Letter to the Editor (not published)

The story on the front page of today's Washington Post has me quite worried about the message that parents will take away. The major headline indicates that long-term use of ADHD medications has deleterious effects, and that these medicines only provide short term improvements. As a person who would today have this diagnosis (inattentive type, called "daydreaming" in the '60's and 70's), and as a parent of an ADHD (inattentive type) child, I have some problems with this reporting and the study:
1) The report and study look at broad groups, not at individual students who may or may not benefit from medication. It's not until paragraph 18 at the bottom of page A7 that psychiatrists are quoted having "emphasized the importance of individualizing treatment" which is, after all, the point of having treatment.
2) The "short term" improvements to which the study and reporting refer is two years, which is 25% of the life of an 8-year-old third grader. For a kid who can't sit still and focus in class, what are the implications of having two years of being able to do so? For the 14-year-old 9th-grader, what does it mean to be able to be intellectually present in class for half of high school? Two years of learning to cope and manage oneself in school is a large percentage of a child's life. It's not until the end of the story that it's noted that medication has "a valuable role: they buy parents and clinicians time to teach youngsters behavioral strategies to combat inattention and hyperactivity."
3) A psychologist is quoted as saying "If you want something for tomorrow, medication is the best, but if you want something three years from now, it does not matter." This is not a person who sees kids who can't otherwise manage themselves in a school setting, a student for whom getting through "tomorrow" successfully may be a huge triumph. Without those series of triumphant tomorrows where is that student in three years? Not terribly engaged in school is my guess.
Having taught for 30 years now, I know that medicine is not right for every child with a diagnosis of ADHD, but I've known too many students who would never have gotten through school without medicine. At The Nora School, every child is a study of "one," a study for which there is no broad brush. Some of our students have tried medication and have seen no benefit, others could not be in the classroom without it. The key is to know your child, be sensitive to their physical and emotional development, be willing to try a variety of strategies, and be conscious that no strategy will likely last forever. In our ADD society's never-ending quest for the black and white answer to cure whatever ails us, we once again are told a story where the shades of grey are between the lines.

So what to do?

Realizing that my last two posts are pretty depressing, I feel compelled to offer a thought or two about what can be done. I believe that the most important thing we must do is educate both our young women and our young men so that injustice can be challenged whenever and wherever they see it. Unless our young women are unwilling to settle and our young men are willing to support them, the world their grandaughters will grow up in is likely to continue to be unequal, though in ways we can't imagine. Since my daughter has so many more opportunities than my mother had, from going to college to playing sports to choosing a career, I am somewhat optimistic that cultural and societal improvement will continue and spread beyond our borders. Yet I'm also concerned that as a society we're reaping the benefits of the hard work done in the '50's and '60's, and that we take our progress for granted. Without attention and continued efforts by our generation we could too easily lose the gains made.

Girls, redux

The Mommy Blogger has some great articles, including one posted March 8 for International Women's Day. You can read the full blog here, but here are ten sobering facts about how far women have to go:

1. United States: Clearly, Not Ready For A Female President As soon as Hilary Clinton announced she was running for the United States Presidency in 2008, misogyny raised its very ugly head.

2. Western World: Women In Ads Are Still Heavily Objectified Sex sells, and in ads, women are almost always the ones to provide the sexual pleasure.

3. United States: The Scary Statistics Of Rape One out of every six American women have been the victims of an attempted or completed rape in their lifetime. Only 16% of rapes and sexual assaults are reported to the police. Less than half of those arrested for rape are convicted. 21% of convicted rapists are never sentenced to jail or prison time, and 24% spend an average of less than 11 months behind bars.

4. Africa: Three Quarters Of Young Africans Who Are HIV-Positive Are Women Three-quarters of Africans between the ages of 15 and 24 who are HIV-positive are women.

5. United States: Income Gap Won’t Budge According to the U.S. Census Bureau, women make only 75.5 cents for every dollar men earn, even accounting for factors such as occupation, industry, race, marital status and job tenure.

6. Pakistan (and other places): No End In Sight To “Honor” Killings Every day, at least three Pakistani women are murdered by their families in the name of family “honor.” Honor killings are perpetrated for a wide range of offenses. Reported cases include marital infidelity, premarital sex, flirting, seeking a divorce, refusing an arranged marriage, and even failing to serve a meal on time. Being a rape victim can also lead to an honor killing.

7. United States: Women Are Paying More For The Same Health Care Coverage Women pay much more than men of the same age for individual insurance policies providing identical coverage.

8. Kenya (and other places): Female Genital Mutilation Female Genital Mutilation is the removal of part, or all, of the female genitalia. It is practiced throughout the world... Female Genital Mutilation is done to control female sexuality. By reducing sexual desire through making the act painful or removing pleasure, society ensures that its women remain faithful to their partners.

9. United States: Women Athletes Are Ignored Unless They Are Used As Sex Objects Women athletes are underrepresented in all forms of media coverage of sports. Women athletes are presented by the media not as athletes, but as objects of heterosexual desire. The most blatant examples are the Sports Illustrated annual swimsuit issue and the media coverage of women’s beach volleyball.

10. Worldwide: The Feminization Of Poverty Despite the efforts of feminist movements, women still suffer disproportionately, including in Western countries, leading to what sociologist refer to as the “feminization of poverty,” where two out of every three poor adults are women.

Sorry Christina, we'll try to do better. Read the full MomGrind article here.

Girls

In the "Counting Your Blessings" department, I came across this video on girls' education in Taliban controlled Pakistan. In the Swat Valley, an 11-year-old girl is profiled on the last day before the Taliban closed down her school.

Juxtaposed with this sad and disturbing video is another one from the New York Times showing the use of Photoshop in retouching ads and editorial content. What does it mean for our students' self-images when even the models don't look like models?

I'm not sure exactly why I posted these two videos together, except, perhaps, to question whether we're all really living on the same planet. Tough world for women, rich or poor (but tougher if you're poor).

Interesting Articles from the Post

Interesting article in the Post yesterday about the stress on parents from having a child with ADHD. With the headline, however, I though the article would be about my long-suffering wife!

Married, With ADHD
Relationships Suffer Under Stress of Raising Child With Disorder, Study Finds

By Shankar Vedantam

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 3, 2009; Page HE01

For many years, scientists have explored how parental conflicts and other marital problems can affect the well-being of children. Far less attention has been paid to the opposite question: How do children, especially difficult children, influence the quality of married life?

Then there's the article about marriage after the kids are gone (yes, parents, this day WILL come). Some fascinating statistics: in 1880, researchers estimate that 75 percent of couples in the United States had children at home; in 1960 it was around 60 percent; today it's around 46 percent. It was a little sad to read about the 90 year old man who was divorcing his 89 year old wife of 19 years (second marriage for both) because he couldn't see spending the rest of his life with her. The good news is that few women now die in childbirth and few men head off to sea at age 25!

Random nonsense from the web

Optical illusions for a snowy Sunday afternoon.


No, they're not really moving!