Performance Enhancing Drugs in School–From Doug Green
26 OCTOBER 2012 52 NO COMMENT
(A guest post by Dr. Doug Green at http://www.drdouggreen.com/).
With all of the news about Lance Armstrong, who seems to be the poster boy for performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), I think it’s time to look at how this situation impacts schools. School districts in many districts have been testing high school students for a while to see it they are engaged in the kind of cheating that Lance has been accused of. In some districts the testing goes beyond sports to extra curricular activities. You have to wonder what kind of PED’s the chess team is taking. At the same time, we also are hearing outcries about medications given to students so that they can perform better in the classroom. The most common efforts involve prescriptions for drugs like Ritalin and Adderall for children who supposedly have attention deficit disorder, which may also feature hyperactivity or ADHD. The idea is that drugs such as these will help the child focus and sit still. The opposing view that is getting more air today, is that if we can’t change the environment, let’s change the kids. If you listen to Sir Ken Robinson, what we are doing is drugging kids so that they can focus on boring stuff.
In some districts, the results of standardized tests are used to determine which middle school or high