He’s ‘Special’, Our Kid.
In America, many years ago, I came to the opinion that there was only one script for TV producers. ‘Young black guy’s fears/predictions/solution are put down by (preferably fat) and arrogant white Boss, but is later proved right all along; finale includes more senior bosses/even the President thanking him profusely for saving the world followed by much whooping, cheering and ‘high fiving’. If you’d seen one version, you had seen them all. Monumentally boring.
Over the past two years, regrettably, chemotherapy has forced me to reacquaint myself with day time TV – there’s not much else you can do prone on a sofa, ordered to rest.
Day time TV is dominated by American ‘made for TV’ docudramas. The universal US script has subtly changed – now the young black guy is the Boss, but unable to save the world unaided as he once did. Now he relies on a female – any female will do – for by virtue of her gender, she will be smarter, more resourceful, quicker witted, and possess an uncanny knack for turning up just as the villain is about to dispatch our black hero in unmentionable manner. She will be white of course, preferably blonde and have a figure that few American women could even dream of. She will achieve all this whilst being the perfect Mother, and living in a iconic American mansion…it drove me nuts, and afternoon after afternoon I would turn to ‘Movies4men’ and their unending diet of marching jackboots and tanks rolling over hills. I am now possibly the only woman in existence who relies on the sound of rapid automatic gunfire and exploding French farmhouses rather than sleeping tablets in order to take an afternoon nap. If Mr G thinks I am overdoing things, he tells me to put my feet up and he’ll ‘find me some Nazi’s’ on the TV. Works every time.*
The point of this ramble is that it has belatedly occurred to me just how insidious is the ‘realigning’ of popular ‘thought’ with the propaganda of Gender politics. Advertising in particular has followed this latest formula relentlessly. I can understand that advertisers are forced to bow to popular female theories simply because woman are the main purchasers in most families, but I am at a loss to explain why the previously male dominated world of TV – and Hollywood in particular – has fallen victim to the genre.
It has some relevance to explain the horrifying statistics shown in The Times today. No link because it is behind a paywall, but you may find reference to the figures in other newspapers, I don’t think it is a Times exclusive, probably a press release that went out to all the media. In short:
Recent Government statistics revealed that a staggering one in five boys at secondary school is now categorised as having a special educational need.
The recent figures also reveal a startling gulf between the sexes: almost 3 per cent of boys in secondary school have what’s called a statement of SEN (special educational needs). This means their needs are specialised enough to cost their school more than £6,000 a year, and the local authority has agreed to meet any further costs (such as a certain number of hours of occupational therapy per week). Only 1 per cent of girls are given a statement. Meanwhile, a massive 20.7 per cent of boys in secondary education have a special educational need without a statement, compared with 13.4 per cent of girls (this means their special needs are funded by the school alone).
Curiously, nearly three times as many boys as girls are labelled as having “behavioural, emotional and social difficulties” — a woolly area.
Yesterday, it was revealed that prescriptions for the methylphenidate drugs (including Ritalin), which are used to treat ADHD, have risen by more than half in just five years.
Something is going terribly wrong in the way in which boys are raised.
I simply don’t believe that 1 in 5 boys were incorrectly diagnosed in previous years and have suddenly come to our attention now.
It can’t just be attributed to the theory about lead poisoning and increased traffic fumes, unless you can show a way in which this only affects boys and not girls.
Nor can it be that the rise represent the financial interests of schools who do get extra money for ‘special needs’ students – that would also affect girls as much as boys.
I strongly suspect it has more to do with the way in which males, not just boys, are perceived by our society, which includes teachers and schools; dangerous, out of control, overly aggressive, to say nothing of congenitally stupid.
In short, as case of ‘why can’t a boy be more like a girl’ – and drugged with Ritalin to achieve that result.
Can any of you come up with a better theory to explain why ‘Our Kid, he’s Special’ is more likely to be a boy than a girl?
*If anybody is recording the new series of Breaking Bad, Ms Raccoon would love you forever if you let me have a copy….
August 15, 2013 at 20:55
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One issue you are neglecting to look into is gender variability. Boys are
far more likely to be found at the top and bottom of the pile or the tail end
of distributions. Take for instance, the A level results that just came out.
Boys got the most A* grades and lower grades while girls got the most A
grades. Another good example is IQ. Boys are over represented at the top and
bottom while girls are over represented in the middle. When it comes to an
issue such as special needs classification we are seeing the same thing. Quite
a lot of the star performers will be males and the ones that are struggling
the most will also be males because of the higher variability of males. It is
much easier in today’s society to see someone’s poor performance and be led to
think there is an underlying medical issue at hand, hence the explosion of SEN
classification. Also the monetary incentive to classify someone as SEN is huge
for schools.
Obligatory link: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-how-and-why-sex-differences/201101/how-can-there-still-be-sex-difference-even-when-there-is
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August 15, 2013 at 15:02
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“a BIG part of the problem is the feminisation of teaching especially for
pre-teens”
Yes, but not just teaching, the entire (state) educational setup.
Touchy-feely coursework instead of exams, contact sports denigrated or simply
absent, few or no male teachers, Mrs. Teacher can’t cope with all those nasty
boisterous boys, and so on and on.
And of course – a minor point but all part of the conditioning – EVERY
SINGLE TIME there’s an article in ANY newspaper about exams or exam results,
ALL the photos are of girls.
- August 15, 2013 at 10:07
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A lot of this labelling of kids is strange to me. I had a wartime and
austerity time education between council school and grammar. My brother, in
same school, was labelled ‘a dunce’. He worked to 65. Owns his own house. A
quite large live on sailing boat and a campervan. He is active at near 80.
Keeps his own small garden and 2 other gardens. We were streamed at school.
Boys and girls were caned. All teachers in juniors were female. Children were
kindly treated most of the time but some teachers had bad days! Our loos were
‘over the yard’. We girls used to watch young boys see how high they could pee
up the urinals. All very innocent and great fun. Kids allowed to be
mischievous and no harm done. Lovely long icy slides in winter. Quite vicious
snowballs chucked. Now classed as bullying, so I hear. What a psychotic other
world we now inhabit. PC run riot. Gender politics rampant.
- August 15, 2013 at 09:49
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“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority;
they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise;
they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents,
chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their
teachers.”
So a little Quiz set by Fat Steve as Quizmaster
1) Your
starter for 10 was it made a) On the Anna Raccoon website 25 minutes ago b) 25
years ago in Parliament c) 2500 years ago?
2) For a further 10 Was it made
by a) a dyspeptic commentator on the Anna Raccoon website b) one of the Good
and the Great of the last 25 years c) A Philosopher?
3) And should you have
answered the first two correctly a further ten points and a bonus of 10 was
the quote made by
a)Anna Raccoon b)Margaret Thatcher (no Anna I don’t
before you think I imply you and Thatcher are similar and get flamed if that
is the right word) c) Socrates
And in order to comply with current
educational thinking in terms of equal opportunity for all cultures and social
classes, use Google if you are in difficulties and all answers do not start
with either the letter a or b
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August 15, 2013 at 00:16
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I’m not even sure that dyslexia exists. I once sent a motor-cyclist who
worked for me to a weekend course to handle his reading. This was a man who
had been to Public School.
He went for I think three weekends, spent most of his time making large
letters out of clay, and then went off and did something he had always wanted
to do – read a book.
Not just any book, but Lord Of The Rings, all 3 vols ! Dyslexia,
schmislexia ….
Alan Douglas
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August 15, 2013 at 01:59
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It seems to me that dyslexia might be, for the most part, just a lack of
fluency in reading that improves with practice, though, like language best
learned at a young age.
I could read very fluently from the age of 7, but cannot sight read
music, though I can figure out the notes. I can read Spanish fairly
fluently, French without too much difficulty, and in German I am OK on
advertisements and menus and stuff like that.
I know the letters of the Greek and Russian alphabets, but read text in
those alphabets very, very slowly. Perhaps I am dyslexic in those alphabets.
I started to learn Chinese, but though I learned a few characters, I remain
completely illiterate in Chinese.
It would be interesting to know what kind of dyslexia problems exist in
places where Arabic or Chinese is used.
- August 15, 2013 at 07:08
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A few years ago at work we had the pleasure of being sent some 17 and
18 year old lads on a scheme. They were supposed to be experiencing work
and we were supposed to be identifying possible candidates for a future
apprentice scheme. To a man all of the white ones told me they were
dyslexic ! Now part of our job involves writing short (two page) reports
in Word a job I used to give to my trainee when I had one despite their
moans about dyslexia. I soon found that the main problem was that they
couldn’t spell and what is worse is that they didn’t realise they couldn’t
spell. I used to point out that if Word put a red line under a word it had
a spelling mistake and that if you right clicked on it you could correct
that and make the red line go away. They saw me write reports and fixing
my own spelling mistakes and suddenly the wool was pulled from their eyes.
All apart from one lad who after a day of writing reports and fixing
spelling mistakes came in the next day to tell me his Mum said he wasn’t
to do that anymore as he was dyslexic !!
- August 15, 2013 at 15:33
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Dyslexia does exist although I am not sure how common it really is. My
friend, now 70, is and always has been an avid reader, she has no problem
reading at all. However she cannot spell, finds writing difficult and gets
numbers mixed up, often ‘seeing’ them the wrong way round. Of course in
those days it was not recognised, she is intelligent but could not get
very far due to her inability to write. Maybe there are differentr kinds
of Dyslexia ass I sais she has no problem at all with reading.
- August 15, 2013 at 21:51
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There are certainly different types of dyslexia, and highly
intelligent dyslexics often independently contrive effective reading
strategies at an early age without being aware of it, though they still
experience difficulty writing and spelling. Fortunately these days, with
appropriate teaching and the use of a word-processor in exams, it
needn’t be a bar to achievement; I know two dyslexic boys like this who
are currently out celebrating As or Bs in A-level History, Politics and
Economics.
Dyscalculia – the numerical/mathematical version – often manifests
itself through problems with place value; as well as leading to
confusion in reading numbers, it can make life very tricky in our
telephone-oriented culture.
- August
15, 2013 at 10:10
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From years of experience, I’d say that dyslexia does exist but is
frequently misdiagnosed.
The classic manifestation – hesitant reading and uncertain spelling in a
child who speaks fluently and coherently – can be virtually
indistinguishable from the consequences of poor primary teaching or an early
hearing defect.
While dyslexia is a life-long condition and requires specific strategies
to cope, the problems of the latter can often be remedied in a relatively
short time with one-to-one specialist teaching; unfortunately this is a
costly business once the various agencies involved have taken their cut, and
such work is often assigned to those least suited for its considerable
intellectual demands.
I once had a run-in with a teaching assistant who felt she was the best
person to advise pupils on spelling because she had always found her own
school lessons difficult and struggled to spell correctly herself – rather
like Estelle Morris claiming that failing her A-levels justified her
appointment as Education Secretary.
Incidentally, dyslexia is not perceived as a common problem in Italian
and German, where spelling consistently reflects pronunciation.
- August 14, 2013 at 23:26
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Dear All,
I work as a filthy POLIS in Jockland, you know that place north of the
border that next year will engage in an enormously expensive exercise in
“Freedom” from you naughty evil Sassenachs and your Wallace hating ways.
Labels… ahhh. please.. I am a child of the seventies and I empathise
enormously with you all, particularly CHRIS/RETRO.I fear for the education of
our children . I mean the children that are not hyper privileged through
either money or position. I took a small sample of what Chris has used as
examples of ignorance amongst our younger generation and asked my 14 year old
daughter..who has apparently spent some of the best years of her life in the
allegedly “best education system in Europe” the following questions.. Q Where
is Denmark?
A Near to Liverpool. Q What is the meaning of “armed guerilla”?
A A gorilla with arms. and my own one Q What country lies across the ENGLISH
CHANNEL FROM ENGLAND. A Scotland.
I despair of what this country has done to our children. It has reduced
them to babbling halfwits who exist on soundbites and whose ambition seems to
lie in either the direction of being some Minajesque fat arsed idiot or a drug
dealing fiend Xfactor Judge.
My eldest is SEN’d as Dsylexic. Does she get
any additional help ? The absolute bare minimum. We have become professional
irritants to the supposed best state school in Scotland because we have to in
order to prevent her from being pushed into the lowest classes full of thugs
and disruptives. We had a name for it when I was at School . REMEDIAL. The
remedial class was full of the not yet diagnosed. The children who needed help
but very often didnt get it because they were labelled as “thick”. Now you
cannot see the wood for the trees . Why do so many more children have a
“learnng disability”. Can it be an industry in itself. We have become Cyril M.
Kornbluths story. We embrace stupidity . We worship the feckless and the
criminal. I see it in my work capacity . So many wasted and empty lives who
only exist to consume and destroy others.
- August
15, 2013 at 01:01
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Yes VS, and it’s more than just ignorance. The kids are forbidden to
believe in anything, unless it’s State sanctioned. It’s like a tag-team,
whereby the schools stun them, then the media leads them by the nose. The
question then is: to where? A new feudal system?
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August 14, 2013 at 20:36
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There is such a lot of wisdom in this comment section. As someone who has
worked with secondary age children in inner London Comprehensives in recent
years, I concur with many of the statements people have made here. When it
comes to school education, give fear a chance, I say!
- August 14, 2013
at 19:28
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In my class at secondary school- back when it wasn’t illegal to have
anything labelled as ‘second’, in the early 80s- there was one kid in our
class of 30ish whose parents were divorced and he was, I’m ashamed to say,
teased mercilessly about it. When my own sons were at the same
now-no-longer-called-secondary school but ‘Academy’ they were often the only
kids in their respective classes whose parents were actually MARRIED to each
other, whose parents consisted of one male and one female who shared a surname
and a bed and who had done so since before the kids were born. They, my kids,
seemed to feel resentful cos they didn’t have 3 or 4 Dads to get Birthday
presents, scrounge fags and cash off…
Just thought I’d chuck that in to the debate. Yes I’m sure the demise of
corporal punishment goes a long way to explaining present day problem children
but other factors (ie that which calls itself ‘parents’ and ‘loco parents’)
needs to be taken into consideration too.
- August 15, 2013 at 10:10
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Isn’t this the Teacher Training College’s “get out of Jail Free”
card?
My family background was very stable. Two loving parents and books on the
shelves at home. However I cannot recall a single instance of either parent
attempting to “educate” me. My mother assures me that she had ensured I was
able to write my own name before my first day at school, but I can recall
her taking no part whatsoever in my education thereafter.
Logically-speaking, the triumph of ignorance cannot be laid at the door of
the parents because the State compels every child to attend school and
before school was invented, who taught the first teachers?
The teaching profession and collegiate became politicised in the Sixties.
Of that I am quite certain because I had a Science teacher once, who on the
last day of term gave the Physics class a seminar on the Bolshevik
Revolution and I had another teacher assuring us that the first Communists
were the Christians. I suspect that nowadays we are also locked into ever
decreasing circles because the teachers themselves have not been taught
much, or very well. Look at some of the professional psychologists we read
about in the current witch-hunting debacle – trained professionals whop
believe in Satan and his works. So much for the triumph of civilisation.
- August 14, 2013 at 19:22
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I wonder how it can have gone wrong. Little lads with just their single
never-married mothers who misbehave during the long hours they seem to spend
these days in the single mother discussion group also known as the Doctor’s
waiting room to see the female doctor or female nurse. All the time listening
to other single mothers talking of girly things like what swines men are.
Then off to school to meet the teachers-female- and head teacher–female –
and get shouted at in the play ground for excessive aggression and violent
play for running around and kicking a ball like little lads do and not gently
throwing a tennis ball to other kids like the girls do.And my god !! did he
make the shape of a gun with his hand just then ?? Call the police !! I do
believe he pointed his finger gun at a black kid RACISM.
Into the class room–the back of the class room not the front where the
girls sit so the teacher can get the girls involved. Funny how the teacher
only sees the arms raised by the girls to answer questions —girls need help
you see or boy will dominate.. Or they would if they had not totally given up
wasting their energy waving their arms about and being ignored or humiliated
by put-downs when their answer is incorrect..
Such bad behaviour –off to see the behaviour counsellor–female –or the
child psychologist–female- or could be speech therapist–female. Later it will
be magistrate-female- probation officer female , prison officer (in a male
prison)-female
I need not go on, Nothing here likely to lead to any trouble in the future.
Not with plentiful drugs to alter his mind and body. After all the country
needs a steady supply of criminals to keep the legal system going. And of
course leading a formative life with women keeps him safe from paedophiles
hiding behind every tree.
We are doomed. But I am absolutely enthralled by
how the world is on the skids. Great fun.
- August 14, 2013 at 18:54
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I was a pretty studious, quiet child and I did well at my primary school,
which was about 60% council estate ruffians and 40% from more ambitious stock
in semi-detached suburbia. I was the “Top Boy” for most of that time, with
three or four girls just above – but it was “old fashioned” schooling, well
disciplined. lots of reading – a few naughty boys but nothing too bad. I was
“University Material” at 8 years old – when that meant something. I slid to
mediocrity at the local comprehensive when it wasn’t ‘cool’ to study and the
teachers, on the whole, weren’t bothered if you did, and amusing my peers and
earning money to buy records became more important.
I have a brother nearly
10 years my younger who had/has ADHD – not badly behaved per se, just a very
poor concentration level that still has him leaping from scheme to scheme,
girl to girl, job to job etc at 30. I can’t really see how pumping his head
full of drugs would have converted him into something more though – something
less quite probably…
My GP put me on Prozac when the idiocy grew intolerable last year, but they
made my brain feel like it was being put through a blender, so I quickly
knocked that on the head. Mental Health I know quite a bit about – I’ve some
Bi-Polar friends, one of which was very eager for me “to understand myself”
and join that club, but that just confirmed to me the nonsense of these
labels. Aren’t all creatively-minded people a bit ‘that way’? I probably am a
little bit on that scale to a lesser degree, as I probably score points on
other “tests” too – but I know who I am thank you very much. Me. I don’t need
a label to blame or pills to turn my brain to mush.
From my experience of parents and children in recent years it’s all about
these bloody labels – the shy studious boy “is on the autistic spectrum”, the
hyperactive brat full of Sunny D (or whatever the latest poison is) has “ADHD”
– and in America they are numbing kids with lithium and calling them Bi-Polar.
Once upon a time we had “characters” – now we have “consumers”. Babies might
as be born with bar-codes on their heads. Just because I can tell you what pop
hit went to what position in what month of what year, what ‘Now’ album a song
was on or who presented a certain episode of Top Of The Pops does not make me
‘Aspergers’ (and 20+ year later I still can), but similar skills on a modern
lad would probably have modern mum throwing her hands in the air and seeking
advice from a no-nothing GP.
I may be living under sufferance as a conscious objector in a lunatic
society but I tell you what – since I packed in scoffing cheap bread,
processed snacks and other sugary poisons I’ve done more than lose three stone
in as many months – my head is a lot clearer. Perhaps if we stopped feeding so
many poisons to children they too would self-heal instead of funding the
Pharma Industry?
- August 14, 2013 at 19:36
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“You are what you eat” – may well be a lot of truth in that.
I seem to recall one of those foodie programmes on the radio talking to a
school that introduced proper cooked meals at lunchtime, based on ‘proper’
meat, fish, veg and fruit. They reported that children were considerably
more attentive and settled during afternoon lessons than they had been in
the days of lunchtime crisps and Mars bars.
- August 14, 2013 at 19:43
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Well, Chris you put that just about right. I don’t think half the folk
who claim they were diagnosed with bi polar are, there’s a difference to
being sad, fed up and a bit of a worrier to being quite poorly with a mental
health issue. The problem is that we are diagnosed and labelled by someone
who has a tick list, and yes, I agree most of us could probably satisfy the
Asperger’s tick list and pass without a problem, well, maybe not me because
my memory is appalling. I totally get what you’re saying though.
- August 14, 2013 at 20:10
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You are right. Bipolar was originally known as manic-depressive
psychosis, because observers noticed that certain people in insane asylum
populations exhibited insanity plus a tendency to have spells of great
hyperactivity and elevated mood, followed by periods of the reverse, but
the important fact was that they were insane and incapable of behaving
responsibly. If you ever meet a really manic person, you will know what I
mean, like the student I knew in Leeds who took all his life savings out
of the building society and invested them in a sick parrot, one that died
several days later. He also claimed to be Jesus as he could perform
miracles such as putting his foot behind his neck, and took part in a
talent contest in a local pub, tap dancing in a hospital dressing gown and
slippers.
These days people who claim to be bipolar are often not trying to tell
you that they suffering from a devastating type of insanity that can lead
to dangerous and reckless actions, but that they suffer from a romantic
tendency to experience life’s ups and downs in an over emotional way that
may include frequent fake suicide attempts, absences from work, excessive
drug and alcohol use, and so on. Excessive drinking or drunkenness may be
referred to as self-medication, in spite of the fact that any legitimate
attempt to self-medicate would involve careful calculation of the most
effective dosage and regular administration times to maintain the
therapeutic blood levels and yet cause the minimum damage and side
effects.
- August 14, 2013 at
20:35
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Your friend in Leeds reminds me of my friend Pete – who is 69 now,
and wasn’t diagnosed Bi-Polar until he was 67 after a lifetime trying to
“self-medicate” with alcohol. He’d gone through 4 wives, several lovers,
run his own family ragged and ended up a hapless alcoholic who had blown
around £30K on prostitutes in a year. I witnessed one of his manic
spells a couple of years back – even though he could hardly walk he
danced for an hour and a half in a local bar and said “it was a
miracle”, threw away his glasses and said his sight had returned (no it
hadn’t) and thought every woman fancied him… and then some. His own son
just said he was a “nightmare”, but he was quite obviously
bi-polar.
I have an ex-girlfriend who was diagnosed Bi-Polar too –
she was in her twenties but had been living through the mania for years
living a double/triple life but also did her best to cover her tracks.
She hates this “re-branding” of Bi-Polar that encompasses the
emotionally idiotic – a useful catch-all often used by people suffering
with narcissistic personality disorders as some kind of excuse for bad
behaviour.
- August 14, 2013 at 18:40
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I have a ‘special kid’ who’s been plagued with ADHD and dyspraxia from
birth. It’s a vile condition to live with which also has other repercussions
in later life. My son never settled for more that 5 or 6 hours sleep from 24
from his birth. Although he began talking at only 7 months and walking at 9
and a half months his motor control was very immature and remains so to some
extent. As my only child I was able to invest a lot of time with my boy who
loved to read and achieved in this at high level very early on. He also showed
he had good cognitive skills beyond his years and was very able in all aspects
of music, theory and practical application. However, sports, handwriting and
anything involving fine or gross motor control was difficult for him and he
was constantly criticized by his primary school teachers for under achieving
in these subjects, and because he lacked concentration. Behaviour and ADHD or
dyspraxia, I believe have no link to poor behaviour and if and when my son was
naughty he would be pulled back into line by me. His primary teachers said
that his behaviour in class was good and he was a kind boy but they constantly
complained to me about his inability to sit still. They drove me to
distraction, but I sympathise because although a primary schools may claim to
meet the individual needs of each pupil they don’t because they are unable to.
I would never have agreed to administer Ritalin to my son, I heard early on
that this chemical cosh can cause liver damage. There were strategies that I
tried to give my son to help his condition, and strategies will only help
because there is no cure. My son, as a child told me it was like having an
itch you can’t scratch. These days as an adult in his late 20′s he remains
over active but also has anxiety issues, caused, he was told by a
psychiatrist, by the high level of criticism from his primary school teachers
who instilled low self esteem. My son did very well at secondary school,
having a positive experience there, and achieved excellent exam grades, but
the damage was done when he was a little boy. My son didn’t have a statement,
it wasn’t necessary, but if a statement for special educational needs is
awarded all of the strategies advised by the child psychologist must be
followed through by the SEN tutor and the family, because weighing the pig
doesn’t make it fatter. I don’t think that as many children as is claimed do
have ADHD or other so called SEN issues, more likely they are poorly behaved
and lack parental guidance. As an adult my son still manages on very little
sleep, not surprisingly he has mild OCD but he deals with it and leads a
fairly normal life, what ever normal is. As for me I don’t get too attached to
my china as it is broken on a regular basis, but I get serenaded now and then
with a song on piano or guitar from him – can’t be bad!
- August
14, 2013 at 18:27
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This maybe helpful:
“Recently, a founding father of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder), announced a few months before his death that … “ADHD is a prime
example of a fictitious disease.”
After turning 87 years old, American psychiatrist Dr. Leon Eisenberg made
this statement to the German weekly Der Spiegel on 2 February 2012. Seven
months later, he died. Apparently, he had decided to come clean and confess
before moving to the beyond.
Dr. Eisenberg was among the committee of psychiatrists who put together the
DMS II in 1968. He had initially coined the term “hyperkinetic reaction of
childhood,” which was described and agreed upon by the committee and confirmed
by a small percentage of APA members as a mental disorder. Later, the term was
altered to the current ADHD.
Yet, there is no biological proof or test to determine exactly what
chemicals are “out of balance” in the brain for ADHD or any other disorder.
Most psychiatric drugs are unnecessary at least. And they have often caused
suicide and homicide.”
http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=77246
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August 14, 2013 at 18:53
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It used to be known as “minimal brain damage” syndrome, in other words a
condition where the child seems to have something wrong that doesn’t show up
on tests like EEG, or later on, various types of scan.
It doesn’t seem unreasonable to assume that babies born to mothers who
have used alcohol, recreational drugs, cigarettes, etc. during pregnancy, or
had a sub-optimum diet may produce children who have sub-optimal brain
development at birth. Having a 10-month old at home myself, I also know how
expensive things like disposable diapers, wet wipes, milk formula, and
vitamins are and can see that some people might skimp on those things in
favour of purchases of beer, cigarettes, and other items of consumption for
themselves in the early years of the child’s development.
It also seems reasonable to think that exposure to a lot of cigarette
smoke might damage the mental development of the young child, though I have
no evidence of this.
For a diagnosis of ADHD and similar, it is usually necessary that there
is a disturbance in behaviour in a variety of settings, not just at school.
For example my 4-year-old step-daughter can sometimes be a little monster at
home and rarely goes to bed before midnight, yet her behaviour at school is
always perfect, polite, etc. and we get compliments on having such a
delightfully well-behaved,polite child. (If only they knew.) So, she
definitely would not qualify as ADHD.
The advent of the national health service along with antibiotics and
widespread vaccinations and vastly improved prenatal care has probably also
led to a much higher rate of survival of the least fit since about 1945.
Also consider that I had my first venous blood sample drawn for laboratory
health tests when I was in my mid 40′s, whereas my ten-month-old has already
had two or three (and was very brave about it.)
- August 14, 2013 at 22:37
-
Ah, the old ‘chemicals are “out of balance” in the brain’ statement, to
which I reply ‘how do you know without taking the brain out of the skull and
doing tests?’ It is one of the nonsense statements produced by psychiatrists
to cover up the fact that they haven’t a clue about what physically goes on
in the brain! And this is called ‘science’.
- August 14, 2013 at 18:00
-
Presumably, its teachers who are identifying these alleged problems
?
Three-quarters of teachers are female, and this figure will probably get
even higher. Even the dim witted Michael Gove recognizes that potential male
teachers are discouraged by worries that teacher-pupil contact is a “legal
minefield”
Its perhaps not a politically correct viewpoint, but perhaps,
but it is just possible that female teachers have more empathy and
understanding of their female students, and therefore less inclined to
classify their problems as issues requiring medical intervention, or at worst,
it’s blatent discrimination against male students.
I suspect if you dig deep enough you’ll find there as financial incentive
to schools to classify students in this way.
-
August 14, 2013 at 17:49
-
Of course it is possible that there were discipline problems of which I was
blissfully unaware because I was only a child, but my mother’s sister was a
primary school teacher and deputy head in a large suburban school in the north
London suburb of Kenton, and she later said that disciplinary problems at the
time were very minor. (Mind you I would never have dared to cross her, as she
could make you feel like a right fool, like the time I refused to apologize to
a silly woman I collided with on the pavement due to the fact that she had not
exercised due care as a pedestrian and failed to observe that I was walking
backwards.)
-
August 14, 2013 at 17:41
-
Obviously changes have occurred. I lived on a post war housing estate in a
suburb of Reading during the 1950′s and attended a primary school where there
were 52 (sic) children in my class controlled by one teacher. Some of the
children (I would say about half) came from homes where the parents were
buying new-build three bedroom semi-detached villas, and others from council
houses.
There were no discipline problems worth mentioning and children were not
placed on medication for ADHD (my mother was a school nurse). There were no
obese children either. Diversions included seasonal pastimes like conkers,
marbles, driveway cricket, tennis ball soccer, fishing in the River Loddon,
cooking potatoes in bonfires, and training for the 1960 Olympic games, usually
by racing round cul-de-sac traffic circles on bicycles or on foot. There were
also occasional outings to my friend’s father’s allotment and watch Reading
getting beaten in the third division.
Of course it is possible that all the kids who were mentally retarded or
naughty were shipped off to concentration camps somewhere that I did not know
about. Yes, that must be it.
-
August 14, 2013 at 18:36
-
http://ak.t2.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/cmd/svhybrid?a=03131313012312002&g=1494&dir=dir_n&n=z
Scene of numerous juvenile crimes in the 50′s. Also note velodrome and
Olympic stadium conveniently situated for local residents.
- August 14, 2013 at 18:39
-
Another difference then was that by and large any local adult was free to
tell any child off for misbehaving and bring it to the attention of parents
who did not assume their child was being picked on and would have words with
the child and that was usually enough, everyone reinforced good behaviour,
parents, neighbours, teachers and local police. Now you would hardly dare
complain about a child let alone tell them off yourself. Schools have no
real means of disciplining kids and they know it, parents too are limited by
the current obsession with children. At least we were left alone to grow up
and most of us managed it fine and learned to cope with disappointments and
failures that are an inevitable part of life. Must admit I do worry about
what it will be like when my grandchildren are older.
- August 14, 2013 at 19:14
-
Jonathan M. As another escapee from Reading, pre war Whitley Estate even,
and no there were no ‘shipping offs’, but there was a ‘Whitley Special
school’ in Northumberland Avenue just up the road from George Palmer School.
I don’t recall knowing anybody that attended but I think such things weren’t
much talked about.
Yes, class sizes were big, and behaviour was good,
retribution was swift when earned. I simply don’t believe there were that
many kids that were a problem, but it was clearly accepted that we were all
different, and some of us got to grammar school, but most didn’t.
- August 14, 2013 at
20:03
-
I think I qualify as a Reading escapee too – PNEU school, Addington
Road, circa 1956….
- August 15, 2013 at 08:02
-
Now you’ve got me puzzled Anna. I’ve refreshed my memory of Addington
Road, but PNEU school I don’t recall, as, increasingly, much else.
- August 15, 2013 at
08:27
-
August 14, 2013 at 17:30
-
What happens when you have an unholy alliance of a certain number of
parents looking to game the system to get a disability allowance for their
child, and a school system looking to make a bit more cash by labelling a
number of boys as somehow “off”?
It happens all the time in urban settings in the US, where the phenomenon
is known as Crazy Money. Boys are encouraged to be self-undisciplined so their
parents (usually a single mother) can get some sort of psych diagnosis. The
school he attends will, of course, not turn down the extra money that comes
with having to baby-sit him as opposed to educating him. And it’s often
t’other way ’round, too– the school may encourage the parent to seek a
diagnosis for an ill-behaved boy.
Aside from the obvious fact that boys have a lot more testosterone-driven
rumbustiousness as compared to girls, the girls have their own ticket to extra
money– it’s called “pregnancy,” and it wouldn’t do to label little
pre-pubescent girls as “off in the head,” since the authorities might, just
MIGHT, look to take away any child such a girl might produce later on after
she reaches the age of fertility, and foster it out– good for the Child
Protection racket if that happens, but not so much for the now thirty-year-old
granny raising “a baby with a baby” who won’t be getting a cheque.
Of course, things like that can only happen in a place like America. Yeah,
right.
- August 14, 2013 at 16:49
-
Oh, and there are a number of ‘refurbished’ DVD box-set retailers out there
that sell That TV programme – I use CeX at webuy.com
https://uk.webuy.com/search/index.php?stext=breaking+bad&ispostback=1&mode=buy
- August 14, 2013 at 16:47
-
I’ll say it again, read Dr. Helen Smiths ‘Men On Strike’, it addresses
issues such as this and it’s not just at school, have a look at what happens
in universities too.
As for the Special Needs? As others have said, it’s follow the money’, from
schools with extra budget, jobs and money for Social Services and
Psychiatrists/Psychologists and ‘lots’ of money for those nice Drug
companies.
- August
14, 2013 at 17:08
-
Talking of universities, three years on, I’m still fuming about this
quote from Gordon Brown:
‘Under Labour, there are more students at university than ever before
and I’m happy to say the majority of them are women’.
- August
14, 2013 at 15:51
-
My sister and her husband spend most of their home time, apart; as each
watches their own choice of channel on two separate TVs; he watches blokey
stuff, and she watches girlie stuff.
I suspect that this is becoming deliberate programming, in the same way
that adverts showed girls driving cars, independent from ‘him’. The idea is
very big business, in that the more relationships that are broken up, by
gender apartheid programming, then the more ‘households’ you create, thus more
cars, TVs, fridges etc, are sold because they are no longer shared.
And my take on Ritalin abuse:
http://jimmygiro.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/educating-ritalin.html
- August
14, 2013 at 17:02
-
The same thing has happened to merchandise aimed at children; it’s not
easy these days to buy gender-neutral clothes, toys or baby furnishings,
lessening the chance of hand-me-downs.
This cynical marketing strategy has been embraced by some parents and
adopted in some strange ways; I once overheard a woman in a shop sharply –
and patronisingly – rebuke her partner, who had picked up a baby activity
toy with primary-coloured wheels, buttons and levers, “Don’t be silly! Those
are for boys”. A startling recent example of this maternal idiocy is the
recent ‘news’ story of a woman who, following a scan that allegedly
predicted a girl, spent several thousand pounds outfitting a luridly pink
nursery and baby trousseau for ‘Lily-Mae’, then gave birth to a boy.
The results are feeding into group daycare – where Nick Clegg et
al would like all children to be from a few months old – and thence
polarising the school population; girls and boys have so little in common
they might as well have hailed respectively from Venus and Mars.
-
August 14, 2013 at 15:46
-
I have a simple answer. I consulted some ‘professionals’; which has to be a
a misnomer of epic proportions. Do people realise that the ‘official line’ is
that boys/young men/the male of the species can never be considered a ‘zero
risk’ to the female of the species. Really, ask them. People in professions
such as education and social work are actively taught as part of their
‘professional training’ that is is a FACT and all risk assessments or
approaches to boys must be on the basis of looking for their future ‘risk’.
Anna will email you with something that you may find quite
interesting.
TC
- August 14, 2013 at 15:51
- August
14, 2013 at 14:46
-
Everything that is not perceived as normal must be cured. The non academic
child must still attain prescribed grades in certain academic subjects before
they may be allowed to train for a vocation to which they may be better
suited. Those gifted in limited subjects must attain prescribed grades in a
broad range of subjects, many of which bore the pants off them, thus leading
to bad behaviour and worse outcomes. Innovative thought is discouraged,
originality frowned upon. Sit still, keep quiet and give the answer the exam
board requires.
Those who will not conform will be punished with bad grades or, even worse,
threatened with treatment for a problem that may be as simple as questioning
why they need to behave in a certain way. Alternatives are rarely considered.
Parents who do not accept a school’s recommendation that a child be treated
are deemed troublemakers which is good for neither parent nor child. Parents
who ask for help are referred to outside agencies whose jobs rely on labels,
treatments and medication; the schools get extra funding with little follow up
on how it is spent. How many people are employed caring for these labelled
children?
What will happen to all those with special needs when they leave school –
will they be employable?
- August 14, 2013 at 14:59
-
Well, some learn and some don’t.
Having spent 12+ years being treated as demigods it is a bit of a shock
to some to find your employer doesn’t care about your feelings and all that
cr*p, but wants someone who turns up punctually and does their best, and
that swearing at the boss usually means you get sacked. Some adjust to
reality, some don’t.
(I’ve often thought the basic different between the left and the right in
politics is the left operate from a position that the utopian view of people
is correct, the right operate from a position of what actually is)
-
August 14, 2013 at 15:21
-
I’d wholeheartedly agree with your last point. The political left does
seem to struggle with the idea that the human condition is diverse and
complex.
- August 14, 2013 at 14:32
-
Boys are not allowed to be boys any more. Nor are you not allowed to fit
the mould. I’ve taught in SEN (EBD and Autism) for years. I had a huge
argument with my son’s school who were desperate to label him as autistic (he
isn’t, he’s just a bit different like his old man was)..
Some things are nonsense. ADHD does exist and can be effectively medicated
but is overdiagnosed by a factor of at least ten. The effect is that for most
it is a chemical cosh. ODD does not exist. Dyslexia does exist but is
overdiagnosed for pupils who just can’t spell verry gud. The whole system is a
racket.
The sad thing is that the overdiagnosis means that children who do actually
really need help, whether it is seriously damaged backgrounds (real SEBD, not
just yobbery which it usually is nowadays) or some other form of disability
don’t get it because it’s wasted on yobs who are well capable of behaving but
choose not to.
- August 14, 2013 at 14:04
-
“I simply don’t believe that 1 in 5 boys were incorrectly diagnosed in
previous years and have suddenly come to our attention now.”
The first part of that sentence is (probably) correct; but consider that
it’s only relatively recently that there’s been a profusion of Social-Services
type bods who now have to justify their existence. What better way than by
‘creating a market’ for such S-S types??
Just this one website lists 162 vacancies, with two having salaries
>£140k p.a. :-
http://www.indeed.co.uk/Educational-Psychology-jobs
[It wouldn’t surprise me if at least one of those 162 vacancies could be
found for a ‘home-based candidate, having grammar, numeracy + legal skills, on
a part-time basis. It may not pay £140k, but there are 6 other vacancies at
>£100k.]
-
August 14, 2013 at 14:03
-
For connoisseurs of nonsense labels to attach to children, please read
about the Indigo Children:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigo_children
“Indigo
children, according to a pseudoscientific New Age concept, are children who
are believed to possess special, unusual and sometimes supernatural traits or
abilities.”
Googling ‘indigo children’ leads to a rabbit warren of stupid.
- August
14, 2013 at 18:30
-
*stares at computer screen*
*shuts laptop & walks to drinks cabinet*
- August 15, 2013 at 10:47
-
- August 14, 2013 at 13:33
-
I too read this article (mother of a boy- of course I read it!!). There
were a lot of ‘I blame feminisation of schools’ stuff in the comments section.
Am not sure it’s that simple. It seems to me to be an issue of modern society:
girls seem better because in general they sit still for longer and seem more
biddable in classrooms, restaurants, cinemas etc. So teachers – male and
female teachers BTW – prefer girls because they are easier to deal with. Hence
the whole ‘smug mothers of girls’ thing. Boys (and their parents) get tutted
at by adults because of how they behave. Is this fair? Well the world ain’t
fair. Is it accurate and right to characterise boys poorly because they are
not girls, well no. But then I would say that wouldn’t I?
There was a big correction in education a couple of decades ago to make
sure girls were given every encouragement to achieve their potential. I
support that correction (but then I also call myself a feminist so I would say
that wouldn’t I). But I’m not a caricature feminist so what I don’t want is
for boys to replace girls at the bottom of the scorn-heap. The idea (for me)
of feminism is that it brought girls up to equal regard as boys within
society; not that boys/men were trashed in order to boost girls/women. The
world of education, and modern society in general, needs to understand that
all children do not behave in the same way and cannot be expected to – so cut
boys (and some boisterous girls) a bit of slack. And stop tutting at me, you
may not know it but you do take your life in your hands, I have a temper and a
large vocabulary
In the reductive world of advertising and Hollywood both genders are
crudely stereotyped. There are still plenty of those irritating ‘damsel in
distress’ movies: close-up of actress, closed fist in mouth, screaming and
shaking her head in terror, hero rushes in etc. And while I’m on a rant, how
annoying is Gwyneth Paltrow teetering about on stupidly high heels in the
Ironman movies? Get some trainers! And as for those wkd ads…………
- August 14, 2013 at 14:35
-
“girls seem better because in general they sit still for longer and seem
more biddable in classrooms,…”
This may be true now due to the lack of discipline in schools and at
home. It doesn’t have to be the case. My boys junior school in the 60s had
classes of 40+ with a single teacher per class. No one misbehaved. If they
did the plimsoll came out and was vigorously applied to hand or thigh.
Spare the rod and spoil the child.
- August 14, 2013 at 15:54
-
In years gone by – I’m talking about 40s, early 50s here – there were
two things that are mostly missing today.
First, a father and mother that cared about their children and their
behavior. Boys that disrupted class usually had a little talk with dad in
the garden shed, when he got home from work, and ended up eating tea
standing up. Girls had a talk with their mothers. These talks were also an
excellent cure for ADHD – no drugs required.
Second, the schools and particularly the teachers cared enough about
their pupils to see that they kept on the straight and narrow, applying
discipline as necessary.
Today a large portion of the problem school population does not know
who their father is let alone see him on a regular basis. The parent has
little care for the child other than it was a means to get a house, and as
for helping with school work…..
There are very few male teachers because the feminists have declared
that all males are pedophiles and must not be allowed near any children.
Teacher training boosts this view and adds that children should not be
disciplined because it will hurt their mental development, which is
complete hogwash all children need to learn there are boundaries you cross
at your peril. Without this very basic learning is it any wonder we have
the non parenting we do today.
- August 14, 2013 at 14:51
- August 14, 2013 at 15:11
-
“I have…..a.large vocabulary.”
I’ve worked on construction sites, in some pretty rough workshops and in
many design offices. I’ll bet mine’s bigger than yours!
- August 14, 2013 at 17:07
-
Aha Engineer, I will see your construction sites and raise you a heavy
industrial works in the east end of London!
-
August 14, 2013 at 19:14
-
Hmm – OK, having worked alongside steelworks fitters, I’ll grant that
heavy industrial gives you quite a few points. However, nothing quite
touched the sheer inventiveness of riled draughtsmen. Combine the
two….
(Interestingly, some of the rougher types only seemed to know
three or four Anglo-Saxon epithets that they used with repetitive
freedom. The result was just boring, most of the time. The real experts
were the ones with a bit more intelligence and guile. For example, the
phrase, “What a total waste of time” became “What a twot”, and the
Piping Design Office was the Hiss and Piss Office. Regrettably, some of
the more inventive examples cannot be repeated on a family blog. One
does not wish to rile the landlady.)
-
August 15, 2013 at 10:45
-
We definitely don’t want to upset the Landlady – ever seen a riled
Raccoon? Mmm, me neither, and I have no wish to
I have always found *precision* and eye contact to be most
effective when communicating annoyance – together with a surgical and
sparing application of anglo saxon. You are quite right, excessive
effing and blinding just doesn’t get heard after a while.
-
August 14, 2013 at 13:27
-
In my view its not enough male teachers and parents expecting the schools
to bring up their kids for them.
When I was a school governor (which to be fair was some 10 years ago), the
head was always quite keen to making sure the SEN kids were ‘identified’.
However, the extra cash didn’t really migrate to the SEN coordinator – a bit
like road tax!
- August
14, 2013 at 14:08
-
That is, alas, frequently the case – especially if a salesman has
convinced the Head that SEN pupils will benefit if the school has a shiny
new IT suite or a state-of-the-art gym.
- August 14, 2013 at 15:04
-
That’s interesting. Hoary old cynic that I am, my immediate thought on
reading Anna’s post was that any school headteacher that didn’t use the
system to maximise the available budget is missing a trick. If there’s a
couple of thousand quid extra for any sprog deemed to be Special Needs, then
there will suddenly be a rash of Special Needs sprogs identified.
The answer is obvious, and will be vociferously and bitterly opposed by
the entrenched ‘educational establishment’. More power to classroom teachers
to keep discipline, and a very sceptical attitude by the bean-counters to
assessments of Special Needs.
-
August 14, 2013 at 13:20
-
“*If anybody is recording the new series of Breaking Bad, Ms Raccoon would
love you forever if you let me have a copy….”
Ok I have to ask, do you have moral (being a writer yourself) or technical
reasons for not simply downloading it off any of the well known piratical
sites? If the problem is technical I’ll happily snailmail you…*edited for
reasons of keeping his Coupe Triste outta clink*…on a stix.
- August 14, 2013 at 13:28
-
I’ll own up – I’m terrified of doing so…..!
I know millions of people do – I also know that the moment I do, I shall
get caught. Morals don’t come into it, its self preservation.
And the fact that France is particularly keen on tracing IP addresses
that do use pirate sites…..
- August 14, 2013 at 13:35
-
I’ll email you.
- August 14, 2013 at
14:52
- August 14, 2013 at 12:21
-
From what I can see or seen it seems to me a bit like with small kids i.e
age about 8 or less, girls are or can be every bit as badly behaved as boys
and there is not much difference in behaviour between the sexes, apart from
the fact that every kid is slightly different.
- August
14, 2013 at 12:03
-
You forgot to mention another way society now perceives the male –
ephemeral.
Last night, I saw a TV advert for an online dating agency. “My daughter
recommended it to me”, says a smiling middle-aged woman, “And now I’m
recommending it to my mother”.
With no stable adult male role model at home and few in school (it takes a
very brave man these days to express a vocation for primary teaching), boys
take their behavioural cues from other boys and from what they see in the
media; the result is a pack mentality which is decidedly ill-suited to the
school environment and, in those whose home backgrounds are chaotic, an
inability or disinclination to relate to adults and thus engage with what is
being taught.
- August 14, 2013 at 13:21
-
McHeath,
Re: “With no stable adult male role model at home and few in school”
I had a mum and a dad and don’t feel I benefited from it or have done any
better at all than those I know who didn’t, tbh…
- August 14, 2013 at 14:54
-
It’s not so much about single parents vs a couple per se.
It’s about stability. Not having streams of ‘uncles’ or ‘aunties’
passing through. Not having screaming fights every night, or parent(s)
coming home drunk.
It’s about reliability – knowing that when you come home there’ll be
food (other than a bag of crisps and a mars bar) and someone who cares if
you exist or not.
Single parents can do this just as well as a couple can (though their
can of course be practical problems).
-
August 14, 2013 at 17:05
-
Paul,
Re: “It’s not so much about single parents vs a couple per se”
Ah, got you
- August 14, 2013 at 11:52
-
Based on personal experience as a school governor and father a BIG part of
the problem is the feminisation of teaching especially for pre-teens.
It is not unusual to have a junior school without a male teacher or only 1
or 2. We sent my son to a (mixed) prep school to get away from the girlie
education of the state sector. And when he saw the local boys grammar it was
love at first sight. They really did target boys in they way they taught. No
need for excessive amounts of pretty presentation over content.
- August 14,
2013 at 11:49
-
Oh Lordy.
Pedantic note: there are no ‘methylphenidate drugs’ — it’s not a drug
class, it’s an active component, Ritalin &c. are the commercial or brand
names for the generic substance methylphenidate.
The overdiagnosis of SENs in boys is a big issue, but I’m not sure it’s a
gender issue. The way I see it, from my practical experience in mental health
law, there are three classes of cases:
1) Unruly boys: discipline is not
ok, as teachers are taught these days, and so boys with a little more
exuberance than normal tend to get the SEN ADHD/ADD and sometimes even ASD
label tagged onto them. I have seen what the kids medicated into oblivion,
sometimes with MPH and sometimes with antipsychotics like quetiapine, grow
into. It’s not pleasant. Quetiapine, of course, causes drowsiness, which in
turn causes decreased performance, which in turn reinforces the SEN label.
There goes a life.
2) Boys who don’t perform to their middle-class mums’
expectations: thus, they must be SEN. Stimulants for ADHD do increase certain
forms of academic performance (mainly endurance, concentration and rote
learning), but increase aggression and, sometimes, when that aggression turns
inwards, suicidality. Being tagged as SEN and being supplied with
‘accommodations’, from a laptop to extra time in exams, would lead to better
grades, or so the parents hope. It, of course, doesn’t. It reinforces in the
child that they’re ‘broken’, and they’ll live up (down, rather) to the
expectations. Some of these kids end up with a psychiatric history that would
put some hardened lunatics to shame. I had a young client who, by 16, had been
diagnosed with ADHD, ASD, BID, BPD, bipolar II (alone the BPD/bipolar II
co-diagnosis should be a big red flag!), intermittent explosive disorder,
depression, SoAD and dyslexia. From reading the paperwork, I expected a
walking DSM-IV TR. Well, the kid was actually perfectly fine, he just couldn’t
give a toss about school, loved playing his computer games instead. His gaming
behaviour alone was something that should have excluded ASD (he was deeply
social, with very human interactions, had a complete understanding of metaphor
and abstraction and he had a good awareness of other minds), but it’s not like
shrinks care about that! This guy will live saddled with all that nonsense for
life. Why? Because mummy didn’t get what she wanted. Unlike Munchhausen by
proxy, which does happen in the psychiatric field, this is aimed at actual
benefits (better grades/chances for the kid) — and always backfires.
3)
Kids with complex but non-pathological needs: the example here are kids from
other cultures unaware of the British way of school learning or conduct. Put a
10-year-old speaking no English from the Spin Ghar into a London classroom —
you’ll see seclusion, anxiety and inappropriate behaviour. The observant
school psychologist will happily tag the kid as SEN, without much
consideration of the fact that there are other issues, because a school could
not possibly advise such a child to take some remedial English classes or
brush up on how to behave in an English classroom, since that would be
‘offensive’. SEN is as such a way to meet special needs that are not
pathological.
The prevalence of a condition is calculated as incidence * detection rate.
Incidence of SENs is unlikely to increase this much this fast — thus the
detection rate must have increased by a lot. Which means either shrinks have
been utter amateurs until now, or they’ve started over-diagnosing. My money’s
on the latter.
- August 14, 2013 at 12:06
-
August 14, 2013 at 12:21
-
Kids haven’t fundamentally changed since I was at school 50 years ago,
but parents, teaching and society all have. We had bright kids, thick kids,
fat kids, thin kids, naughty kids and model kids – that’s what you get in a
random population. Trouble is, they’ve all now got ‘syndromes’, whether it’s
ADHD, SEN or whatever, they offer opportunities to excuse the mostly
inexcuseable, while conveniently generating extra revenue for the system
(both educational and pharmaceutical), so the incentive to over-diagnose is
in-built.
The number of kids who were genuinely outside the normal range was, in my
day, miniscule – I suspect the same is really true today, but getting a
‘label’ has become the target for all those unwilling or incapable of
addressing the root-causes.
-
August 14, 2013 at 12:28
-
The DSM and pathologising of the human condition has a lot to answer for.
But in the (voluminous) reports I’ve seen what is striking is the total lack
of insight into behavioural cause and effect in these cases. This is in
total contrast the thumbnail ‘judgmental’ reports of the 60s and earlier –
in those days professionals seemed to hit the nail on the head – and not use
a sledgehammer to miss a nut. So I blame…PCs!
- August 14, 2013 at 14:50
-
You aren’t allowed to tell the truth.
I worked with SEBD children (Behavioural disorders) for many years.
This used to be applied to kids who really struggled for one reason or
another, but the odd thing was that these children actually more often
than not genuinely wanted to get it right, they just couldn’t without a
lot of support. Parents also were much more ‘across the board’ in this
group.
Nowadays it is completely diluted. Most of the ADHD/ODD/ADD/EBD
“statemented” children are capable of behaving themselves and have no real
reason not to, they just can’t be bothered to behave themselves because
it’s more fun to muck about in class. This is the real difference to the
60s (and 70s and 80s) that most of the children basically behaved
themselves. We now throw (waste) vast sums of money being nice to children
who don’t care and view it as a gimme.
A lot of the latter (can’t be bothereds) have two basic issues. One the
schools cannot discipline them effectively because they aren’t allowed to.
Two their parents are a waste of oxygen, give no guidance or support,
clout them more or less arbitrarily and so on because their children are
viewed almost as something that gets in the way of them doing what they
want.
It’s rather like the cute puppies who get abandoned on the road when
they become grown up dogs, cute babies become difficult teenagers and
“that’s FAR too much to bother with when I want to watch Corrie” or
whatever. These parents probably would abandon them on the road if they
could (some do abandon them as quick as possible).
When I started teaching in the 80s even the worst parents of the most
difficult children usually valued school, albeit often cluelessly. They
thought that their child doing exams/courses had some value, the teachers
were worth talking to, the teachers didn’t pick on their children and
wanted to help them, they wanted their child to do well if possible even
if they had no real idea how to support them. You could forgive them a lot
because at least their hearts were basically in the right place, they did
care what happened to their kids. This time is now as remote to teachers
as the Roman Invasion.
A significant proportion of parents nowadays don’t give an XXXX and
aren’t in the least bit concerned about showing it.
There’s a huge correlation between lousy parenting and “Special Needs”
but no-one dare say it, because if that’s true then it’s not down to a
failing that can’t be helped – if you are Autistic or PMLD it is just down
to genetic chance – it’s the fault of the parents.
- August 14, 2013 at 18:28
-
“A significant proportion of parents nowadays don’t give an XXXX
and aren’t in the least bit concerned about showing it.”
My mother used to do the ‘special work’ with statemented kids, and
concurs. Often, the parents had more savvy than the specialists, and
poured scorn on the insistence on inclusion. She remembers the mother of
one Down’s Syndrome girl sneer at the idea that it would be best if she
joined in with the curriculum, pointing out that being taught to make
change & look both ways when crossing the road would be far more
valuable than learning the names and order of Henry the Eighth’s six
wives!
-
August 14, 2013 at 18:30
-
Oh, that deserves repeating……
“There’s a huge correlation between lousy parenting and “Special
Needs” but no-one dare say it, because if that’s true then it’s not
down to a failing that can’t be helped – if you are Autistic or PMLD it
is just down to genetic chance – it’s the fault of the parents.
The correlation of busy mummies and autism has confused me for quite
a while, the mist of misunderstanding is clearing for me. Thank you
Paul.
- August 15, 2013 at 00:29
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In Germany, they have a higher proportion of ‘stay-at-home’ mums. I
wonder if a national comparison could be made, of instances of autism
between UK and Germany?
-
August 15, 2013 at 15:40
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there is none. Aspergerish behaviour -kids who are a bit odd &
geeky quite often have a father like that – my son & I fit this,
but full blown autism cannot be caused as such. children are born that
way.
I have seen children who have similar characteristics caused by bad
parenting, but it is not the same.
- August 14, 2013 at 11:46
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Strange Anna – ‘they’ always used to say that boys did better in school
than girls – but back then girls were not motivated (or encouraged) to do
well. Maybe, the male of the species is getting fed up – no jobs for ‘real
men’ anymore – more likely end up in a call centre with the girls. They won’t
be going to University either , they can’t afford it anymore and there’s no
jobs that are worth £30,000 worth of debt studying for …… oh dear just saying
is all !
- August 14,
2013 at 11:45
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“This means their needs are specialised enough to cost their school more
than £6,000 a year…”
But, sometime, no amount of money spent would be enough to keep them away
from the populace:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/boy-barricaded-teacher-classroom-laughed-2162606
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