STL EDUZONE

This May Upset You My Dear Educator But You May Be OF Better Value to the Child

If you believe that a particular child’s behaviour may be a sign of ADD or ADHD, the first thing to remember is that you are a qualified TEACHER not a qualified Psychologist, Neurologist, Psychiatrist, Occupational Therapist, Social Worker, Physiotherapist,Medical Doctor, Nutritionist etc. On the other hand and in most cases, any one of the afore-mentioned persons can assist you but should do so after consulting a multi-disciplinary team before putting a child on any form of drug or medication. I will stress, a medical doctor alone, for example, cannot diagnose a learning or behavioural problem. It is outside the scope of their practice to deal with any learning, behavioural or mental health problem. A medical doctor or psychiatrist (has never been trained in therapy, for example) who prescribes powerful stimulants for classroom learning is practicing outside their scope of practice. A medical doctor is only qualified to to treat identifiable physical manifestations such as disease. Similarly, psychiatrists need to be able to see physical manifestations of brain disease and work with psychologists,social workers and occupational therapist, for example, before any form of medication is administered.

Learning and Behavioural Problems Are Not Diseases to Be Treated with A Tablet?

Learning and behavioural problems are not diseases and are not bacterial or viral in nature. Classroom problems can sometimes be complex and could be influenced by nutrition (sensitivities, lack of nutrients etc), allergies, environmental problems (water, air, pollution, grass, electricity etc), violence,trauma (sexual abuse, threats, bullying, relationship issues etc), genetic influences, developmental difficulties (born prematurely etc), competitive behaviour, stress and pressure, classroom boredom, educator aggression, educator monotony, dull classrooms, uninspiring content etc.One cannot prescribe a pill to sort out most of these problems!

Think it over many times before you send a parent on a wild goose chase into the arms of unscrupulous people who's only training is often that of a pharmaceutical representative who came to sell the latest new tablet that promises to deal with all the afore-mentioned problems. Remember that a child sitting quietly and "cooperating in class" is a strategy often working for you and not necessarily for the child. Both you and the child often find yourself in unnatural circumstances. The growing child is faced with all the afore-mentioned challenges. You on the other hand are often faced with loads (more than 10 is already a handful - some classes range between 25-60) of children and your own personal issues. Both of you struggle to cope under stressful conditions. Classrooms and their expectations have become toxic and demanding compared to the times of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Curriculums are often overloaded and draining. Your home life and that of the kids in your class have become pressured. The race for daily survival for the human race are at its worse. Under such stressful conditions one can become desperate (and in rare cases sometimes really concerned for the child in question) and call the parents in to calm (read medicate) the child into "being cooperative,less disruptive and calm". Under such conditions, I would say that the education system that we currently have and the lack of professional school based help at district and other government levels have left both of you in the dock. Both of you are struggling to survive in an unnatural environment, unnatural conditions and a stressful world. No wonder we are all of a sudden seeing a pandemic of learners with similar symptoms! Are all of these kids suddenly crazy or diseased that medical doctors, psychiatrist, psychologist, social workers and others are trying to medicate them into being exemplary human beings? I think not?

It simply smacks of desperation when a an army of adults descends on a child, labels them when things go wrong and set out to chemically control them without a hint of insight into personal histories, historical conditions, context and motive. In a country like South Africa, for example, our interesting history of fear, trauma, crime, poor nutrition, uninspiring education material and practice in general etc, are cause for great concern. Faced by these challenges many desperate educators call for medication to control classrooms. Under such conditions, one may even suspect the educator to be totally under-educated to deal with the struggling child. In my experience. most educator training courses, for example have never dealt with remediation or inclusion. How can such an educator claim competence and mastery over a classroom, when all other forms of enquiry is thrown out of the window? And yes, my argument may sound unrealistic or even idealistic. However, we cannot justify enslaving another human being,, especially young children, through labels and drugs and shrug our shoulders and say "well it is the departments fault and they are not paying me enough and they are overworking us". Rather than drug another human being into submission and a possible life of further problems, should one not rather try other means to impress on the powers that be? After all, as parents and educators, we join unions to improve our salaries. Should we not try harder than to improve the lot of children who are struggling in our classrooms?

Think Twice, No Think Many Times...

Please think twice therefore before you become complicit and tick of a very general list of symptoms (that often sound like simple stress reactions in any case) and forward these to any "professional" who does not understand the complexity of human behaviour. You have not signed up to hurt another human being?

I have seen that these symptoms seem to have become the badge of "honor" for many labeled young minds. It has often become a shield and crutch for many a parent, educator and child, in order to justify certain outcomes and conditions. The symptoms to me sound like a crazy and very general list of behavioural manifestations representing a range of possibilities. The list of symptoms often used to diagnose children are "restlessness, inability to concentrate, fidgityness, crying behaviour, disruptiveness, aggression etc".

It is not up to you or any one professional to make ANY sort of diagnosis but you are perfectly entitled to raise questions.

If you do suspect a child has a learning or behavioural disorder, first enquire generally whether the following is in order:

- hearing
- vision

- general medical health

- psychological health

-social problems etc

Although it is the parent’s or caregiver's responsibility for seeing to all of these check-ups, you can support the process. Where there is no support systems, then I say to all other like-minded educators and health professionals out there:

Aluta Continua! Let us speak out together!

Remember – every child operates within unique systems…

- often, it is not the child who is ‘sick’ or ‘at fault’ - the maladaptive behaviour that the child manifests may be his only means of expression indicating poor adaptation to one of the systems in which he/she operates.