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Archives
- April, 2007
Learning Shouldn’t be a Struggle – April 27, 2007
My husband recently spoke at a local high school in his capacity as
Director of Apprenticeship at a community college. He loves to talk about
apprenticeship and is happy enough with the enthusiastic reaction he
inspires in his audiences. However, he inevitably receives a mug, a
T-shirt, a ball cap or a pen as a token of appreciation. So our cupboards
are overflowing with logo-emblazoned mugs, his cupboards are crowding out
mine with a lifetime supply of T-shirts and ball caps that he doesn’t
wear. (Enough with the ball caps already!) But one can never have too
many pens. Today, I reached for a pen and found myself using one that was
inscribed with the words: “XYZ [name changed to protect the guilty] Secondary School – After the Struggle The Reward.” Huh? Apparently this particular
school has institutionalized the idea that learning is a
struggle...and that struggling to learn is noble because there is a
reward (probably the monetary one that comes from a good job) at the end.
What ever happened to learning because one is interested in or needs to
know about something? I’m very sad for those public high school
students who are being brainwashed to think that learning has to be a
struggle motivated by the carrot of a reward.
Posted: 2007/04/27
1:45 PM
Big Step for Children’s Rights – April 26, 2007
A report was issued today by the Canadian government’s committee on
human rights that is huge step forward for children’s rights. The
Senate committee’s report
Children: The Silenced Citizens examines issues of corporal punishment,
bullying, youth criminal justice, early childhood development and care, child
poverty and Aboriginal children. It asks the federal government to
comply fully and immediately with the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child.
Canada ratified the UN Convention in 1992. It puts children at the center of
family, community and culture. But the senators feel there is a gap
between “the rhetoric and the reality” in terms of how it is applied
to children. So the committee is trying to strengthen the active
involvement of children in all institutions and processes affecting
their rights.
“The Convention on the Rights of the Child is not
solidly embedded in Canadian law, in policy or in the national
psyche,” says Senator Raynell Andreychuk, Chair of the Standing Senate
Committee on Human Rights. “Children’s voices rarely inform
government decisions, yet they are one of the groups most affected by
government action or inaction. Children are not merely underrepresented;
they are almost not represented at all.”
In a press conference earlier today, committee member and Liberal Senator Jim Munson
told the media, “Children must be in the room. Children must be at the table.
Too often we dictate ... to children and it’s just not right.”
However, the committee admits that many Canadians are against full
implementation of the UN Convention.
In its report, the committee has made 24
recommendations on the rights and freedoms of children. These include
the establishment of an independent children’s commissioner to monitor
government implementation of children’s rights and of a federal
interdepartmental implementation working group to coordinate and monitor
federal legislation and policy affecting children’s rights. It also
encourages the government to make spanking and other forms of corporal
punishment of children illegal.
Posted: 2007/04/26
4:45 PM
Medicating Your Kids and Your Dogs – April 24,
2007
A few years ago, the use of the antidepressant Prozac as treatment for
children and adolescents with depression, a clinical diagnosis
apparently shared by one-quarter of children in the U.S. Now that some
people may be catching on to the over-medicalization of children’s
so-called behavioral problems and learning disabilities, the
manufacturer of Prozac is targeting the antidepressant to dogs.
Eli Lilly and Co. has just launched its first
prescription medicine for pets – a beef-flavored chewable tablet
called Reconcile, aimed at treating “separation anxiety” in dogs. It
apparently calms the dog and makes it more receptive to behavior
training. Lilly estimates that more than 10 million dogs suffer from
some form of separation anxiety. Big market.
That rivals the number of prescriptions for
antidepressants that were written for children in 2002, spread among
several different diagnoses, including depression, attention-deficit
disorder, anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Many readers of my work will be familiar with my
skepticism about some of these labels and the causes of the so-called
problems that they label. But there are few credible studies that show
these drug treatments work. And there are increasing signs that they increase the
incidence of suicide and some
antidepressant manufacturers have even issued warnings to that effect. (For more on this, visit
ablechild.org, the Parents for Label and Drug Free Education website.)
An article that we published last summer in Natural Life magazine
documented how antidepressants can cause agitation in five percent of
patients, and even create a form of extreme agitation known as akathisia,
which can lead to suicide. It also described a 2005 study that found
patients are twice as likely to attempt suicide on antidepressants as on
sugar pills. Apparently, Eli Lilly knew more than 15 years ago that
Prozac patients were far more likely to attempt suicide and show
hostility than were patients on other antidepressants.
At any rate, I’ve been thinking about this
recently in light of reports that the Virginia Tech murderer had been
taking antidepressants of some sort. And he wasn’t the first school
shooter to be doing so. As far back as 1998, a 15-year-old from
Oregon who opened fire in his school cafeteria was on Prozac and Columbine
killer Eric Harris was on another brand of antidepressant. So why
aren’t we, as a society, looking at the causes of children’s
alienation rather than medicating them into oblivion? And why isn’t
the correlation between antidepressants and manic behavior being
investigated? Instead, around the same time as the Virginia Tech massacre, the
Journal of the American Medical Association published a new study
claiming that the “benefits” of antidepressants trump the risk of
increasing some children’s chances of having suicidal thoughts and
behaviors. And newspapers carried cute little stories about Prozac for
pets. It’s not only insane but grossly irresponsible that we continue
to allow the pursuit of drug company profits to harm our children in
this manner, not to mention that we are apparently in danger of creating
a new generation of manic dogs.
Posted: 2007/04/24
11:59 AM
Understanding
the Killing – April 18, 2007
Not too long ago, I had the opportunity to walk down the hallway at a
local college. It brought back some bitter memories
of high school. The walls of metal lockers, the smells, the sounds
hadn’t changed much in 40 years. And they reminded me of the
injustices, the tyranny, the social hierarchy and class structure, the
sexism, the embarrassments, the many negative aspects of my high school
years, which I experienced in spite of (or, as I now wonder, perhaps
because of) my being “a good student.” I’ve thought about that
short hallway walk over the past few days as I’ve listened to the
unfolding story of the 32 murders on the campus of Virginia Tech by a
deeply disturbed and alienated – perhaps psychopathic – student.
It’s likely that there were multiple causes for
this awful rampage. Among them are the abhorrent “right to bear
arms” and laws that allow guns to be sold to mentally unbalanced
people; an aggressive and warring culture; a society that medicalizes
young people’s problems, leading to the killer’s apparent use of medication for
depression, which can cause suicidal or homicidal tendencies; an
institutional attitude that characterized the first two murders as a
“domestic dispute” and therefore not all that important; media
coverage of other mass shootings (many in schools,) which creates
copycat crimes; and a tendency for a sort of lurid ambulance chasing
fascination with such crimes. But I would also add to that list a school
culture that is all the things I remembered from my youth but worse.
Perhaps they’re all linked. And while I’m most definitely not
trivializing this horrible massacre, there are this many or more people
being killed in places like Iraq and Afghanistan every day. How much do we value those lives?
Food for thought, here.
Posted: 2007/04/18
12:50 PM
 The Big Picture – April
16, 2007
I am just back from a trip to Nova Scotia where my daughter and I took a
drive around the exquisitely
beautiful Cabot Trail.
I have been to many lovely spots in the world, but this
is one of the most moving. A 300-kilometer-long highway cut into the sides of
mountains weaves alongside the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the St. Lawrence
River. The trip was full of those awe-inspiring moments where you can look past the
horizon and remember your place in the universe. Thanks to Melanie for
sharing with me one of her favorite places in her adopted home
province.
Posted: 2007/04/16
9:32 PM
Who are the Child Care “Experts?” – April 6,
2007
The most recent analysis of a long-term U.S. study found that the more
time children spent in daycare centers before kindergarten, the more
likely their sixth grade teachers were to report such aggressive
behaviors as “gets in many fights,” “disobedient at school,” and
“argues a lot.” These behaviors were listed on something called “The
Child Behavior Checklist Teacher Report Form,” which consisted of 100
so-called “problem behaviors.” The 1,364 children in the analysis
had been tracked since birth as part of the NICHD
Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, the largest, longest
running, and most comprehensive study of child care in the
United States.
However, the most compelling part of this study is
the finding that parenting quality was a much more important predictor
of child development than was type, quantity or quality of child care.
That is good news in light of a recent Canadian study authored by Dr.
Fraser Mustard entitled
Early Years 2: Putting Science Into Action. As
back-up for its recommendations for institutionalizing early childhood,
the Mustard report blamed everything from substance abuse and illiteracy
on a supposed lack of parenting skills. In an op-ed piece last week in
the National Post newspaper, Kate Tennier, founder of Advocates for
Childcare Choice, which favors funding the child rather than the daycare
spot, quoted Mustard as saying that only about one-third of parents are
highly competent, the rest are “OK” and “about 17 percent are
godawful.” There will always be some parents who could use some help
with parenting skills and/or community support raising their families
(not to mention access to affordable housing, fairly paying jobs and so
on.) But instead of shifting the responsibility onto institutions and
thinking up Orwellian ways to screen children in order to slot them into
ever-earlier formal learning environments, governments should be giving
parents and children the respect they deserve. For starters, they could
foster a culture of learning in every home, provide community and tax
supports to parents who wish to stay at home with their young children,
and encourage changes in workplace culture to include nursing mothers;
young children; and career-track part-time, flex-time or home-based
work.
If we want to prepare the next few generations of
children for happy, productive, socially-aware adult lives, we need to
rethink many things, including our attitudes toward childhood. And we
need to decide who are the experts in regards to our children: the
children and their parents, or bureaucrats and politicians.
Posted: 2007/04/06
2:05 PM
It’s OK to be an Introvert (except in school) –
April 1, 2007
Thanks to a good friend of mine, I have been thinking about being
introverted. I’ve always know that’s my personality type: needing
hours alone every day, preferring to work alone, loving quiet
conversation about feelings and ideas, preferring to write letters
rather than talk on the phone because writing allows me to think through
my responses, able to give great presentations to big audiences (where
it feels like I’m acting) but awkward in small groups, disliking small
talk, easily worn out by being with others…. But now I’m thinking
about (and remembering) what it’s like to be an introverted child.
Our society favors extroverts – and they
apparently outnumber introverts by about three to one. They dominate
public and social life, doing well as politicians. Being outgoing is
considered normal and therefore desirable, and is seen as a mark of
confidence and leadership. Introvert-type behavior, on the other hand,
is considered abnormal. An introvert is considered to have a problem –
to be antisocial and shy, to have an illness which needs to be overcome.
However, research has shown there is a biological basis to it, relating
to different types of brain activity.
The introvert/extrovert concept goes back to the
1920s and the psychologist Carl Jung, on whose work the
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is based. Jung was, in fact, an introvert,
as were Katherine Hepburn, Hans Christian Andersen and Albert Einstein.
Stock market guru Warren Buffet and philanthropist billionaire investor
George Soros are others. Of course, like anything else, most of us are a
combination of both types.
School can be a terrible place for an introverted child
who dreads its demands to “perform.” I shudder even now when I
remember my fear when called upon to read aloud in front of the class,
to write a rhyming couplet on demand, to stand in the aisle beside my
desk and sing the scale or answer a math question. Group activities are
prevalent at school, and that inhibits the development of ideas in
introverts. Also, we need time to think about the answer we will give to
a question, but teachers tend to move on to the next person if a
student doesn’t respond quickly. Fortunately, introverts tend to be
artistic and smart – more than 75 percent of people with an IQ above
160 are introverted – so I did well in school. Another feature of
introverts is that, unlike their opposites, they don’t need a lot of
encouragement or positive reinforcement to work hard or succeed; nor do
they care much what others think of them. Nevertheless, school was not a
pleasant experience for me. Hmmm, come to think of it, it might not be a
great place for extroverts, either, because their short attention spans,
impatience with frustration and love of action could get them labeled!
Anyway, not understanding that introversion is
normal and doesn’t need to be cured, my more extroverted mother pushed
me to be more social and less “shy,” in the same way she tried to
push my father into social situations where he wasn’t comfortable.
Thinking about how frustrating it must have been for her to live with my
father and me, I realized that this is probably the source of much
conflict and concern among home educating families. How much simpler
life would be if parents
understood and appreciated these sorts of personality differences, gave
their introverted children a place to be themselves and trusted them to
be extroverted when appropriate.
Here’s a good website for parents of introverts.
Posted: 2007/04/01
7:35 PM
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