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By Caroline Charlston
and
Michael Estreicher
Government 375

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Starting in the early eighties a controversy over school authority arose concerning the school's role in medicating students. Not all children behave as expected in the classroom. Many children acquire the label "problem child" when they act differently from the norm. Many of the children who fall into this category are diagnosed as having ADD/ADHD or Attention Defecit/Hyperactivity Disorder. What should schools do to control the classroom when they are faced with a problem child? There have been many suggestions in dealing with these students such as separate schooling, private tutoring, and counseling, but an increasingly popular solution is medication.

In 1981 the education wonder drug, Ritalin, began being prescribed to students as as an "antenna adjuster for children for children whose brains crackle with static interference as if a dozen stations are coming in on one channel". It was and is used to control the problems that ADD causes in our students (Hancock,1996,52). Should the schools be diagnosing and medicating our children? What is the relation between teachers and school administrations and medical prescriptions. Where does the authority lie?

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Government 375: Educational Reform and Ideology