Struggling School-Age Boys

In my opinion, not in all cases. Mental heath care workers could, be just as sick as the patients. Or may have had some trama in the past themselves. I think medication is over used, and the withdraws are just as bad as the intial diagnosites. Prolong use of medication causes loss of function in the body, and the brain. I think parents and care workers are more concerned with control. Than helping young people live a healthy, happy life.

You are absolutely right, Sita5000. This could be a scam to help the business tycoons of the healthcare industry. If you watch the Michael Moore documentary "Sicko", you'll know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. And I keep hearing about legalizing drugs. We are being controlled by private business interests at the top by those who know what they are doing!!!

I agree with all the below comments, and it's a real shame that education professionals know what to do to solve this problem, and despite their efforts, NOTHING is being done. We're closer to WW III with every passing second, and this problem is a fixture in that mosaic.

This problem can be blamed, in part, on our increasingly materialistic society. And the actions that these schools are taking, like limiting recess, banning sports and giving these kids work beyond their level, is only working as a lethal cocktail to make it worse.

Before children begin attending school, they are usually spoiled and pampered with the free life of playing around with their toys and watching TV all the time. Then, when they get sent to school, it's a shock to their system. Bad parenting is largely to blame, with all this materialistic bullsh*t they buy for their kids, like Hannah Montana garbage, High School musical crap, and there are underground reports that suggest that these young preschoolers are being exposed to the idea of sex much more often than 20 years ago, since it's on the TV and media more often. This is f'ing sick! And then, on the flip side, I blame the teachers, because my younger sister, who is now 13, was verbally abused by her teachers for not being ablke to do very well at math. I helped her out with everything I've learned, and her grades started to improve from a C to about a B+, no thanks to the teachers and our educational system! Our education system is failing, and our politicians are doing absolutely nothing about it, burning money to fight a relatively worthless war (although we still need to spend on security and all that). The problem with our teachers is that they introduce new lessons in the textbook, and expect students to know all about it with minimal reinforcement. The problem here is that they teach them to know it, but not to UNDERSTAND it. You must start out with basic components first, then put them together!!! No, but instead, they bring out the whole lesson in bigger chunks that take a significant amount ofg time getting used to. WE NEED TO IMPLEMENT THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY AND VISUAL AIDS INSTEAD OF JUST TELLING THESE THINGS TO THEM!!! BUT THEY CAN'T BECAUSE F'ING CONGRESS WON'T ALLOCATE AN EDUCATION BUDGET! MORONS! And to make things even worse, students react to the misunderstanding of the subject matter by failing, then these f'ing teachers bnlame too much recess! Oh, this is making me sick!!! Decide this for yourself; I have to stop now.

I am a boy in highschool right now and i will tell you the simple truth. Education has become so girl oriented and society has become so hell bent on making womans rights stronger that we as a society have surpassed boys rights. The staple that boys and men cant cry has done more damage to the world than any other stereotype. Boys from young ages are discouraged from learning, teachers in grammar schools can be sexist or jsut impatient with thier male students who refuse to learn in such a female oriented envirorment. Of course male students will reject any school information when its put in such a format at such young ages. It becomes you are worthless and cant learn becuase you are male. The amount of young boys diagnosed with adhd is jsut as disturbing i suppose. It proves that the goverment cant deal with the true issues behind male problems thus they cover it up with meds......hmm does anyone else see that as a further exacerbation hmm.

Males from the minute we are born are bombarded with colder treatment and harsher terms than females. The subliminal army messaging and feelings of war is what we can and must do is further pressed by society. How are males supposed to be ok when a society has dictated we dont have feelings and dont have voices and sends us over time to die on the fields in germany, the jungles of nam, and the deserts of the middle east......well of course those are traumatic and without voices or feelings that we cant access in this society you really wonder why abuse and depression and mood disorders and inability to focus in schools continues. So next time you think woman dont have equal things here and there step back and admit there are deep sexist issues in society that are damaging males on a nation wide scale that must be addressed. I can go on forever with things that are wrong in society and especially education with male treatment.

Please forgive the grammar of the above it is a very emotional issue for me and hard to stay focused on

Funny....planes, trains, automobiles, nuclear power...all invented by men. Now males are stupid suddenly? perhaps the female teachers have a biased against male children today that they did not have 30 years ago? Boys always exceeded expectations ...are we going to recast boys as inferior? think of all the male NASA scientist who pushed and pushed and took risks to invent the technology to get to the moon. Teachers and their rigid structure are ruining boys initiative and killing the future of mankind.

Kids need to be kids. And we as a society are stripping this away. Whats next, children back working in factories? Let kids be kids but build the foundations that are needed to become successful in life. And lets talk about how schools continue to raise standards. Only thing raising is the kids homework level.

Funny....planes, trains, automobiles, nuclear power...all invented by men. Now males are stupid suddenly? perhaps the female teachers have a biased against male children today that they did not have 30 years ago? Boys always exceeded expectations ...are we going to recast boys as inferior? think of all the male NASA scientist who pushed and pushed and took risks to invent the technology to get to the moon. Teachers and their rigid structure are ruining boys initiative and killing the future of mankind.

Thank you, thank you, someone finally has a shred of intelligence. I am so sick of quack doctors telling our nation that the only way to "fix" our children is to pump them full of even more drugs. Stop and look at *just how many* children in the US are labelled each year with ADD or ADHD. Is there really this mind-blowing outbreak of chemically imbalanced youths, or just an epidemic of lazy parenting. Delving deeper into the subject, would you like to know why this idea that our children are just genetically made uncontrollable sells so well? It is becuase it isn't the children reading the tabloids and getting suckered into this sham, it's the parents, and it offers them a way out of taking responsibility for their childen; besides, no one likes to be told they're lazy or wrong or flat out just a bad parent. Thus, it's much easier for the average parent to place the blame in the fact that their child acts like a rampaging baboon, on some "controllable" mental deficiency. I say controllable in quotes because I do indeed mean to imply that there really isn't anything there to control, at least not in terms of chemical imbalances. Although, if children are having trouble focusing their lives, who can really blame them? It is a proven fact that we as humans learn best by watching someone else do it first, most especially when we are young. Think about it... How do we teach children to write their ABC's? We show them the letters, we draw the figures out for them, and then hand them a tablet of perfectly formed script to trace, until they can do it all by themselves. So, between cell-phones, computers, business meetings, managing finances, shopping, trips to the gym, frequent dinner-dates, and god knows what else we can manage to cram-pack into our already over-stuffed lives, are we not giving them the perfect little oultine for perfectly disfunctional, hectic lives. Even as adults, sometimes our lives get too overwhelming for us, and now we are trying to make our children into mini adults. It is a sad thing indeed when the faults and problems of the adult community are shrugged off to be the imperfections of our children. Parents, please have some faith in your child instead of giving up on them and throwing them to the mercy of statistics and presciptions. Maybe things have changed, but the last time I checked a bottle of pills could never become a replacement for a loving, supportive parent.

[Steps Down off Soapbox ;) ]

I agree with all the below comments, and it's a real shame that education professionals know what to do to solve this problem, and despite their efforts, NOTHING is being done. We're closer to WW III with every passing second, and this problem is a fixture in that mosaic.

This problem can be blamed, in part, on our increasingly materialistic society. And the actions that these schools are taking, like limiting recess, banning sports and giving these kids work beyond their level, is only working as a lethal cocktail to make it worse.

Before children begin attending school, they are usually spoiled and pampered with the free life of playing around with their toys and watching TV all the time. Then, when they get sent to school, it's a shock to their system. Bad parenting is largely to blame, with all this materialistic bullsh*t they buy for their kids, like Hannah Montana garbage, High School musical crap, and there are underground reports that suggest that these young preschoolers are being exposed to the idea of sex much more often than 20 years ago, since it's on the TV and media more often. This is f'ing sick! And then, on the flip side, I blame the teachers, because my younger sister, who is now 13, was verbally abused by her teachers for not being ablke to do very well at math. I helped her out with everything I've learned, and her grades started to improve from a C to about a B+, no thanks to the teachers and our educational system! Our education system is failing, and our politicians are doing absolutely nothing about it, burning money to fight a relatively worthless war (although we still need to spend on security and all that). The problem with our teachers is that they introduce new lessons in the textbook, and expect students to know all about it with minimal reinforcement. The problem here is that they teach them to know it, but not to UNDERSTAND it. You must start out with basic components first, then put them together!!! No, but instead, they bring out the whole lesson in bigger chunks that take a significant amount ofg time getting used to. WE NEED TO IMPLEMENT THE USE OF TECHNOLOGY AND VISUAL AIDS INSTEAD OF JUST TELLING THESE THINGS TO THEM!!! BUT THEY CAN'T BECAUSE F'ING CONGRESS WON'T ALLOCATE AN EDUCATION BUDGET! MORONS! And to make things even worse, students react to the misunderstanding of the subject matter by failing, then these f'ing teachers bnlame too much recess! Oh, this is making me sick!!! Decide this for yourself; I have to stop now.

Thank you, thank you, someone finally has a shred of intelligence. I am so sick of quack doctors telling our nation that the only way to "fix" our children is to pump them full of even more drugs. Stop and look at *just how many* children in the US are labelled each year with ADD or ADHD. Is there really this mind-blowing outbreak of chemically imbalanced youths, or just an epidemic of lazy parenting. Delving deeper into the subject, would you like to know why this idea that our children are just genetically made uncontrollable sells so well? It is becuase it isn't the children reading the tabloids and getting suckered into this sham, it's the parents, and it offers them a way out of taking responsibility for their childen; besides, no one likes to be told they're lazy or wrong or flat out just a bad parent. Thus, it's much easier for the average parent to place the blame in the fact that their child acts like a rampaging baboon, on some "controllable" mental deficiency. I say controllable in quotes because I do indeed mean to imply that there really isn't anything there to control, at least not in terms of chemical imbalances. Although, if children are having trouble focusing their lives, who can really blame them? It is a proven fact that we as humans learn best by watching someone else do it first, most especially when we are young. Think about it... How do we teach children to write their ABC's? We show them the letters, we draw the figures out for them, and then hand them a tablet of perfectly formed script to trace, until they can do it all by themselves. So, between cell-phones, computers, business meetings, managing finances, shopping, trips to the gym, frequent dinner-dates, and god knows what else we can manage to cram-pack into our already over-stuffed lives, are we not giving them the perfect little oultine for perfectly disfunctional, hectic lives. Even as adults, sometimes our lives get too overwhelming for us, and now we are trying to make our children into mini adults. It is a sad thing indeed when the faults and problems of the adult community are shrugged off to be the imperfections of our children. Parents, please have some faith in your child instead of giving up on them and throwing them to the mercy of statistics and presciptions. Maybe things have changed, but the last time I checked a bottle of pills could never become a replacement for a loving, supportive parent.

[Steps Down off Soapbox ;) ]

Have raised 2 boys 23 & 18 both doing well (also a daughter 25). I am a male in the medical field. Qualified? This appears a backlash to years of feminization of America. Groups we are in so groups are used to define us. Women...protected class, equal in every way to men...and more! Race and gender preferences enjoy kit glove treament. So...what the heck do boys/men do. I see them giving up. I hope we can continue to elevate women / girls and others without excluding boys. They are soon men and God help us if they arrive without purpose.

our society has gone to an extreme ithink much of it lies with the western culture. materialism breeds materialists. Everbody wnat to make money or fears losing money instead of enjoying life in the simplest forms. parents say they dont have times for kids too bsy making money ,boys need their dads around how many dads are even home spending time with john or joe. if they are home are theyengaged in real life time with them, then the nutrition stinkds with alll the shelf life stuff added to products. no nutrition n ervous system gets stressed no activity nervous system gets stresed no healthy outlets nervous system gets stressed so does immune system. boys tend to be more active and cant release real play get stressed. boys are taught they are the same as girls yikes how unmanly and ridiculing to be taught evryone is the same basically no identity crisis there hello more stress. also video games have become the physical outlet oh so thumb exercises and finger push ups are really going to release the added stress of being cooped up in a school that over demands and teaches to a test to get money funding from the government. its all incredibly wrong its not i know johny its look at what johny does. hello there is a person in there not just a perofrmance. the demands are placed on te kids that are unrealistic and unnecessary and kids just need to go back to being just that kids not robots . dont get me wrong i like school but the way of teaching it is going to have to change drastically. i predicted schools would start deteriorating quickly about 8-10 years ago and that we would be going into anew way of doing school by 2015 sooner would be better

That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard!! Boys are no longer allowed to be boys. They are expected to be girls with penises, and sit quietly for hours on end reading poetry and learning complex equations. Let them play for crying out loud. It goes against the NATURAL developement of the male to not be allowed physical expression. As for the ridiculous claim that it has anything whatsoever to do with circumcision is beyond ignorant, and is very disrespectful to a HUGE religious population. My one and only son is circumcised and is not suffering any "symptoms" of abuse. After all, if it were good enough for Jesus Christ, it is certainly ok with our family!!!

My graduate class was just talking about this tonight. We are a cohort of K-12 public education professionals. Some are just beginning careers and others will be retiring soon. We all agree that parents/schools/doctors/legislators are doing a great disservice to our youth. Children are entering school too early and required to learn too much, too quickly. It's not developmentally appropriate. Unfortunately, this is a cycle being dictated by legislation and the all too familiar "no child left behind" bill. It pains me to sit across the table at a parent/teacher conference and tell a parent that his/her child is not making "benchmark." The look is usually the same (oh, no! what can I do? medication? tutoring? punishment? take away games? extra school work). NO! They are children, who need time to play, rest and explore; and, who usually develop differently than what Congress recommends or considers "proficient."

I have been saying for years that our schools are not geared for boys. The rooms are papered from top to bottom with information, rules and expectations. Girls can handle this busy type of environment, however boys can't concentrate. I have also stated numerous times that if you tell a little boy that he can go outside when he completes a certain task, the child will be more willing to get the task done. There is no free play anymore and boys can not rid themselves of all the energy that they build up. Boys need the physical and hands on to learn and communicate. I have 3 boys ages 11-23 and every year I hear how they are struggling. My oldest was on medication and is now a drug addict. Drugs are not the answer, self esteem building and constant encouragement to keep them going. Something needs to be done immediately in this area of education.