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.
Years ago — around 2000 — we occasionally looked after our neighbor’s then 9 year-old son. He was very active and engaging and we liked him a lot. After sending him over to our house one day his single, MD mother swooped in to “pill him” with his daily dose of Ritalin before she left. I’d heard of kids (boys) on Ritalin, but the whole idea appalled me. Her son was no more rough and tumble than any boy I’d ever known. I had three brothers to prove it.
I’m heartsick that generations of (mostly)boys have been drugged into conformity. It’s especially heinous at the hands of parents who never questioned the government over it. Sickening.
I had a conversation with a friend of my age about all the things that are part of our society today that didn’t exist or were extremely rare when we were growing up.
Very few fat kids (maybe one per 30+ student classroom)
Zero peanut allergies — or allergies of any kind, unless someone had chronic asthma. Now a whole lot of kids carry Epi-pens!
No one was on a daily pill regimen for “behavioral problems” — or actually had so-called behavioral problems that weren’t cured by the “board” of education or some other swift justice.
No one questioned whether they were a girl or a boy.
No one “identified” as a horsey or a kitty on the playground, unless they wanted to eat lunch by themselves forever.
Everyone kinda knew who the smart and dumb kids in the class were — and no one had to give up their grades in order to not make the, you know, other ones feel better about themselves.
We (at least my friend and I) never heard of any teacher diddling their student(s), but we agreed that if that had happened, there wouldn’t be a letter from the district, no school board meetings about it, and no one would have ever heard of where so-and-so went. Ever. (She and I attended VERY rural schools.)
I had Ritalin as a kid. My folks tell me it just made me MORE hyper…
I can confirm that as well as a tendency to make me lethargic at times as well. It was a double-edged sword. If you weren’t hyper, you were mellow and didn’t want to do anything, so the shrinks got you both ways. All in order to conform and make everyone the same. I resent that, fortunately I grew out of it as I grew older, and they had no business messing us up that way with their drugs in order to make us compliant.
kindergarten teacher recommended Ritalin to my parents for the crime of being able to read already, and writing left handed, that lasted one bottles worth, my father wanted a son, not a stuffed animal that sat and did nothing. I thank him for that intervention and allowing me to learn coping skills, rather than prescribed happy pills. I was 25yo before I learned how to write left handed, and my penmanship is actually better left hand.
I have noticed one thing that turned out to be a common result after all of my military active duty time, all the young men who took Ritalin ended up being the shortest in their generation. I may be wrong, but it appears to me that the use of Ritalin might have effected later growth in puberty. both of my brothers are at or over 6′, I don’t break 5’6″ barefoot. Does anyone else have confirmation or dispute anecdotal observations.