The Kids are Alright
It's the adults we have to fix.
In our crazy mixed-up world little boys are denied recess and given psychotropic pills when they fidget. Kids are sent to elite private schools and a 5 year-old child to the psychotherapist. "Something's wrong with her, doctor...hey, you're kinda cute...."
Sidwell Friends School is being sued for $10 million for allowing its staff psychologist to carry on an affair with the married mother of a 5-year-old student he was treating.
The father blames the school for allowing it to go on so long (!) without firing the counselor/sexual education teacher! Wants 10 million.
No wonder the kid's screwed up (if the kid is indeed screwed up at all).
Newsflash - most kids are born sane. If something is wrong with someone's kid, 9 times out of 10 it's something the parents are doing to them directly or indirectly.
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Feb '11
Re: The Kids are Alright
My wife, an NP, has treated quite a number of kids over the years for diverse and usually mundane primary care problems. The number reporting ritalin among their current medications is amazing. The same is true for many of the kids we have become acquainted with through association with their professional type parents. Most are being 'treated' for what used to be considered normal juvenile behavior. Her educated, and my cynical, opinion is that in most cases the problem is not the kid. The problem is the kid's neurotic mother.
Edited on May 12, 2011 at 3:17pmJan '11
Re: The Kids are Alright
PDD: Parent Deficit Disorder.
Sep '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
Or possibly jrb's diagnosis, NMD: Neurotic Mother Disorder.
Aug '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
I get that there's something wrong with shipping five-year-olds off to the psychotherapist, but what exactly is wrong with sending kids to elite private schools?
Sep '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
I get that there's something wrong with shipping five-year-olds off to the psychotherapist, but what exactly is wrong with sending kids to elite private schools? · May 12 at 4:29pm
Nothing. Just bad wording on my part. Should read elite private schools that employ psychotherapists who will treat your five-year-old" or something like that. Or, private schools complete with on-campus therapists for troubled kindergartners and wayward wives.Yeah that's it! I need an editor.
Jul '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
I had the same personality at eight years of age that I have now.
The schools these days would be stuffing medication down my gullet like a Strasbourg goose.
Edited on May 12, 2011 at 7:23pmJun '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
Lovely. I'm getting right-side blog ads for kiddie pharmaceuticals. Ain't no drug in the world can compensate for a lack of moral fiber. Does anyone think that a breakfast cereal called "Moral Fiber" might have a chance with conservatives? IPO, anyone?
Aug '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
Trader Joe's already has Moral Fiber bran muffins. And there are organic fabrics branded Moral Fibre.
I'd guess that products labeled "moral fiber" these days will be taken to revolve around turning the consumption of a certain brand of fiber (whether roughage or cloth) into a moral act.
I don't think, however, that conservatives are nearly as prone as liberals to believing that consuming the "correct" brand of product is in itself a moral act. Liberals may rail against consumerism and branding, but in my personal experience, this is because they're hypersensitive to branding status themselves.
Edited on May 12, 2011 at 6:48pmAug '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
Franco:
Newsflash - most kids are born sane. If something is wrong with someone's kid, 9 times out of 10 it's something the parents are doing to them directly or indirectly. ·
I'm guessing you're not a fan of twin and adoption studies for estimating heritability coefficients.
Sep '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
anon_academic
Franco:
Newsflash - most kids are born sane. If something is wrong with someone's kid, 9 times out of 10 it's something the parents are doing to them directly or indirectly. ·
I'm guessing you're not a fan of twin and adoption studies for estimating heritability coefficients. · May 12 at 8:16pm
Heh heh
I'm sure there are a lot of interesting and valid studies proving some disorders are inherited genetically. I'm just saying that in today's culture of therapy and pharmaceuticals it is more often the parents' disorders, or their projections and displacements onto their children who are to blame for their children's difficulties and the therapeutic culture readily intervenes often compounding the problems.
Edited on May 12, 2011 at 9:12pmDec '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
I get that there's something wrong with shipping five-year-olds off to the psychotherapist, but what exactly is wrong with sending kids to elite private schools? · May 12 at 4:29pm
They might grow up to be the worst president in United States history.
Aug '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
AmishDude
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
I get that there's something wrong with shipping five-year-olds off to the psychotherapist, but what exactly is wrong with sending kids to elite private schools?
They might grow up to be the worst president in United States history.
Yeah, and then again they might not. There's nothing wrong with parents giving their kids the best education they can afford, and if you as the parent decide that means "elite" private schooling, why not?
Private education is "elite" in this country mainly because it's been crowded out by public education (for example, read The Beautiful Tree). If you don't want your kid to attend a sucky public school, and you can't home school him yourself, why not a private school, if you can afford it, even if private schools are perceived as elitist?
Dec '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
I just like to point out that our president was raised by a bank vice president and sent to private schools.
Of course, with respect to Sidwell Friends, that place has always creeped me out. I think it's the worst kind of private school. I think it's a mediocre education at best, but an opportunity for kids (and parents) to network.
Frankly, that's what a lot of education (see School, Law) is these days. American education, even a lot of private education, is just horrible.
Aug '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
True.
Because government education has a near-monopoly, there is no need for private schools to be truly competitive either. In this environment, where there are so few private schools and so many barriers to starting one, private schools often engage in anticompetitive behavior themselves.
No surprise then, that they're often clannish bastions of cronyism.
So, sorry to crank on you like that. On the other hand, I honestly think you might enjoy reading The Beautiful Tree.
Nov '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
Just to be fair, there are kids who really have severe ADHD and who need medication badly. I can't say that there aren't kids who are being medicated for normal childhood behavior, but I know one child who simply can't function without Ritalin. I've seen what happens when a dose is late, and it is very much not normal.
Feb '11
Re: The Kids are Alright
Lucy Pevensie
Just to be fair, there are kids who really have severe ADHD and who need medication badly. I can't say that there aren't kids who are being medicated for normal childhood behavior, but I know one child who simply can't function without Ritalin. I've seen what happens when a dose is late, and it is very much not normal. · May 13 at 1:42pm
Yes, there are many cases where the prescription is valid. That doesn't invalidate the general thrust of the observation.
Aug '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
http://www.artofeurope.com/larkin/lar2.htm
Edited on May 13, 2011 at 4:47pmThis famous offering from the English poet Philip Larkin seems entirely apposite. It needs a big flashing c-o-c warning but I trust the esteemed editors will permit the link on the basis of literary merit.
Aug '10
Re: The Kids are Alright
AmishDude
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
I get that there's something wrong with shipping five-year-olds off to the psychotherapist, but what exactly is wrong with sending kids to elite private schools? · May 12 at 4:29pm
They might grow up to be the worst president in United States history. · May 13 at 6:45am
Actually, James Buchanan went to the local public school in his small village.