Able Child: In 1970 a lawmaker wanted to know if the federal government had a hand in drugging school-age children that largely has today remained an unspoken, well-funded, uncontrolled clinical drug trial.
September 29, 1970, New Jersey Congressman Cornelis E. Gallagher held a hearing into the federal government’s role in promoting the use of amphetamines and Ritalin as behavior modification of grammar school children. Fifty-four years later, AbleChild applauds Representative Gallagher for presiding over the House Special Studies Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations investigation as it was one of the first hearings to draw attention to the government’s funding of experimental drug research using school-age children.
Gallagher wanted to know from the experts how it was okay to drug children with amphetamines and Ritalin to modify behavior in school, while at the same time pushing an active national campaign against drug abuse stating that “speed kills.” The Congressman was concerned about whether the drug therapy being used by the child would become a permanent part of the child’s school record, thus years later negatively impacting the child’s life. And, finally, the Congressman raised concerns “about the mislabeling of the child and packaging an ill-conceived program as an answer to our ills in the education of our children.” more
I am one of those who was prescribed ritalin when I was in Junior HS in 1966/67. The school districts shrinks thought I had behavioral problems and put me on ritalin to deal with it when my biggest problem was that I was smarter and could read and write better and was interested in everything and was a self-learner than most of the other students (which is why I hung around with the so called nerds) and I was bored out of my mind and hated school. Putting me on ritalin made me even more determined to hate school because they treated as I was a dummy which I clearly am not. They just don’t like kids and particularly boys who can think for themselves and refuse to be a conformist to their strict societal norms.
These are bruce springsteen’s frienda. Imcredible.
@Geoff the aarvark,
This was just one of the reasons I homeschooled our son K-12. I knew, like you, he was smart, physically active and curious and would not be able to sit still in a standard classroom all day. He would have been bored and miserable. I was always reading books to him and noticed he would have an object in his hand like a ball that he would continually toss and catch or a pencil that he would manipulate. I thought he was not paying attention and asked him to tell me what I just read and he would respond with the complete sentence. I didn’t worry about it ever again.
geoff the aardvark, I have a friend that had the very same issue with her son. He is in his 30s now and doing very well. No hyperactivity after she started to homeschool him and took him off the drugs.
Hate your government as much as they hate you. The fed ranks are filled with monsters who think US citizens are their slaves and lab rats, whose lives are no more important than the frogs they pithed in high school biology class.
My brother and I just showed up and took tests after the schools turned into a big fat social experiment. My mother asked why the school didn’t do anything about us having more absences than attendance. The school said they didn’t know what they could do, we were getting among the highest grades on the tests.
It kicked my ass when I got into college and had Linear Algebra, Chemistry and Physics simultaneously. Physics was not big deal, but I had to study hard and attend the lectures for the others.