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Re: ☼ (Reply to this comment)
by AinsleyJo
God gave us the Internet (though, perhaps, Al Gore invented it), and ranting is just one thing that it's very good for!!!
Write On!
AJ :o)
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Feb 20 '05
1:52 pm PST
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☼ (Reply to this comment)
by brendan2
I knew the ritalin problem was bad, but children lining up for their daily dose? that's just ridiculous. when will it end?
Great rant, and let's hope some things will change soon.
~Liz
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Feb 19 '05
1:07 pm PST
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Re: Amen sister. Preach on! (Reply to this comment)
by AinsleyJo
I'm researching a book that will, in part, cover this issue!
Glad to see you agree with me!
Hugs!
AJ :o)
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Jan 14 '05
7:14 pm PST
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Amen sister. Preach on! (Reply to this comment)
by sax_angel
I have to say I agree with you on this one 100%. Not to say that there aren't kids who need medication, just as there are adults who need medication. However, for the most part, Ritalin has become the lazy adults way out. Parents/ teachers who simply don't have the energy to keep up with kids decide that that must mean there is something wrong with the kids.
We have become such a couch potato society and we expect kids to conform to this same philosophy. Too many adults use a tv or a computer as a babysitter. Sure most kids like tv or computer games. That doesn't make them substitutes for riding a bike, playing ball, or just running around outside. Let's get off our duffs and go play in the pool or jump on the trampoline. If we give kids the opportunity to use their God given energy at certain times, they will be much more likely to be willing to sit still and pay attention when they need to.
Throw out the Ritalin. Bring on the blocks, jump ropes, hoola hoops, and monkey bars.
Amy
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Jan 10 '05
4:15 pm PST
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Re: I agree...to a point... (Reply to this comment)
by AinsleyJo
Thanks for bringing this up, because this is also one of my rants.
I'm all for mainstreaming special needs kids as much as possible--that is, to the point that you aren't holding them back by, for example, having someone with dyslexia spend the entire day in a special education room/area.
However, some of these blindly-politically-correct people have also ended up doing a disservice to both the kids needing special attention and those who don't need it by getting nutty re: their "right" to a mainstream education.
On a TV show several years ago, there was this couple who was in denial re: just how retarded their son was, and they insisted that he be placed in a regular elementary school setting.
This is what happened:
A boy who had been very content and who had thrived in a special education room was suddenly so upset and frustrated that he began "acting out"--which included such antics and shoving, hitting, and biting his classmates.
His classmates suddenly had to contend with being put into a painful/dangerous situation everytime they went to school.
In a smaller class setting that was actually geared to their special needs, it might be very possible that those kids needing meds to cope with mainstream third-grade might not need so many meds.
Also, I've been reading where many of these meds don't really help these kids, but just make them easier to manage.
I hope that you can continue to have the choice in whether or not your kids take meds, because there are cases where social workers have actually threatened to take kids out of their homes and put them in foster care, if the parents didn't go along with the drug program.
Happy Holidays 2U2!!!
AJ :o)
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Dec 01 '04
8:19 am PST
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I agree...to a point... (Reply to this comment)
by kevlog
It's just a bizarre world where so many of these kids are in a zombied state as you put it. But I also fear what the classrooms of today would be like if some these kids weren't on their medications. My wife works with some special needs kids in a third grade and teachers have been injured (some seriously) by wild kids who forgot their meds. I don't have the answer but my wife and I have chosen to avoid any/all medications with our own kids (in spite of suggestions from physicians early on) and so far we've been happy with our decision and our kids are getting straight A's. But everybody's different.
Nice rant! enjoy the holidays!
Kevlog
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Dec 01 '04
8:08 am PST
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Re: You're so Excited! (Reply to this comment)
by AinsleyJo
As I said in this piece, it's not a one-size-fits-all piece (that is, I'm not putting all public schools/teachers/students under a big blanket of nasty), but I'm just basing this on what I've read, heard, as well as some of my own experiences (such as the ridiculous reason for not giving Timmy that bib).
But I'm going to list a few examples:
Columbine and the like
how a friend took her kid out of middle school and started homeschooling him when she found out that some of the kids in their small community school were carrying weapons to school
how recess has almost--if not completely--been done away with in many elementary schools, doing away with precious time where students can relax and be creative
the often-repeated stories of school administrators telling parents that there's nothing much they can do to stop kids from being taunted on their campus
the rise in the (pick one or more) suicide rate/drug abuse rate/kids on kids crimes/violence/depression/delinquency among today's youth
neighborhood schools getting shut down in order to save money and how (unlike what has been done in Anderson when they at least built new and thoughtfully-constructed replacement schools) kids are often crowded into existing schools elsewhere so that nobody gets a quality education
this familiar phase magnified: why Johnny/Janie can't read
an obscession with body-image that covers many areas including fashion and body-size/shape which does little more than fan the flames of taunting and designating certain students as outcasts
Should I go on?...
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Dec 01 '04
8:08 am PST
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You're so Excited! (Reply to this comment)
by aawehr
Lot's of opinion but you don't site any facts. Good to see that you feel so strongly --- it's apathy that usually brings us down as a country.
My kids are grown-ups now and grand children too small to go to school. I have to wait before I really know what's going on in today's schools.
Keep your energies up and take care,
Alma
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Dec 01 '04
5:22 am PST
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Re: Re: Re: Thank you.... - I don't entirely agree (Reply to this comment)
by AinsleyJo
I've never tried marijuana before and don't endorse using it for recreational use, just as I don't endorse smoking and getting drunk, either.
However, I think that, for consenting adults, it should be decriminalized/legalized and the war on drugs should focus on encouraging people to discover the natural highs of life rather than threatening them with prison because they don't see it our way.
Having said this, I'm all for using marijuana in a medicinal way and think that it's not only nobody else's business if people choose it as a painkiller over some chemical but, also, see it as actually being less damaging and more curative than some of the legal chemicals that big medicine is making big bucks from.
Again, I've never used marijuana even in a medicinal way, but I would if I had a need to and no danger of going to prison for it.
Have never been on Ritalin, either--and glad I grew up when I did, because, in today's schools, I would probably be forced to ingest this garbage.
Haven't escaped the "legal" drug culture completely, though, because I went through a thorazine period followed (a year or so later by a Navene period) back in the 1970s.
There's a long story involved in how I got into this mess, and I'm currently writing a book about it!
Hugs!
AJ :o)
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Nov 30 '04
9:52 am PST
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Re: Re: Thank you.... - I don't entirely agree (Reply to this comment)
by JAGUARDOG
Your rant and comments are well said here. I agree the use of ritalin has gone way to far but, we still need to also focus on Marijuana as well. Ritalin even though is used way to much is still legal and Marijuana is not. Marijuana can cause so much more damage to brain cells and besides it smells to holly hell.
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Nov 30 '04
9:43 am PST
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Re: Thank you.... (Reply to this comment)
by AinsleyJo
Perhaps, it's time to take our focus off marijuana in the war on drugs and aim it at Ritalanmania!!!
Right On!
AJ :o)
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Nov 30 '04
8:05 am PST
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Thank you.... (Reply to this comment)
by desertmoon
But I am talking about all of this "political correctness" and the like that interferes with meaningful interaction between teachers and students and between students.
This whole use of ritalin and all the ridiculous "political correctness" is a crock. Well said!
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Nov 30 '04
8:02 am PST
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