re: What Did Men Do to Deserve This? (Another take on the so-called man/boy crisis)

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Now are the foot soldiers doing the shooting to blame for following orders?

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Are we operating as if parents and students unquestioningly obey teachers now?

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For my generation Ritalin was the drug of choice.

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I think we're pretty close in age. I was diagnosed with ADD when I was 3 or 4 in the late 80s because I was super hyper. I took Ritalin for maybe a week before my parent decided it altered my behavior too much and took me off. I still have a hard time sitting still and I get bored easily. I know I'm an anomaly though because girls weren't really diagnosed with ADHD at significant rates back then.

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But in general could you possibly admit that this is one example of a male dominated problem?

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Over-medicating kids? I can agree that this affects boys at higher rates than girls. Medicalizing behavior problems negatively impacts boys at higher rates than girls. We saw an explosion in ADHD diagnoses after NCLB. If the teachers were to blame and not the legislation, we wouldn't have seen such a sharp increases in medicating students after this legislation passed. Why weren't teachers pushing these students toward medication before NCLB if it is truly a teacher problem?

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That specifically is exasperated by the lack of male teachers?

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After NCLB, unstructured time at school has dramatically decreased or sometimes has been totally eliminated.


IMO, expecting kids to sit still all day without unstructured play time negatively impacts their behavior more than having a woman teacher.

ETA just to be clear, I do think all kids, but particularly boys, would benefit immensely from more male teachers.