Yesterday's date: April 1, 2013.Yesterday's lead education article: How should we handle homework?Yesterday's lead statistic: ADHD diagnosed in 11 percent of U.S. children.Today's question: Can we connect the dots?
No, this was not an April Fool's question. It's a simple scattergram, a graph of disparate facts and headlines arranged into no particular pattern—until you begin to probe and ponder.
It's possible to see no pattern, like the pictures that are supposed to show two different faces depending on your perspective, but you can never see the second one. From this perspective, the fact that 11 percent of our children have been diagnosed with dysfunctional brains is a shame. How sad that so many fine minds have been damaged by media, bad parenting, toxins, or other unknown causes. How difficult that makes our jobs as educators, as we're forced to contend with inattentive students, outbursts, lack of self-control, and other disruptions to our routine. How are we ever going to get these 11 percent to do their homework?