders became more common in the mid 1980s–a childhood disorder
linked to the first generation to be raised indoors, parked in
front of the tube and its jumpy, frenetic reality. Others trace the
situation to the widespread dispensing of Prozac, which gave
doctors the green light for handing out Ritalin as well.
A third camp blames an influential 1983 study by the U.S.
Department of Education called ‘a nation at risk,’ which warned
that without higher academic standards this country would fall
behind countries like Japan. That fear led to an increased emphasis
on standardized tests–and a corresponding tendency to ignore
skills that weren’t tested.
‘Because the tests do not measure skills in music, art, gym, or
playground social skills–such as learning to play fair in a game
of kickball–less time will be devoted to music, art, gym, and
recess,’ explains Sax. ‘After all, if your mandate is to raise test
scores, what’s the point of recess?’ What’s more, with so many kids
being deprived of these natural antidotes to add, no wonder Ritalin
has become the performance enhancer of choice.
Together, he argues, these three influences have created a need for
speed. ‘Twenty years ago, it was OK to wait until first grade to
teach Johnny how to read,’ writes Sax. ‘Now he has to learn to read
in kindergarten. We are in a hurry, and we have no time to
‘waste’–or so we believe.’
–Amanda
Luker
Go there>>
View A Nation at Risk
