I have a gift which, during my lifetime, has come to be classified as a disability. I can completely change my mental gears from one subject to another without any baggage from previous thoughts. Research indicates that people with this gift are more likely to be leaders, builders of businesses and organizations, and have multiple kinds of effective enterprises. I call it a gift. In our society it is called Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). When I read the characteristics of this so-called disability, I have every one of them. I shudder to think what would have happened to me if I were a child today. Miss Saida Monson, my early elementary school teacher, in the one room school house I attended, firmly disciplined me, including frequent spankings. She directed my ADD in positive and productive ways. I lovingly say she spanked the ADD out of me. She really didn’t, but she kept me under her authority while being the only adult on site teaching 35 children in four grades, at least one of whom had a gift of changing focus easily. I will always be grateful to her for her heavy hand with me.
Please do not misunderstand my intent. I do not mean to diminish the fact that some children do lack the ability to control themselves because of dramatic symptoms of ADHD. I have encountered two out the hundreds of children I have worked with. I am just saying that the rush to diagnosis and prescription drugs is unfortunate because the symptoms I possess may be irritating to others, but I am a far cry from disabled. I have a gift. For kids today, like I was, since caretakers have fear of touching a child, much less correcting a child with physical force, we are doing a great disservice to them. It has become basically unlawful to pick up an out of control child forcefully and take that child to a place of safety for the sake that child and others, call for assistance and seek to firmly teach that child acceptable behavior. Common sense has been almost lost when it comes to controlling rebellious, dysfunctional or behaviorally disabled children.
Many well meaning people are in an unknowing business of robbing normal children of their dignity, initiative and intelligence by diagnosing them with learning disabilities, thereby, qualifying them to be drugged into control rather than taught self discipline. Aggressive, creative, non-conforming children who think for themselves, especially boys in my opinion, have their drive diminished and rob our nation of those who may have become entrepreneurial leaders…..significant employers of the future.
From a sociological perspective, there are no forces competing with the drive to disable children. Parents living in poverty are paid social security disability for each child who is diagnosed as disabled. School officials are driven by their need for orderliness in the classroom and send children to medical authorities for evaluation and, very possibly, prescription drugs. Medical professionals are often pressured by drug companies to consider their prescription drugs for solutions to behavioral problems. Business is profit motivated to create business plans to develop and market their products. On top of these pressures is the instant gratification, quick fix mentality of the larger public. I do not believe child rearing and training can be done with any quick fix approach. Who are the advocates for the children and youth in this matter of behavior based disabilities? There are few.
Judicial rulings have created a context in which many in the noble profession of teaching and loving parents have been robbed of the authority in keeping with their responsibility to maintain discipline in the school and the home. The result is the disabling of our children through drugging them into compliance. It seems to me that it is a greater form of child abuse to drug a child than to use appropriate corporal measures to teach a child to have self discipline. A nation as caring and compassionate as ours should not permit rules and laws about the correction of children that were designed for a minority of irresponsible abusive parents and teachers to be applied universally to all caregivers. The hands of caring leaders should not be tied when it is in their power to teach self discipline to the children in their care. I needed much discipline and, thankfully, I received it from parents and teachers. I continue to invite discipline and correction by those who love me to this day, including my thoughts in this article.