I Haven't Seen it, Therefore it Does Not Exist

ABNORMAL PSYCHICAL CONDITIONS IN CHILDREN

ADHD is real. The fact that it first appeared in the DSM in 1968 doesn't mean it was somehow invented out of thin air. It has been identified, though called by other names, as far back as the 18th century. Modern names (post 1900) include "minimal brain damage", "minimal brain dysfunction", "hyperkinetic impulse disorder", and "learning/behavioral disabilities."

Interview: Russell Barkley

...there is no controversy among practicing scientists who have devoted their careers to this disorder. No scientific meetings mention any controversies about the disorder, about its validity as a disorder, about the usefulness of using stimulant medications like Ritalin for it. There simply is no controversy. The science speaks for itself. And the science is overwhelming that the answer to these questions is in the affirmative: it's a real disorder; it's valid; and it can be managed...

RESTRICTIVE DIAGNOSIS

The DSM-5 is very clear. Normal, age-appropriate inattentiveness or activity does not mean that a child is ADHD. In order to correctly diagnose ADHD symptoms must...

...have been present for at least 6 months, and they are inappropriate for developmental level...

Inappropriate for developmental level means that the average child's normal impulsiveness, distractibility, and restlessness are not criteria for a diagnosis of ADHD.

Additionally, the condition must be present in more than one area (for example, home AND school), and other conditions, such as childhood depression, must be ruled out first. The condition must also create "significant" life issues in those two (or more) areas. A child who is "very active" but has no problems related to his "activity" should not be diagnosed with ADHD.

MIS-DIAGNOSIS?  OVER-DIAGNOSIS?

In his blog post, Is ADHD A Fraud?, teacher Tom does not come out and deny that ADHD is a real condition, but he doesn't acknowledge that it's real either.

I'm not a psychiatrist, but I know the symptoms (inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity) and I can honestly say that of the hundreds of children that have passed my way over the past couple decades, I've never met one upon whom I would hang that label.

Now, I admit to be completely unqualified to make that diagnosis, but you would think that by now I would have run across at least one child who set off my alarm bells. Or perhaps there is something about our school that attracts non-ADHD kids, or maybe I'm looking right at the symptoms and just see normal behavior, or it could be that the folks performing the diagnoses are wrong more often than they are right.

Is ADHD over- and mis- diagnosed? Very likely, but that doesn't mean that the condition doesn't exist. As Teacher Tom said, he's not qualified to answer that question.

A German study found that most diagnoses do not meet the DSM criteria for ADHD. The study also found that, given the same symptoms, boys were diagnosed with ADHD more than girls.

Do these erroneous diagnoses mean that the condition does not exist? Diagnosing ADHD isn't easy. The idea of what constitutes appropriate developmental behavior is not as easy as looking at an x-ray to identify a broken bone. But, the difficulty of the diagnosis is, by itself, not sufficient to deny that the condition exists. The anecdotal fact that Teacher Tom never "ran across" an actual case of ADHD as a teacher for several decades might be unusual, but it doesn't mean that the condition is non-existent.

He suggests the possibility that the condition was created by "big pharma" in order to increase profits. It's true that the over-diagnosis of the condition might be a product of pharmaceutical salesmen putting ideas in doctors' heads about how easy it is to "treat" the condition, but since the condition has been identified for more than 2 centuries, making the claim that it was created in order to cash in is questionable (I also expect that many doctors would object to being characterized as that easily swayed by pharmaceutical salesmen).

Is ADHD Overdiagnosed or Underdiagnosed? Looking at Evidence.

The problem with misdiagnosis is that it undermines the legitimate condition that is ADHD. Some people that are severely affected by this condition may be overlooked and/or not properly treated. Some would argue that the most successful individuals with ADHD tend to be those who find ways to cope with and manage the symptoms on their own.

Although there are drawbacks associated with ADHD, some people are able to channel their hyperactivity towards being productive. Keep in mind that there are many different types of ADHD that a person could be dealing with. According to the DSM-5 there are 3 types, but according to others there are 7 types. Therefore individuals that don’t know much about this subject may be prone to making a misdiagnosis.

ON THE OTHER HAND...

All that being said, Teacher Tom is right about several things. First, journalist Thom Hartman has written about the evolutionary aspects of ADHD...and why the condition is, in his opinion, not a disorder. Hartman makes a good argument, and I agree that the possibility exists that the condition is more a product of civilization than an inherent disorder. [Unfortunately, we live in a society built upon certain social norms. The societal conditions which combine to make ADHD a "disorder" must be considered. This, however, is a conversation for another time. Please see Hartman's work...]

Teacher Tom is also correct in implying that the problem "belongs" to the adults. It's our job as teachers to accommodate our students, not vice versa. ADHD, is real, but teachers shouldn't use it as an excuse to ignore a child's academic, social, and emotional needs.

On the other hand, denying the existence of the condition – or in Teacher Tom's case, a "denial-not-denial" – isn't helpful. Neither is blaming it on inferior teachers or schools, which he does as well.

Traditional schools emphasize paying attention, sitting still, and concentrating on one thing at a time and children who struggle with that simply show up as a problem. I mean, that's tough for any kid, let alone one with a highly energetic brain and body. In contrast, when we don't place those artificial expectations on kids, like in a play-based curriculum, the "problem" disappears.

and

I suspect that for the most part, ADHD is mental health disorder that largely only exists under certain, unnatural circumstances, namely in traditional schools...

Essentially, he's saying, "I haven't seen ADHD because my school and the way I teach is the 'right' way, and other people, who are doing it wrong, are 'creating' the condition by their unnatural circumstances and inferior teaching." Unfortunately, the fact is that even in developmentally appropriate school conditions, ADHD doesn't "disappear."

Let me be very clear...

I agree that a play-based curriculum is developmentally appropriate and preferable for pre-schoolers and kindergarten.

Adults are responsible for creating a learning environment which fits children's needs, not the other way around. Forcing children to accommodate adult preferences is counter productive to educational progress. It's up to us to accommodate ourselves to our students' learning needs.

ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS

However, Teacher Tom's statement indicates that he really doesn't understand what an ADHD diagnosis is. Perhaps that's why he hasn't seen it in his years of teaching. Check out the diagnostic criteria again. Read carefully...

Notice first, the DSM-5 requires that the behaviors in question are inappropriate to the development of the child. It would be (and is) completely appropriate for children attending pre-schools in which they were forced to sit still for long periods of time, be unable to concentrate, to fidget, and to act out. The same is true for schools which require long periods of sitting in kindergarten and primary grades. Developmentally appropriate means that the developmental age and needs of children are taken into consideration when a curriculum and means of delivery are chosen.

Second, the DSM-5 is very clear in its requirement that ADHD symptoms must be present in two or more settings. As a teacher, he wouldn't be able to diagnose a child with ADHD because he is, most likely, with his students in only one setting - the school. That's why an accurate and complete diagnosis requires input from teachers, parents, and others who have contact with the child. Neither should doctors diagnose children just on the parent's say-so.

Third, the behaviors must interfere with a child's functioning. They must "get in the way" of a child's learning, or social development. If they don't, then the diagnosis of ADHD can not be made.

COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS

Teacher Tom seems to accept common misconceptions about ADHD. Not every child who runs around yelling has ADHD. Not every child who is distractible has ADHD. A true diagnosis of ADHD is not easy to make, and shouldn't be made on the basis of seeing a few symptoms and then slapping a label on a child. Like any other medical diagnosis, ADHD must be done carefully and by experienced professionals. Unfortunately, there are many cases where care is not taken and undiagnosed or untreated ADHD can result in emotional and academic damage which can last a lifetime.

The problem with misdiagnosis is that it undermines the legitimate condition that is ADHD.

ADHD exists, whether Teacher Tom has seen evidence of it or not. And, like other conditions affecting children in school (e.g. poverty, divorce), ADHD affects every aspect of a child's life. It must be considered when creating a child's educational program. Ignoring it, or claiming ADHD doesn't exist – even with the half-hearted qualifiers that Teacher Tom included in his piece – is irresponsible.

This is a revisit of a topic I wrote about in a post titled, The Task of Your Life.

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2017 Medley #23

De-Professionalizing Teachers,
Anti-Intellectualism, Vouchers,
The Destruction of Public Education in Indianapolis

DE-PROFESSIONALIZING TEACHERS

The Many Ways We Are De-Professionalizing Teaching

De-professionalizing teaching is just one front of the war on public education. Nancy Flanagan addresses the confusion of privatizers claiming that becoming a teacher is too easy through the traditional routes...colleges and university schools of education. She talks about the difficulty of the new Florida test that teachers must pass in order to become a licensed teacher...and then goes on to remind us that the same privatizers want to allow anyone to teach in private and charter schools...easier paths to teaching.

Here in Indiana, for example, the EdTPA which pre-service teachers must complete, requires intense attention to, and hours of investment in, teaching and planning lessons...and at the same time, REPA III allows anyone with a content area degree to start teaching in a high school with no experience in actual teaching.

The point? De-professionalize teaching. End the existence of the career teacher who has the best interest of the students at heart. Instead, fill classrooms with idealistic young college graduates on their way up the corporate ladder, who don't really know anything about teaching and will accept minimal pay for parroting direct teaching scripts...and who will leave after two years, thereby making room for other minimal pay teachers.

Drive out the career oriented teachers by making the requirements for teaching onerous and expensive. Bring in the unqualified and inexperienced who won't ask for benefits or pensions.

The policy goal here is de-professionalizing teaching, establishing it once and for all as a short-term, entry-level technical job designed to attract a revolving door of "community-minded" candidates, who will work diligently for cheap, then get out because they can't support a family or buy a home on a teacher's salary.

Emphasis on the word cheap. This is about profit and control, not improving education.

In addition to shutting out promising candidates by stringent testing or changing policy to allow virtually anyone with a college degree in the classroom, policymakers, spurred by ALEC and a host of education nonprofits, are also de-professionalizing by:

• Messing with pension, retirement and insurance packages to encourage young teachers to move in and quickly out of a job that has no financial future.
• Bringing community-based artists, musicians, sports trainers and library aides into classrooms that used to be staffed by certified teachers.
• Confiscating teachers' professional work--instruction, curriculum, assessment, collegial mentoring, etc. Decisions that were once a teacher's prerogative are now outsourced to canned curricula designed to raise test scores, or standardized assessments that don't take knowledge of students and their context into consideration. Who should determine the curricular frameworks, design lessons and set goals for students? Teachers and school leaders who know the students and community where they work? Or a Gates-funded, agenda-driven organization?
• Defunding the schools where the vast majority of professionally prepared teachers are working.
• Borrowing from the success universities have had, by designing "part-time" jobs (think: K-12 "adjuncts") with pro-rated benefit packages, a lure to get good teaching for even less money than base pay.

Do You Think Every Child Deserves a Qualified Teacher?

New York is considering allowing anyone to teach...because, after all, it really doesn't require any special skill set to stand up in front of a class of 30 kids and drill them on test prep materials.

The charter school committee of the State University of New York will soon decide whether charter schools will be allowed to hire uncertified teachers.

Forbes Says 18 Dumb Things

The Forbes article, Teacher Certification Makes Public School Education Worse, Not Better, by University of Chicago Law Professor, Omri Ben Shahar, announces that certified teachers are actually a detriment to our education system.

Peter Greene takes him to task on 18 of his statements which make no sense...to someone with any K-12 teaching experience, that is. Before you read Greene's breakdown of Bar Shahar's ignorant pontificating on a subject he knows nothing about, consider this...

Ben Shahar has three law degrees and two economics degrees. He's spent his more than 20 year professional career working in higher education as a professor of law and economics. One look at his CV gives one a picture of a man who has spent decades perfecting his understanding of economics and law.

But nowhere in his experience has he spent time living and working with K-12 students and teachers. His claim that teacher certification makes public school education worse, is based on standardized test scores. One wonders if he would allow himself to be judged by the bar exam success rate of his students. He wrote...

...America has excellent higher education. Yet primary and secondary school students have long performed poorly on tests compared with students from many industrialized countries.

His understanding of what goes on in a traditional public school is based on what? His own experience? His children's experience? What he reads in the media? It seems obvious that he based his entire argument on the fact that "many industrialized countries" have higher test scores than we do. The very fact that he uses test scores as the measure of K-12 public education success or failure underscores his ignorance. There are several reasons why the average test scores of American students are below those of some other OECD nations...and none of them have to do with teacher certification.

For example...

• We educate everyone, most other countries do not.

• The U.S. poverty rate is one of the highest among developed countries. Poverty has a negative impact on test scores. Therefore our average test scores are lower.

• Poverty has an impact on students' achievement because of out-of-school-factors related to their environment and limited opportunities based on racial and economic segregation. Those out-of-school-factors affect test scores.

In other words, if you want to compare the achievement of America's public school students to students in other countries, standardized test scores are probably the worst way to do it.

When Bar Shahar can match my 40 plus years of experience as a paraprofessional, teacher, and volunteer in K-12 schools, then I'll listen to his reasons why teacher certification doesn't work...

This is the final line of the article, and nothing in it has been proven in any of the lines that came before. Great teachers are somehow born and not made, and they alone can fix everything, and they are apparently distributed randomly throughout the population. Somehow by lowering standards, lowering pay, destabilizing pay, and removing job security, we will attract more of them and flush them out.

That's 18 dumb things in one short article. I suppose Forbes could get better articles if they paid less and let anybody write for them.

ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM IN AMERICA

Elevating Ignorance

It seems to be a source pride among some Americans, to be ignorant.

• Trump loves the poorly educated.

• "Someone has to stand up to these experts..."

• The Majority of Republicans Think Colleges Are Bad For The U.S.

It's irrational.

What is worth thinking about, however, is what has been termed “America’s Cult of Ignorance.” An article addressing that issue began with my favorite Isaac Asimov quote:

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”

VOUCHERS DON'T WORK, BUT THAT DOESN'T MATTER

Indiana Legislators Don’t Care About Negative Results of Vouchers

Here are some reasons that Indiana's legislators don't care about the negative results of vouchers.

• Money.

• Religion.

• Politics (anti-union)

• Power.

Legislators don’t care. They want to send more money away from public schools. The results don’t matter. They have stopped claiming that vouchers will “save” poor kids from failing schools. No one was saved.

They don’t care. They want to do harm to the schools that enroll the vast majority of students.

Why? I don’t know. What do you think can explain their determination to throw more money into vouchers now that they know they are ineffective?

Betsy DeVos Is Not My Secretary of Education

There's no academic reason for vouchers. Politicians and policy makers ought to quit pretending that they're pushing the privatization of public education "for children."

Then there is DeVos’s promotion of tax cuts for the wealthy under the guise of vouchers. Vouchers are another avenue for school choice. Students take the money allotted to educate them in a public school and move it to a private school in the form of a scholarship. Yet even voucher supporters must reckon with research showing vouchers don’t work. If the most recent studies show that vouchers don’t work, how does that create equity for our students? If equity isn’t the goal, then why the need to pretend we need vouchers for our most marginalized families?

INDIANAPOLIS: THE "DESTROY PUBLIC EDUCATION" (DPE) MOVEMENT

A MUST READ! Think National, Fight Local: The Story of Indianapolis and the DPE (Destroy Public Education) Movement

This excellent post by Diane Ravitch explains how the Indianapolis public schools are being destroyed and privatized. The quote below is from a commenter...

Comment from "Retiredteacher

Privatization is like a creeping virus that slowing erodes the immune system and the ability to fight the infection. We have seen similar patterns at work in numerous cities. Privatization is the result of collusion between the local government and a variety of foundations backed by dark money, and it is supported by members of both major political parties. Supporters of public education must organize to fight back in the media, the courts and the voting booths. We should remind people that no system of privatization has ever solved society’s problems. The big byproducts of privatization are destruction of public education, increased misuse of local tax dollars, loss of democratic power, and increased segregation. Privatization is a massive shift of wealth from the working class to the wealthy.

Recognized charter school shuts down two Indianapolis locations

The last sentence below clearly states the bottom-line for charter schools...

According to charter school admission documents, the Shadeland Carpe Diem's funding was composed of the following:

$245,000 Philanthropic Donation
$90,000 Federal Start-up funds (1st year)
$240,000 Federal Start-up funds (2nd year)
$240,000 Federal Start-up funds (2nd year)
The charter also gets $500/student from the Charter School Grant Fund. (This is a property tax replacement fund. Charter schools do not get property tax dollars.)

Like Indiana public schools, the Charter also received funds from the Common School Loan Program.

"In retrospect, it was really too fast, too soon," said Carpe Diem Board President Jason Bearce. "We just weren't able to get the enrollment to make the budget balance."

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I Lift My Lamp

Emma Lazarus, born on this day in 1849...

After returning from Europe, Lazarus was asked for an original poem to be auctioned off as a fundraiser for the building of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. Though she initially declined, Lazarus later used the opportunity to express the plight of refugee immigrants, who she cared greatly about. Her resulting sonnet, "The New Colossus", includes the iconic lines “Give me your tired, your poor / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," and is inscribed on a plaque on the pedestal of the monument.

"The New Colossus"

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

– Emma Lazarus, 1883

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Listen to This #9

THE BEST IN THE WORLD

Sometimes They’re Right

America's public schools are not "failing." However, that doesn't mean that they can't improve. After reminding us how the nation's public schools are the best in the world, Rob Miller goes on to remind us that many criticisms of public education are true. It's up to us to make public education the "unequivocal BEST choice for America’s children."

From Rob Miller

...public education is an absolute right for every child in America, not just the privileged. No other school system anywhere in the world exceeds the United States in providing free access to education for everyone. And that, alone, makes us exceptional.

CHOICE

I got to choose private schools, but will vouchers really help other kids make it?

Indiana's voucher program began as a way to "save poor children from 'failing' schools." It was restricted by income, and parents had to try the public schools before they could get a voucher to send their child to a private school. It didn't matter that it was the state, not the schools that was "failing" the students. All that mattered was that privatizers rationalize a way to give tax money to private schools and churches.

Once it was clear that private and parochial education didn't provide better services for poor children, the argument changed.

The voucher program has been expanded to include middle class students, and students who have never set foot in public schools. Public dollars are being used to pay for religious instruction.

The call is now for "choice." There's no attempt to claim that private and parochial schools are better. The entire reason for the voucher program is now "choice."

From Emmanuel Felton in The Hechinger Report

School choice by its very nature uproots its customers from their communities, increasing the proportion of Americans without any stake in what’s going on in public schools, the schools that will always serve the children most in need of attention.

GRADING SCHOOLS IN INDIANA

Board members favor counting test scores more than growth

From Christopher Tienken quoted by Steve Hinnefeld

Whether you’re trying to measure proficiency or growth, standardized tests are not the answer...

ESSA INDIANA

Diploma rule a setback for Indiana schools, students

Federal law requires that students with special needs have an IEP, an Individual Education Plan. It's required that the IEP describe a modified program appropriate to the student. Yet, now we find that the same Federal laws which require those accommodations for special needs students, requires that they, along with their teachers and schools, be punished for those accommodations.

Since charter schools and schools accepting vouchers enroll fewer special needs students than public schools, it is the "grade" of the public schools which will suffer because of this loathsome and abusive practice. It is the students who were told what they needed to do, and who did it, who will be told, "your diploma doesn't really count."

From Steve Hinnefeld

...students who struggle to earn the general diploma and likely wouldn’t complete a more rigorous course of study, the change seems to send a message that their efforts aren’t good enough. About 30 percent of students who earn a general diploma are special-needs students.

TRUMP-DEVOS

After Six Months, What Has Trump-DeVos Department of Education Accomplished?

The sooner this administration is history, the better.

From Jan Resseger

To summarize—Betsy DeVos has said she intends to “neutralize” the Office of Civil Rights, which can only be interpreted as weakening its role. DeVos is delaying rules to protect borrowers who have been defrauded by unscrupulous for-profit colleges. While DeVos promotes school accountability through parental school choice, her staff are busy demanding continued test-and-punish accountability from the states. And finally, the D.C. voucher program remains the only federally funded tuition voucher program, despite that DeVos has declared the expansion of several kinds of school vouchers to be her priority.

DEVOS ON SPECIAL EDUCATION

The deep irony in Betsy DeVos’s first speech on special education

From Valerie Strauss, in the Answer Sheet

We should celebrate the fact that unlike some countries in the world, the United States makes promises that we will never send any student away from our schools. Our commitment is to educate every student. Period. It’s but one of America’s many compelling attributes.

The irony in this statement is that it is the traditional public education system in the United States that promises a free and appropriate education for all students. There is no question that many traditional public schools don’t meet this promise, but the goal is aspirational and seen as a public good. And it is the traditional U.S. public education system that DeVos has labeled a “dead end” and a “monopoly,” while the alternatives to these traditional public school districts that she promotes don’t make the same promise.

PUNISHING THIRD GRADERS

FL: Third Grade Readers Lose

The attack on public education, and on eight year old children in particular, continues. Florida uses a "third grade reading test" that students must pass, else they face retention in grade. Just like Indiana...
Just like Ohio...
Just like Mississippi...
and Oklahoma...
and Arizona...
and Connecticut...
California...
Michigan...

Another abusive "learn or be punished" policy.

From Peter Greene in Curmudgucation

What sucks more is that the final outcome maintains Florida's power to flunk any third grader who refuses to take the test, regardless of any other academic indicators. In fact, the whole mess of a ruling would seem to suggest that Florida intends to ignore the part of ESSA that explicitly recognizes parental rights to opt out.

...the state had to explicitly declare that it doesn't believe in the grades on report cards and that it values test-taking compliance above all else AND that it fully intends to ignore the opt-out portion of ESSA. So the face of education policy continues to be ugly, but at least they were required to show it without any mask or make-up.

TEACHER SHORTAGE: PAY

Teacher Pay Penalty Driving Educators Away From Profession

8 steps to destroy public education...

1. Schools are labeled "failing."
2. Teachers are demonized for not raising test scores.
3. Tax money is diverted to private and charter schools creating a public school funding crisis.
4. Funding crises yields a drop in teacher salaries.
5. Fewer young people choose a career in education creating a teacher shortage.
6. Fewer teachers means larger class sizes.
7. Larger class sizes means lowered achievement, especially for poor students.
8. Lowered achievement means more schools will be labeled "failing."

This quote deals with step 5 in the process.

From Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute.

“We are moving into a world where fewer people are trying to enter teaching, in part because the profession has been degraded by misguided accountability measures and also because of the erosion of pay,” says Mishel.

TEACHERS UNION

Blaming Unions for Bad Schools

From Walt Gardner

It's so easy to scapegoat teachers' unions for all the ills afflicting public schools ("State of the Teachers Union," The Wall Street Journal, Jul. 6). The charge is that they are more interested in protecting teachers than in teaching students ("This is what teachers unions really protect," New York Post, Jul. 6). Critics point to the success of charter schools, which are overwhelmingly non-union, as evidence.

But what these critics don't admit is that states like Massachusetts and Minnesota, which have strong teachers unions, also post high test scores. Is that merely a coincidence or is it evidence that the critics are wrong? (Correlation is not causation.) Moreover, not all charter schools post positive results by any means.

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