Ritalin Schooling
June, 2011
Dear Editor,
There is at last some debate about the number of children on indefinite prescriptions of mood-altering drugs such as Ritalin. Every so often, to silence the unrest, an "expert" is wheeled out to intone that all these diagnoses are scientifically based.
I have four problems with this "scientific" pose. One, why have we moved in recent years from no cases to 60,000 cases? Two, why do boys make up the vast majority of cases? Three, why does less-populated WA have more than twice as many cases as Victoria? And four, why are there are no concrete symptoms, but only a points system of behaviours that don't suit the current school system?
There may be a tiny fraction who are suffering from a neuro-chemical imbalance or whose brains are abnormal in some way and need medical intervention. But 60,000? What we are looking at here is a school system that is stacked against energetic boys.
To our shame, we are using drugs to make the boys fit the existing system rather than making the system respond to natural boy-energy in a positive way that grows fine men.
Many parents and teachers can see no alternative – but that is under present schooling conditions. What is needed is a school system that is designed to draw out the best in these boys. It is high time we abandoned the fantasy that boys and girls differ only in upbringing. There are hormonal differences. The gender-unbalanced Ritalin figures alone disprove the unisex ideology.
Some boys will not sit quietly for five hours a day in classrooms chatting and working with written symbols. They can do academic work – but only if their way of life is balanced with outdoor activity, good modelling and clear guidance. Male primary teachers are needed who can empathise and give example.
Philip O'Carroll