The Daily Riff - BE SMARTER. ABOUT EDUCATION.

It seems not a week goes by without another conversation with a parent about the struggle
with decisions related to ADHD.  A must-read Room for Debate: "Are Americans More Prone to A.D.H.D.?"  Too many interesting angles from the five contributors. Here is one from Ethan Watters, author of "Crazy Like Us: The Globablization of the American Psyche:"

"What are the currents in our time that might be causing an upwelling of psychopathology? With a nod to the work of Sami Timimi from Lincoln University, here's a short list: There's a particularly Western style of anxious parenting with
high expectations for achievement and assumptions that sex differences should
be meaningless in terms of behavior. There is the juxtaposition of traditional school activities with the modern tsunami of flickering electronic distractions. There is the virtual demise of the extended family and connections to deeply rooted communities. There's the rise of diets with increasing levels of sugar, fats and salts. There is the decline in exercise and the domestication - the penning - of children in ever smaller and more elaborately padded artificial environments. I could go on."

Comments are also worth the read - - - let us know what you think.

- CJW

Related The Daily Riff:

Sir Ken Robinson: "Changing the Education Paradigm" Video w/ADHD map

Let's Raise Our Kids to be Entrepreneurs  (ADHD speaker)

Ritalin or Recess?  Are Schools Promoting the Use of Drugs?

ADHD? Or, Too Young for School?