Eating Our Young
by John Merrow
When the pilot announced that we were making our final approach into Atlanta, I was reading about the shocking increase in ADHD diagnoses among children. That started my head reeling: I was landing in the city that is the poster child for adults cheating (mostly poor) children out of educational opportunities, while I was reading about a man-made epidemic that is drugging (mostly) middle- and upper-middle kids and depriving many of them of opportunities to be–and discover–who they are.
And the longer I thought about it, the more I realized that the two stories are really one, with test score mania being the common element.
Everyone knows about Atlanta, where former superintendent Beverly Hall and 34 other public school employees were just indicted for cheating on 2009 student tests, and face years and years of prison if convicted. They (allegedly) cheated because their jobs and prestige revolved around raising student test scores. More than 34 employees have already admitted guilt. (The report.) Unfortunately, the subsequent debate seems to have devolved into a food fight about testing: “Should we test, or shouldn’t we?” Well, of course we should be testing, but to what end? And with what sort of instruments?
The rise in ADHD diagnoses is “deja vu all over again,” but with a twist. My colleague John Tulenko and I reported this story in 1995 in “ADD: A Dubious Diagnosis?” for PBS. We exposed the greed and venality