NYC Public School Parents: Stephen Colbert on medicating kids rather than providing them with the resources -- and smaller classes -- that they need

NYC Public School Parents: Stephen Colbert on medicating kids rather than providing them with the resources -- and smaller classes -- that they need:

Stephen Colbert on medicating kids rather than providing them with the resources -- and smaller classes -- that they need

by Leonie Haimson

On Tuesday, there was a stunning article in the NY Times by Alan Schwarz, showing how many doctors are prescribing amphetamines to children, not because they have ADHD, but to try to counteract the inadequate conditions in their schools:

“I don’t have a whole lot of choice,” said Dr. Anderson, a pediatrician for many poor families in Cherokee County, north of Atlanta. “We’ve decided as a society that it’s too expensive to modify the kid’s environment. So we have to modify the kid.”  ...

The superintendent of one major school district in California, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, noted that diagnosis rates of A.D.H.D. have risen as sharply as school funding has declined.

“It’s scary to think that this is what we’ve come to; how not funding public education to meet the