This thread flabbergasted me. As a parent of a now 40 year old son who is on permanent disability due to a brain injury induced bi-polarity, and the grandfather of an 8 year old who has ADHD, I am sitting here in absolute amazement at the narrow minded drivel I am reading.
Do some actual research, using accredited sources, before you spout off.

arteacher wrote on 06/27/13 at 05:21:08:


You don't come to the Tall Table often, do you?


--Steve

needimg help/ extra attention is one thing. pumping them full of crap to make sit thru boredom is another

srinath wrote on 06/27/13 at 07:14:16:

It comes down to how much the tax payer is willing to fork over to the educational system. It has been known for decades that the ideal teacher student ratio is 1-10. In our board that would mean doubling (and then some) the number of teachers.
The big push since 1995 has been integration of special needs kids into a regular classroom. It is good for all kids, special needs or not, to do this. However, it is very difficult to teach 25-30 kids at different levels of capability, without extra help in the classroom. Educational assistants cost money, and the boards don't have it. Because they are funded from the general tax pool it becomes a political issue, and it shouldn't be.
Drugs for ADHD kids are a mixed blessing. The up side is-  a kid who is PROPERLY medicated can learn more effectively and is less of a disturbance in the classroom, so all students benefit.
The down side is that you are administering heavy duty drugs to these kids, and the evaluation procedure for identifying them is, in most cases, rudimentary at best. I coached my son and his wife on how to get their ADHD son properly evaluated. (the process takes months), they were coached on how to bring up an ADHD kid (behavior modification techniques), and a psychiatrist, after months of evaluation of the boy, prescribed the PROPER amount of the PROPER medication.
When he was first diagnosed by a GP he was put on Ridilin, and either he would run around the house or classroom like a hyperactive humming bird, or sit in a chair lethargically, depending on when his medication was given.
After the evaluation process, he is now doing very well at school, and behaves like a "normal" kid all the time.
Oh and WD- the regular beatings really helped as well.

And on spanking - I am not really even sure its needed ... and if it works, or makes it worse ... or what. It desensitizes the kid to the point that only spanking works. Everything else is ignored by the kid.

There is plenty of other punishment that is effective. Not spanked doesn't mean undisciplined. My son has never been spanked but he responds very well to all other types of punishment. A "go stand in the corner for what you've done" will elicit a feeble OK followed by bursting into tears a few years ago. Now being 10 1/2 he tends to look very very sad instead of outright tears, he seems to think what he has done, will come out of that stand in the corner session and say something profound about it ... like I know I shoved this badly and spilt it and I'll be careful, but why dont we have this in a plastic cup with a cap on it. We'll go, we dont like teh tatse of plastic. he'd say OK I'll be more careful.
Important to keep kids in the sensitive zone.
Cool.
Srinath.

But midnight - you dont need to spank a kid ... you can have a better effect taking away his ipad and computer.
Much like taking away my cricket bat in the ole country.

Cool.
Srinath.

Midnightrider wrote on 06/27/13 at 12:35:11:



Yea in a way the disciplining has to match the people involved. If my son thinks he can beat up his parents cos we spanked him - my wife will be in the hospital ... cos he can beat her up now.

I dont think he needs to be "handled" at all in any way - but disciplining without physical punishment works right and has the effect we desire it to.

Cool.
Srinath.