Several years ago, I had a high school student who was progressing steadily, always read my lesson notes, and was consistently prepared for lessons.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered he was diagnosed with severe ADHD at school and about to go on medication.
I expressed my surprise to his mom. In fact, I said, “If he has ADHD, I must have it, too.”
Apparently the issue was that he struggled taking tests and finishing them on time.
I found myself thinking, This isn’t a focus problem. This is a test-taking problem. After all, when did we decide that the only way to assess whether someone learned something is to have them write it all down on a piece of paper?
And that this form of assessment would work for everyone?
It gets worse, though. More and more students are diagnosed with attention disorders every year. And the drugs prescribed cause side effects that cause problems worse than the attention issues.
I don’t think the problem is focus. I believe the problem is that we have forgotten that focus is a skill. And we also forget to check that the things kids need to focus on is worth focusing on at all.
After all, does a child deserve to be diagnosed with a focus disorder if half his teachers are boring as !@#$?
There are also the basics we forget to cover in our insanely busy world. Are kids getting enough sleep? Do they have time to unwind on a daily basis? Are they actually putting some kind of time into self care?
In his controversial book The Collapse of Parenting, Leonard Sax writes that we have reached a point where doctors would rather diagnose a child with a disorder than have an uncomfortable conversation with a parent.
Would rather prescribe drugs than tell a mom she needs to get her kid to sleep earlier or pull her out of a couple of activities.
I’ve always found it interesting when piano students are placed on medication before trying something a bit more natural, like meditation.
There is no question that some children need medication. Sometimes they are true disorders. Sometimes it’s the only way.
But medication needs to be the last resort.
Not the first solution.