[acb-hsp] The Only Way to Succeed in Cash-Strapped Schools

[peter altschul]

Shocking: Children Pumped Full of Speed As Only "Realistic" Way 
to Do Well in Cash-Strapped Schools
  Katie J.M.  Baker October 9, 2012
  Doctors are prescribing prescription pills like Adderall to 
low-income kids even if they don't "need" drugs to function 
because it's often the only realistic way to help them do well in 
school.
  "I don't have a whole lot of choice," one doctor who treats 
poor families outside of Atlanta, Georgia, told the New York 
Times.  "We've decided as a society that it's too expensive to 
modify the kid's environment.  So we have to modify the kid."
  It's easy for those of us without kids struggling to succeed in 
inadequate schools to act horrified about the way A.D.HddD 
diagnosis rates are rising as school funding drops -- because it 
stisst horrifying to imagine a bunch of elementary schoolers 
hopped up on speed that's doing god knows what to their little 
brains (well, we know that some reported side effects include 
growth suppression, increased blood pressure and psychotic 
episodes; we'll get to that in a second) -- but it all depends on 
how you measure success.  Is the end goal a perfectly clear blood 
stream or good grades against the odds? Some parents (and 
doctors) would choose the latter.
  "We as a society have been unwilling to invest in very 
effective nonpharmaceutical interventions for these children and 
their families," Dr.  Ramesh Raghavan, a child mental-health 
services researcher at Washington University in St.  Louis and an 
expert in prescription drug use among low-income children, told 
the stTimesst.  "We are effectively forcing local community 
psychiatrists to use the only tool at their disposal, which is 
psychotropic medications."
  The negative effects on the kids in this story, both 
emotionally and physically, are heartbreaking.  "My kids don't 
want to take it, but I told them, `These are your grades when 
you're taking it, this is when you don't1' and they understood," 
said one parent who added that Medicaid covers almost all of her 
prescription costs.  (Too bad they don't cover tutors or therapy 
instead...) And then there's this terrible anecdote about 
11-year-old Quintin, one of five children who take more types of 
pills (Adderall, Risperdal, Clonidine) than the women instValley 
of the Dollsst:
  When puberty's chemical maelstrom began at about 10, though, 
Quintn got into fights at school because, he said, other children 
were insulting his mother.  The problem was, they were not; 
Quintn was seeing people and hearing voices that were not there, 
a rare but recognized side effect of Adderall.  After Quintn 
admitted to being suicidal, Dr.  Anderson prescribed a week in a 
local psychiatric hospital, and a switch to Risperdal.
  After that, Quintn's parents flushed all of their 
pharmaceuticals down the toilet and vowed never to give their 
kids prescription speed ever again.  Just kidding! They actually 
kept giving their 12-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son 
Adderall, to help their grades and because their daughter was "a 
little blah." Her dad acknowledged that this was a "cosmetic" fix 
(I'll say; I've heard better justifications from cokeheads), but 
said, "If they're feeling positive, happy, socializing more, and 
it's helping them, why wouldn't you? Why not?"
  That's exactly how I felt about taking Adderall in college.  
I'd pop one every few months or so, usually during finals if I 
had a long paper to write because Adderall made the process so 
much easier and so much more enjoyable.  Every time I took it, 
I'd eventually get swept up in an inner debate about 
performance-enhancing drugs (made much more intense from said 
drugs, of course): if Adderall was so helpful, why didn't I get 
my own prescription and take it on a more regular basis? Who was 
to say I didn't need it? What did "need" really mean, anyway?
  I never got one, because I hated the way I always eventually 
crashed after an Adderall-fueled writing session -- as productive 
as those were -- and I didn't want to become dependent on 
something I knew was bad for me and that I could do without.  But 
at least I was a 20-year-old adult at the time able to make my 
own decisions, not a little kid with a developing brain.  That's 
exactly what Dr.  William Graf, a pediatrician and child 
neurologist who works with poor families, said he was concerned 
about: the "authenticity of development."
  "These children are still in the developmental phase, and we 
still don't know how these drugs biologically affect the 
developing brain," he told the stTimesst.  "There's an obligation 
for parents, doctors and teachers to respect the authenticity 
issue, and I'm not sure that's always happening."
  But, again, how can we expect parents whose children are 
flailing in deficient schools to prioritize the intangible 
concept of "authentic development" over the quick fix offered by 
drugs like Adderall? Realistically, we can'tddShocking: Children 
Pumped Full of Speed As Only "Realistic" Way to Do Well in 
Cash-Strapped Schools
  Katie J.M.  Baker October 9, 2012
  Doctors are prescribing prescription pills like Adderall to 
low-income kids even if they don't "need" drugs to function 
because it's often the only realistic way to help them do well in 
school.
  "I don't have a whole lot of choice," one doctor who treats 
poor families outside of Atlanta, Georgia, told the New York 
Times.  "We've decided as a society that it's too expensive to 
modify the kid's environment.  So we have to modify the kid."
  It's easy for those of us without kids struggling to succeed in 
inadequate schools to act horrified about the way A.D.HddD 
diagnosis rates are rising as school funding drops -- because it 
stisst horrifying to imagine a bunch of elementary schoolers 
hopped up on speed that's doing god knows what to their little 
brains (well, we know that some reported side effects include 
growth suppression, increased blood pressure and psychotic 
episodes; we'll get to that in a second) -- but it all depends on 
how you measure success.  Is the end goal a perfectly clear blood 
stream or good grades against the odds? Some parents (and 
doctors) would choose the latter.
  "We as a society have been unwilling to invest in very 
effective nonpharmaceutical interventions for these children and 
their families," Dr.  Ramesh Raghavan, a child mental-health 
services researcher at Washington University in St.  Louis and an 
expert in prescription drug use among low-income children, told 
the stTimesst.  "We are effectively forcing local community 
psychiatrists to use the only tool at their disposal, which is 
psychotropic medications."
  The negative effects on the kids in this story, both 
emotionally and physically, are heartbreaking.  "My kids don't 
want to take it, but I told them, `These are your grades when 
you're taking it, this is when you don't1' and they understood," 
said one parent who added that Medicaid covers almost all of her 
prescription costs.  (Too bad they don't cover tutors or therapy 
instead...) And then there's this terrible anecdote about 
11-year-old Quintin, one of five children who take more types of 
pills (Adderall, Risperdal, Clonidine) than the women instValley 
of the Dollsst:
  When puberty's chemical maelstrom began at about 10, though, 
Quintn got into fights at school because, he said, other children 
were insulting his mother.  The problem was, they were not; 
Quintn was seeing people and hearing voices that were not there, 
a rare but recognized side effect of Adderall.  After Quintn 
admitted to being suicidal, Dr.  Anderson prescribed a week in a 
local psychiatric hospital, and a switch to Risperdal.
  After that, Quintn's parents flushed all of their 
pharmaceuticals down the toilet and vowed never to give their 
kids prescription speed ever again.  Just kidding! They actually 
kept giving their 12-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son 
Adderall, to help their grades and because their daughter was "a 
little blah." Her dad acknowledged that this was a "cosmetic" fix 
(I'll say; I've heard better justifications from cokeheads), but 
said, "If they're feeling positive, happy, socializing more, and 
it's helping them, why wouldn't you? Why not?"
  That's exactly how I felt about taking Adderall in college.  
I'd pop one every few months or so, usually during finals if I 
had a long paper to write because Adderall made the process so 
much easier and so much more enjoyable.  Every time I took it, 
I'd eventually get swept up in an inner debate about 
performance-enhancing drugs (made much more intense from said 
drugs, of course): if Adderall was so helpful, why didn't I get 
my own prescription and take it on a more regular basis? Who was 
to say I didn't need it? What did "need" really mean, anyway?
  I never got one, because I hated the way I always eventually 
crashed after an Adderall-fueled writing session -- as productive 
as those were -- and I didn't want to become dependent on 
something I knew was bad for me and that I could do without.  But 
at least I was a 20-year-old adult at the time able to make my 
own decisions, not a little kid with a developing brain.  That's 
exactly what Dr.  William Graf, a pediatrician and child 
neurologist who works with poor families, said he was concerned 
about: the "authenticity of development."
  "These children are still in the developmental phase, and we 
still don't know how these drugs biologically affect the 
developing brain," he told the stTimesst.  "There's an obligation 
for parents, doctors and teachers to respect the authenticity 
issue, and I'm not sure that's always happening."
  But, again, how can we expect parents whose children are 
flailing in deficient schools to prioritize the intangible 
concept of "authentic development" over the quick fix offered by 
drugs like Adderall? Realistically, we can't.