Kenders' Musings

First off, thanks for letting me vent and insights are very welcome here.

This morning, lying in bed talking to my wife, I was voicing my concerns about our son and his achievement in school. You see, my son is very, very bright. At teh age of five he is in kindergarten. I was a stay at home dad for his first three years and worked with him alot, reading and teaching him numbers, colors and whatever else came to mind that I thought he should know.

At about three we put him into a montessori school. We did our research and decided that teh montessori system sounded great. The children learn at their own pace and are taught basic skills like cleaning up after themselves, how to sweep, mop etc. etc. You know, those basic things everybody should know how to do. He still loves to sweep, mop and vacuum the house.

Now, at five, he blows through the work that he needs to know by the end of the first grade. He is over a year ahead and although I have talked to his teachers about it they are still reluctant to move him up any higher, even in work level. Perhaps they are correct. Maybe it would make for strained relationships with his classmates if he did work so far past them. I don't know.

The point of this little missive is this: My son has told me he gets bored in school having to listen to the teacher about the work and has a hard time listening. This gets him in trouble. My wife says, "Well, he has ADD, just like I do." "Horseshit", I said, "he is a little boy and he is bored bacause he is beyond the level of the work he is asked to do." Mind you my wife and I both read at very young ages also. Our son reads, computes and comprehends at a forst grade level and is straining to do more and sha claims he has ADD. He can concentrate, when he plays his video games, reads a new book or does something new and interesting he concentrates. He concentrates just fine if he has something he needs to do. But the repitition of doing the things that he has mastered bores him and now it earns him an ADD title?

I will tell you what. I did the same thing in school but my parents didn't seem to care so I tok matters into my own hands. I used to ditch school and hang out at the LIBRARY!!!!! Tell me their isn't something wrong there. That screams bored student. I would risk punishment to go sit and read all day. I would read books covering all sorts of subjects. History, art, science, whatever caught my eye.

A serious problem in this country is the over medication of children because they have dumbed down the schools so much that more and more kids are ahead of the curve. Simply deciding that a kid being a kid merits medication because they are rambunctuious or bored in school and acting out is wrong. My son will NOT be medicated. Absolutely not!!! My wife never even suggested that BTW.

One more thing. The person that first strung the words
"Attention", "Deficit" and "Disorder" together to make some BS diagnosis should be slowly tortured to death as an enemy of children everywhere.

Hey, it'd be "For The Children" right?