From: Michael M. Butler (mmb@spies.com)
Date: Tue Jun 03 2003 - 13:18:52 MDT
On Tue, 3 Jun 2003 10:16:49 -0700 (PDT), Mike Lorrey <mlorrey@yahoo.com>
wrote:
>
> --- "Michael M. Butler" <mmb@spies.com> wrote:
>> On Tue, 3 Jun 2003 06:48:37 -0700 (PDT), Mike Lorrey
>> <mlorrey@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Alleged ADHD is simply the crime of behaving like a little boy when
>> > the powers that be want all children to behave like little girls.
>>
>> I've heard this claim. I've also heard the claim that it's simply the
>> emergent effect of poor child discipline. What makes you sure you're
>> right on this? Seriously. Is there no excluded middle in your
>> description of the situation?
>
> Because the treatment today is to warehouse the ADHD kids as zombies
> hopped up on drugs as strong as cocaine.
OK, let's de-rant here. Let's scratch that label, since it bugs you so.
Consider this the cultural analog to the hunber-gatherer diet thread.
I'm asking (and I can't be the first to ask) if increased stimulation
correlates with decreased attention span, increased inability to focus,
etc., when measured against (say) the cadre of people who came of age in
1903, and whether that's something without extremely high evolutionary
pressure to handle gracefully as a species, and that *some* significant
number of young people are experiencing and srviving levels and kinds of
distress they wouldn't have in 1903, and have developed in such a way that
they can't resolve the kinds of problems their hypothetical doppelgangers
in 1903 could have handled because the stimuli and pace of life was less
hectic. Yes, some of that *is* not having approved outlets for boy
behavior. But *all*?
Developmental neuroplasticity makes it at least a legitimate question, I
think--though how to measure it is very very hard. We don't have a way of
subjecting a representative sample of kids in 1903 to any real observations
today; then there's diet differences, too.
And then there's the whole "adapting to an insane society is that society's
definition of sanity" conundrum to deal with. So it's intractible in
practice.
Just handwaving and saying "boys will be boys" doesn't address these ("are
some of us in overload?") matters, however true the saying might be.
Personal narratives, likewise. I hope you understand I'm not asking this as
a Luddite.
There are *lots* of things wrong with the way most kids are handled today.
Warehousing of any kind sucks, 10-4.
MMB
-- I am not here to have an argument. I am here as part of a civilization. Sometimes I forget.
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