December 06, 2004

• You know, I smell a rat. Most of the news coming out from the land of the blue & red lately are so appaling, so wacky, so unbelievable, so bizarrre, that it's all gotta be fake. Can't really be something happening on this universe. The Onion bought everyone from CNN to BBC and they're the ones reporting, aren't they? Right?
• This is all over the autism boards I subscribe to. The parents are uniformly against it, and we're generally huge advocates of early (voluntary) screening and treatment. I hate to agree with Phyllis Schaffly on anything, and I hope this bill is being mistrepresented, but if its anything like what she claims, its a terrible and dangerous idea.
• This is so wrong, I agree with krebs cycle, dangerous idea all the way around. Big brother just can't let parents be parents. When my youngest was in grade school, the teachers wanted him on ritalin, school officials insisted I get him evaluated. I did, and nothing came of it, no diagnosis no ritalin. Which I would not have given him if they had said he needed it. Hid behavior was not consistent with ADD or ADHD. His behavior was consisitent with frustration. His problem was, he was in the sixth grade and couldn't read or write at a sixth grade level. He was frustrated. The school he attended, decided to teach the whole language concept. Be creative not accurate in writing or spelling, they said. He never had a spelling lesson or reading lesson until the sixth grade. I had to teach him to read and write. The schools in my opinion wasted my tax dollars, and then wanted to label him ADD or ADHD.
• Hid=his
• This scares the crap outta me, like I'm sure it does most of us, left and right. Hopefully it will die an embarassingly public death. I'm a non-parent, so I don't always keep up-to-date on these topics, but aren't there already laws in place that allow teachers to basically say "your kid is hyper. Either put him on drugs or keep him out of my classroom." Or is that a UK thing. Finally, in a "might as well get used to it if you're not already" vein, did anyone else have trouble jibing the phrases "liberal big-spending ideas" and "President Bush has instructed ... agencies to develop a plan to implement [the] recommendations."?
• The GOP: Expanding Small Government Every Day.

• Big brother just can't let parents be parents.

  Well, sometimes that's for the good. There are some shitty parents out there, after all. Like the ones who think it's appropriate to punish kids by locking them in cupboards without food, or refuse to let them have blifesaving blood transfusions.

  The school he attended, decided to teach the whole language concept. Be creative not accurate in writing or spelling, they said.

  That may be what your brother's school called "whole language" learning, but it sure as heck ain't what it is.
• Problem I have with it is the assessment of who needs the help. I was looking up some of the policies for this Act yesterday. Nothing makes me cringe more than untrained people making decisions as to who might need help. I'm not sure the author isn't writting this to enflame people into some reaction. They refer to interviewing women who are pregnant as interrogations. I don't see what the problem is with, 'specific medications for specific conditions' - would you prescribe heart medication for mental illness? Maybe I'm being too simplistic. They refer to diagnosis of mental illness as, 'subjective and social constructions' (paging Dr. Michael Browne from Minnesota). Found it curious that homeschooled children won't be effected. here is an article that has less opinion and more background.
• What TP said. Hypocrites. But that Bill Frist sure is sexy!! (In a he's-already-GOT-something-shoved-up-his-ass kind of way.)
• Sheeit. We are in the process of negotiating on land this week... now we're rethinking the whole Canada idea again.
• I'm not sure the author isn't writting this to enflame people into some reaction. Didn't anyone notice that this article was written by Phyllis Schlafly? So, yea.
• I'm a non-parent, so I don't always keep up-to-date on these topics, but aren't there already laws in place that allow teachers to basically say "your kid is hyper. Either put him on drugs or keep him out of my classroom." Or is that a UK thing. I'm sure it varies from state-to-state in the U.S., but here in Oregon, they cannot do that. In fact, I was impressed by how far my kid's school went to avoid appearing forcing our choice whether we should medicate our son for ADHD. We have, and we strongly believe that in his case it was a good thing to do. Afterwards, the teacher thanked us profusely. She legally/ethically couldn't do that ahead of time. In our case, our son was not only failing in school, but socially as well, since he was so damn out of it all the time. He was such a goof-off that all the other kids were annoyed with him too. Now, he's no worker-bee on Concerta either, but he's much much better on both fronts. He no longer seems to believe he's "just stupid", and he's quite popular with the sixth grade ladies. In the rush to condemn the U.S. as overmedicating children, sometimes perspectives are lost and a reactionary position is taken. Sometimes medication is the appropriate thing to do. In our case, we believe we did right for him by putting him on a small, carefully-monitored dosage of medication. The school helped, but we had to ask for the help.
• Invoke raises some good points and however for me, the scariest part of this is the failure to allow parents a sy in the matter- outrageous. I don't want some government medic who may or not be competent solely making those decisions for my kids.
• Invoke: I'm glad that helped your son. Good decision between YOU, the DOCTOR, and the SCHOOL. I don't see the Gumment in there anywhere. Damn this administration. What utter ASSHOLES. Da ya think they could get behind DECENT INSURANCE and HEALTH CARE instead of these invasions that are certain to be a disaster? Why not Soma for All! That will settle the disfunctional reactionaries down. Gotta lub Bush-man and his Every Child Left Behind education funding/programs. *rickety soapbox finally collapses
• This also scares me (Schlafly aside -- what a sad, sad woman.), but I can also see where there could be good outcomes. When I was in elementary school, they forced me to see the school psychologist. She interviewed me to make sure I was "normal." Mostly, she wanted to make sure I could connect cause with effect, or the appropriate emotion to the appropriate situation. (By showing me pictures of Snoopy and asking "how does Snoopy feel here?") At this point, I was a very depressed 8 year old. My parents refused to realize this, and so the school could not follow up on the evaluation. (I thought Snoopy was very, very sad. In every picture.) On the other hand, I eventually pulled myself out of the depression. I'm not sure what I would have done had the school had the power to try and "fix" me. That could have ended up even worse.