john holt

Jun

2024

Are Schools Pushing Drugs?

Another Reason for Home Schooling Your Children

I’ve heard this story for years from others. A niece of ours felt she had to put her son on some ADHD drug.

A tiny bit of background. She will feed him Fruit Loops cereal for breakfast.

Fruit Loops: Additives:

Natural Flavours: When unspecified this is usually something like MSG which can be very damaging.

Red 40: synthetic food dye, very toxic and linked to hyperactivity in children. (Banned in several countries)

Blue 1: Synthetic food dye. Linked to allergies and hyperactivity

Yellow 6: Cancer and hyperactivity

BHT: (Butylated Hydroxytoluene) synthetic preservative linked to cancer and other health problems.

Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil: high in trans fats - linked to heart disease.

So, you feed your kid something that causes hyperactivity or so called ‘ADHD’. And then … you have to give him drugs to counter the chemicals in the food.

Another part of the problem is that no young boy should be asked to sit still in a classroom for hours at a time.

All that said, though, why would a teacher or school faculty member have anything to say about administering drugs to a child in their care. But that has been going on for some time, I think.

This young man, if he acted up at school, it would initiate a call from someone at the school to momma. Saying that he was being difficult or over-emotional or some such. The cause of this they would blame on the fact that he hadn’t taken his pill or it wasn’t strong enough or he needed a different one or… etc.

The medical industry, which includes psychiatrists, is trained on the basis of ‘symptom - pill’, ‘symptom - pill’. What pill should be used for what symptom? This has long since filtered down into public schools in the USA and Canada. Health nurses in schools then even teachers are weighing in and judging whether a child should be on some anti anxiety or ADHD drug.

This has been going on for quite some years.

A close relative who is a doctor in a fairly upscale town, told me a story about an doctor/acquaintance. This goes back about 20-25 years. This friend of his, a doctor, moved into the town. Set up practice. He was of a mind that he didn’t want to hand out drugs willy-nillly. A patient would come in with a cold. Doctor tells him or her that the cold will be gone in 10 days whether or not they are taking a drug for it. Patient didn’t want to hear it. “Just gimme the drug!” Within a year this doctor packed up and left. The patients just wanted their pills. They would see the advertising on the Television and tell the doctor what they wanted.

It’s much worse now. So many people feel they are educated on the subject of symptoms and drugs from watching the pharmaceutical ads on TV.

So, why would you send your kid to a bunch of drug pushers. (read: public schools)

Another major issue with putting your kid on an ADHD drugs or something similar is that once they reach adulthood they are going to switch to some other drug. This is a very real situation, particularly with Ritalin. Do your own research. Don’t just listen to doctors or school staff. Ask questions.

Your child’s brain is developing until they are 25. Life is tough enough - why make it more difficult.

The beauty of home schooling is that your child can learn in a couple of hours a day, much more than he or she does sitting in a classroom for 6-8 hours. There are dozens of homeschooling resources online and elsewhere. It has become much more ‘mainstream’ than it was 30-40 years ago.

The Classical Learner (https://classicallearner.com/) is a great one. There are many more though. The whole homeschooling thing has been growing like mad the last few years.

There are those wanting to make the education of their kids way too complicated. Kids want to learn. Biggest thing I found is to just put interesting stuff in front of them and stand back.

If you are nervous about the subject and want read a couple of books, I would suggest pretty much anything by John Taylor Gatto or John Holt. Gatto was a teacher in some of the rougher parts of New York City for 30 years. Got awards and everything.

If you got this far and have read this article, then you are at least curious about alternatives to public schooling. Please take a minute and look through some of my other articles.

Jan

2024

Play and Homeschooling – What fun!

The Importance of Play

I’ve read recently a number of books on home schooling, education and also some references on exercise. With these and other references, there is a definite stress on the subject of ‘Play’. And the importance of just having fun in what you are doing.

I just finished reading The 5 Hour School Week by Aleena Amuchastegui. A pretty good sales pitch on home schooling. Already sold on the subject long since, I’ve been availing myself of some more recent texts on the subject. Including a more recent one by John Taylor Gatto.

And there is some interesting information has come to light recently regarding the dangers? of exercising in a less than light mood. Well, not ‘dangers’ exactly but … Apparently the stress of exercising while ‘serious’ is not nearly as effective as when one is treating like it play.

I’ve often used exercise to lift myself out of some rather serious moments in my life. That said, I DO find ‘play’ is a much better way to do study, exercise or just do life.

In the book, 5 Hour School Week, the author shows how her children changed so much being home schooled. All the stresses weighing the family down seemed to lift, just fly away. It was still work but the children were learning because they wanted to not because they had to.

These children will never need Ritalin or any mood altering drugs. I don’t know what the stats are on home schooled kids vs. industrial schooled kids regarding drugs like Ritalin but I’d put money on the fact that it is pretty rare with home schoolers.

One, they don’t have the stresses and two, they don’t have a staff trained to watch for certain indications that, in their minds would warrant the prescribing of a mood altering drug.

I’m a huge proponent of home schooling. I have two sons that were mostly home schooled. All the arguments against these two men, just don’t stand up to the results. And this goes by far for the majority of home schooled kids.

Social Skills or Relationships

They generally have better social skills than most industrial educated kids. Lots of reasons, one being that they generally have social intercourse with more different age groups. I noticed that my youngest was more than comfortable at a very young age keeping up a conversation with an adult. And fine with kids his own age.

Parents Qualifications

There is no shortage of websites, blogs, and groups that help parents with a curriculum. If you want to go that route. Younger children, it is more like, ‘what do you want to learn today?’

The basic math skills, grammar, reading and writing come pretty easily. Beyond that, there is so much now online…!

If you read through other articles, posts and pages on this website, you will see that I’m more than a little against drugs. They have their place. Most people aren’t going to get a tooth pulled without some freezing. I’d rather be knocked out to have my appendix removed.

Giving a child a drug like Ritalin because he or she can’t sit still, when they really should not be sitting still, well, that’s just a crime. Children can learn very quickly if you let them. Very quickly.

Reading

Stressing about when a child is reading is pretty silly. Generally, they will read when they are ready and want to. As one of the authors above stated, one child will read at four years old and the other at 7, 8 or 9. At 14 or 15 years old, you will not be able to tell which learned at what age.

It is not a competition.

If homeschooling is something that you have thought about, don’t discount it out of hand. Do some reading. The four books that I recommend here are very good. And there are some great websites and blogs out there. Do your homework before you decide.

Don’t read all the negative stuff.

If you were looking to get your car fixed, you would look for a successful mechanic. Check out some successful homeschoolers.

Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto

Weapons of Mass Instruction by John Taylor Gatto

The 5 Hour School Week by Aleena Amuchastegui

how children learn by john holt