Today I hate my job

[Geonz]

So glad things ironed out a little!

Allowing the child to fail works for some -- specifically, for the student who responds to that by not being satisfied with it. However, if you're accustomed to failing because you honestly don't really think you can do this, then you'll learn some amazing social skills that get you through the day... passed to the next grade... and then you end up in my "underprepared student" lab at the community college because you *need* postsecondary education to get a job at the car wash, just about... and you didn't learn anything in grade school, not because you couldn't, but because you didn't think you could.

I was definitely one of those kids you needed to hang that fruit up high for, else I was a permanent brat However, I can **promise** you that a lot of adults without basic skills (especially in math) learned to behave ... and get passed along... and believe whatever is sold to them with the right smiling and positive reinforcement. Politicians *love* to pull their strings...

[Melalvai]

I just read an article about how doctors are making ADHD diagnoses that aren't valid so that kids can get the meds so they'll succeed in school. They said it helps with grades but I suspect grades especially at the younger ages have more to do with behavior than academic performance. They said they have to use meds because the schools & families don't have the resources for other non-medical interventions that have been shown to work.

The article just made me sick.

[Veronica]

I have a boy this year who has gone off his meds a few times. His behavior is drastically different from when he's on them. I don't know what the answer is. I have read so much about how smaller families contribute to socialization problems. If there are only 1 or 2 kids, cooperation isn't so important. Kids don't share rooms anymore... tv and video games of course have their share of the blame. Parents and really communities that don't pay attention and hold kids accountable to a certain standard of behavior. There is so much movement, we don't get to know our neighbors.

Behavior does play such a huge part in what students learn at the lower grades. Some kids spend so little time actually in class because of their behavior. When you have 25+ kids in a room, you can't have off the wall behavior. And really I am talking about things that most people would say don't belong in a classroom. And you don't always notice the "quiet" ones, who aren't misbehaving, but aren't attending to instruction either.

Veronica

[Owlie]

I just read an article about how doctors are making ADHD diagnoses that aren't valid so that kids can get the meds so they'll succeed in school. They said it helps with grades but I suspect grades especially at the younger ages have more to do with behavior than academic performance. They said they have to use meds because the schools & families don't have the resources for other non-medical interventions that have been shown to work.

The article just made me sick.

The other thing that happens a lot with these sort of diagnoses is that there are definitely behavioral issues, but not of a specific nature, and the school system needs a diagnosis for the kid to be eligible for anything.