Struggling School-Age Boys

The baby boom generation has screwed everything up, so why should we expect anything else. As I was growing up, I had lots of energy. By today's standards, I would have been medicated like a nephew of mine. He was a nice, energetic kid until the parents decided to put him on Ritalin. Now, he is a zombie, ready to explode and shoot the place up at any moment if he ever gets off his medication.

Come, all you beast of the field, come and devour!. The watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge, they are all mute dogs, they lie around and dream, they have mighty apetites, they never have enough, each seeks his own gain. The righteous perish, no one understands. But you, come, you sacrifice your children, they, they are your lot. You sent your ambassadores far away, you did not faint.

sorry this was a two part since i couldn't get it all onone ................................................................................................

I still let him play video ames and watch tv but sometimes we just go outside and play catch or go for a walk with the dog. Kids that do not interact with adults will not learn how to act as an adult. I heard once that if you treat a kid like a kid then they will grow up to be a kid but if you treat a kidlike an adult they will grow up to be an adult. There is also a real problem with our social structure today where we need to have both parents working in order to pay just the minmum bills and this doesn't help the children. The small deductions we get on taxes doesn't even begin to help us as parents and with the tax dallors spent on fixing the problem after is just that "a problem" should maybe also be used to give larger tax deductions for parents so that they could spend more time with their children and keep the problem from coming up in the first place. Bill Cosby several years ago was also blasted by his own ethnic group for suggesting that they spend less money to buy the best shoes for their children and instead use that money on more meaningful things. I think that this type of spending is not limited to one group of people and I admit I have over spent on my children too. However if we as parents would realize what is needed and what is vanity forour children and instead save that money inorder to be able to work less sothat we could spend more time with our children. One thing about a slow economy is it can be very good for our children since parents will be forced to conserve and instead spend time with their families. Ok i think I have vented enough LOL. :)

the k-12 education system is REALLY F***** up... even more so because of the "no child left behind" act. the curiculum, atleast here, seems like these kids are coming off the assembly line and if they have any malfuctioning parts (psychological problems due to stress, lack of human connection, etc.) then doctors prescribe them drugs. I see a new generation of manufactured junkies on the rise streaming through the "educational" process. you want to know the solution to this? quit prescribing students mandatory bull****! let them think for themselves, and most importantly... to question authority. k-12 teachers are not always correct... theyre there to *GUIDE* not to instill their petty communistic ideals... to put this another way... at my highschool (graduated 06'), the PHYSICAL EDUCATION teachers also taught all the HISTORY and GEOGRAPHY classes! and people wonder why most citizens of the U.S. dont know jack about geography! einstein stated that technology has far surpassed humanity.... i believe that unless there are some MAJOR changes in the educational department and some changes in the way our society operates, the gap will only widen exponentially. on a positive note, college is MUCH MUCH MUCH better and makes me think that the 13 years of hell on the way here was worth it, but i'll do my best to ensure my kids will be enrolled in private schools or homeschooled. i apologize for the rant....

As a future educator I find this article relatively accurate. Thinking back to my school years and comparing the children to todays students, there is an apparent difference. We are taught in our education courses that we can not treat our classes the same as we were treated becasue many view the previous methods as harmful instead of helpful. I view the past as the method to create great people like those in my generation. Medication is not the only answer, keep in mind, studies prove effects, not the infinate possible causes. The future mayhems are the ones we need to worry about, not the times of the past. As an educator I hope to help find the balance that will help our young boys not only learn but become self managers (not the parents) and keep them from being medicated zombies.

As a future educator I find this article relatively accurate. Thinking back to my school years and comparing the children to todays students, there is an apparent difference. We are taught in our education courses that we can not treat our classes the same as we were treated becasue many view the previous methods as harmful instead of helpful. I view the past as the method to create great people like those in my generation. Medication is not the only answer, keep in mind, studies prove effects, not the infinate possible causes. The future mayhems are the ones we need to worry about, not the times of the past. As an educator I hope to help find the balance that will help our young boys not only learn but become self managers (not the parents) and keep them from being medicated zombies.

Wonder why the author does not even think about the consequences of fatherless families on boys.
In America every second marriage end-up with divorce and in 95% of the divorces the women obtains physical custody. Countries where the fathers retain physical custody after divorce (European catholic or Orthodox (shared custody) and Musliam countries (the father usually get custody) do not experience such a boom of ADHD)
I would say in the US more than a third of schoolboys live in a fatherless family and boys need father - here is where the problem lays.
Of course, there is a lot of so called "mental professionals" - social workers, child psychologists, mental terapists, who make their living on our children tragedy. They love to stuff our children with lithium and other psychotrop substances. This is the other side of the problem.
Peter from badwalker.com

Kids need both parents but the law will not protect the rights of fathers. Only rich fathers who can pay for lawyer after lawyer can win any justice for their children. I've hired two now that have stolen money from me. My son is in a mental hospital and they won't take him from the environment that causing his problems.

RE: Kids need both parents. I agree with you and would offer, what do we do with a legal system that will not protect the rights of fathers? I've wanted to be involved with my children their whole lives and I can't get visitation very often. All cost of the children reside with me and the mother gets the bennefits. I pay for child support, medical, dental, travel, and still have to buy gifts and attorneys that have done nothing but steal from me. My son has been hospitalized and tried to commit suicide at the age of 9 and it just keeps getting worse. Sincerely, Jeremy Montgomery - rottenmont@msn.com

The article left out one thing. Girls will be girls and boys will be girls. Don't believe me? Just go to any university campus and you will see what I mean. These boys will grow up to be girly men.

I'd have to agree with the author. I believe that, yes we are moving to the type of society where we are structuring our childrens life at an earlier age. We are so concerned in building a better future for them, building better people, better citizens, a more self reliant being that we forget to let them live their precious childhood years. Why are we so concern with micromanaging their lives? And filling every waking moment with some type of learning activity. We take creativity, fun, and self esteem initiative and confidence right out of them and turn them in to a standardized test score, and eventually they become a test result no longer a person. Let us remember, that childhood is a very precious and short lived, and adulthood will be with us forever and sometimes it's our experiences as childrens that gets us through rough times as adults.

I'm not sure where you all are coming from. I have a happy, healthy 12-year old boy who does great in school, and is very well adjusted. I do not worry bout how his future will turn out, becuase I know that he handles himself very well in public, he makes freinds easily, he makes good life choices, and he does the right thing. He lives in a house where both parents work, he knows the value of a dollar, he has to help do household chores as well as outdorr chores, and he manages to eat farily healthily. I'm proud of my son, and I'm proud of the way I parent my son, and I don't have a problem with the public school system he attends. Granted , we live in a small town, but my child also has ever reason to be a wreck. He's really my step-son, and he's been through the wringer with the behavior of his biological mother. He has risen above the murk and refused to be wieghed down by the mire. I have a well-adjusted, helathy child that I couldn't love more or be more proud of. I'm sorry that so many of you don't.

As a product of this system (two years in preschool, straight A's in all honors and now AP, and sports) I have to say that most guys seem apathetic towards life. Now that I am a sophomore, it is worsening, and the line between scholars and average is becoming more prominent. I am glad that this article was published, although I must admit that I feel school would be more enjoyable if there were more "overachievers". Remember that American pride shouldn't consist of wishing for the good old days, but rather our country???s progression into an even more successful nation.

Hey parents,

I am 21 years old, in college, smoke and drink on the weekends. Guess what, I have a great GPa and am going to graduate with a college degree. You could say I am a close to being a complete grown up ready to take on the wolrd and make some money. I see all sorts of people around school, some kids like me, my friends, and other kids that can't handle stress and eventuall become druggies or just lame. The reason they become this way is because of not bad parenting, but too much parenting. Tell these kids to go outside and get hurt trying sports, riding their bikes, climbing fences and trees. For gods sakes if they can't learn to stick up and try new things the rest of thier lives will be a long a hard road of emotional angst(?). Kids need to go out and play sports or go to the park. It doesn't matter if they are good or not, just make them do it. Of course they won't like it, but what do they know, their kids...they have no idea what's good for them. When I was 5 I was playing tee ball, AYSO soccer and basketball along with other fun activities with my friends. These are important years that they will deveop social skills, along with confidence. If they can't take making fun of learn to back themselves now, they are doomed for high school. ISo good luck and relax., let them be kids, tell them to go to sports and try new things, disconnect their xbox 360 and PS3. Hint: did you get to do everything you wanted, if you did then thats why you suck and are listening to your kids. Grow a pair. I'm out.

-Neal R