The Blumenfeld Education Letter September_1995-Are Schools Causing ADD

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The B lumenfeldEducation LetterV O l. 1 0, N o . 9 (L ette r # 108 )

"My. People Are Destroyed For lack Of Knowledge" HOSEA 4:6. S e p te m b e r 1995EDITOR: Samuell. Blumenfeld

The purpose of this newsletter is to provide knowledge for parents and educators who want to save the children of Americafrom 1he destrucHve forces that endanger them. Our children in the public schools are at grave risk in 4 ways: academically,spiritually, morally, and physically - and only a weUinformed public wi ll be able to reduce these risks."Without vision, the people perish."

[Numbers]Fifteen years ago, no one had ever heard of

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Today it isthe most conunon behavior disorder in Americanchildren, the subject of thousands o f studies andsymposiums and no small degree of oontroversy.Experts on ADHD say i t a ff lic ts as many as 3 1/2

A re Schools Caus ing the "A ttention Deficit D is order" Ep idemic?

The Blumenfeld Education Letter is published monthly. Original material is copyrighted by The Blumenfeld Education Letter .Permission to quote is granted provided proper cre::iit is given. Readers are encouraged to order an d distribute additional copies ofthose newsletters th ey b eli ev e should be sent to legislators, columnists, talk shows, pastors, etc. Subscription Rate: 1 yea r $36.00.Address: Post Office Box 45161, Bo ise , Idaho 83711. Phone (200) 3224440.

,Last August, when I was inGreat Falls,

Montana, to speak at a homeschooling con-ference, I was told by m y hosts to be pre-pared to answer a lot of questions aboutAttention Deficit Disorder. As m y readersm ay know, Ihave m y own theories aboutADDr but Iwanted to know what the mediahad to say about this controversial subject.And so I hightailed it to the local publiclibrary where, with the help of the Index o fPe ri od ic a l L it er atu re , I found about a half-dozen articles on the subject. B usiness W eekof 6/6/94 identified the disorder as "an of-ten-hereditary biochemical condition," T h eLad ies H om e J ournal of Sept 1993 said that itwas "a neuro-chemical disorder in the areasof the brain that regulate attention" as wellas "a lifelong.. genetically based affltction."

The mo s t informative article was a T imemagazine, July 1994, rover sto ry . The articleprovided the following information:

million American youngsters. or up to 5% o f thoseunder 18....[Symptoms}

ADHD ha s three main hallmarks: extreme dis-tractibility. and almost reckless impulsiveness a m , insome but not all cases, a knee-jiggling. toe-tappinghyperactivity that makes sitting still al l but impos-sible ....[Adults with ADHDI

Ten years ago, doctors believed that th e symp-toms of ADIID faded. wi th ma tu ri ty . Now it is one ofth e fastest-growing diagnostic categories for adults.One-third to two-thirds of ADHD kids continue tohave symptoms as adults, says psychiatr ist Paul Wen-der, director of the adult ADHD clinic at th e UniV5'-sity of Utah School of M~cire ....[Drugs] .

As more people are diagnosed, the use of Ri-talin (or its generic equivalent. methylphenidate), thedrug of choice for ADHD, has surged: prescriptionsare up more than 3 9 0 % in just four years.[Advocacy]

As the numbers have grown, ADHD awareressha s become an indusby, a passion, an almost nesi-anic rrovement, An advocacy and support grouprnIIed. GlADD (Qilldrm and Adults with AttentionDeficit Disorders) has exploded from its founding in1987 to 28 .ooJ members in48 states.[Self-Esteem]

It is a oomrnunity that views itself with somepride. Popular books and lectures about ADHD oftenpoint out the positive aspects of the rondition. Adults

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Education Letter, Pg. 2 , September 1995 ---

see themselves as creative; their impulsiveness can beviewed as spontaneity; hyperactivity gives themenormous energy and drive; even their distractibilityhas the virtue of making them alert to changes in th eenvironment.[Handicaps]

"ADHD people make go od salespeople. They'relousy at desk pbs," says psychologist R u ss ell B a rk le yof th e University of M a ssa ch use tts M e dic al Center. .. . H ow ever creative th ey m ay be, people with ADHDdon't function partirularly well in standard schoo lsand typical office pbs.[Popularity and Excuses]

TIle allure of ADHD is that it is "a label offorgiveness:' says Robe r t Reid [of] the department ofspecial education at the University of Nebraska inLincoln, "The kid's problems ar e not his parents 'fault, not the teacher's fault, not the kid's fault It'sbetter to say this kid has ADHD than to say this kiddrives everybody up the wall ." For adults, the diag-nosis m ay provide an excuse for personal or profes-sional failures, observes Richard Bromfield, a psy-chologist at Harvard Medical School .[Causes]No bo d y fully understands how Ritalin and otherstimulants work, nor do doctors have a very precisepicture of tre physiology of ADHD. Researchersgenerally suspect a defect in the frontal lobes of thebrain, which regulate behavior. Says [Dr. Alan]Zametkin [of th e National Institute of Mental Health]:"I'm absolutely convinced that this disorder ha s abiological basis, but just what it is we cannot ye t say."

At NIMH, Zametk in ' s group is recruiting 200famil ies w o o have at least two r r e mb e r s with ADHD.The hope: to identify genes for th e disorder. .[Diagnosis]

[D]iagnooing ADHD is a rather inexact proposi-tion. In most cases, it is a teacher who initiates theprocess by infonning parents that the i r child is day-dreaming in c la ss , f ai li ng to complete assigrunents ordriving everyone crazy with thoughtless behavior ...

Diagnosing t O O s e with ADD without hyperac--tivity can be trickier. Such kids ar e often described asdaydreamers , space c a s e s . They are not disruptive orantsy ....As word of ADHD spreads, SWarIl\5 o f adultsare seek ing th e diagnos is as an explanation for the i rtroubles.[Career problems]

"Patients cannot settle on a career. They cannotkeep a jo b. They procrastinate a lot. T h e y ar e the kindo f people who would tell their boss to take this jo b andshove it before they've found another job," [says

UClA psychiatrist Walid Shekim.]Doctors diagnose adults with methods similar

to those used with children Patients are sometimesasked to dig up old report cards for clues to theirchildhood behavior---an essential indicator.[School]

S cho ol can be a shattering experience for suchkids. Frequently reprimanded and tuned out, theylose any sense of self-worth and fal l ever furtherbehind in their work. More than a quarter ar e heldback a grade; about a third fait to graduate from highschool.[Delinquent behavior]

By ages five to seven, says Barkley, half to two-thirds ar e hostile and defiant. By ages 10 to 12, theyrun the risk of developing what psychologists call"conduct disorder" -lying, stealing, running awayfrom home and ultimately getting into trouble withthe law. As adults, says B ark ley , 2 5% to 30% wil lexperience substance-abuse problems, mostly withdepressants like marijuana and alcohol. O n e study ofhyperactive b oy s fo u nd that 40 % had been arrested atleast once by ag e 18---and t h e s e were kids who hadbeen treated with stimulant medication.[Treatment]

The best-known therapy for ADHD remainsstimulant drugs. Though Ritalin is th e most popularchoice, some patients do better with Dexedr ine orCylert or even certain antidepressants .... Ritalin usevaries from state to state, town to town, dependinglargely on the attitude of the doctors and local schools.Idaho is the No. 1 consumer of the drug. A study ofRitalin consumption in Michigan, which r a nks justbehind Idaho, found that use ranged from less than1% of boy s in one county to as high as 1 0% in another.. . . A lso recommended is training in the fine art ofbe ing organized: establishing a predictable scheduleof activities, lE'aIDing to use a date book, assigning alocation for possessions at school and at home.

As you will have noticed, there doesn'tseem to be the faintest suspicion in the mindsof any of the "experts" that th e abnormalbehavior of students afflicted by ADD orADlID may be the result of the kind ofstimuli they got in their classrooms.

Meanwhile, books about ADD aresprouting out all over the place. One of thelatest and most romprehensive is Driven t oDistraction by two MD's, Edward MHal-lowell and [ohn J . Ratey, who have diag-

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abnormal restlessness. And, as a result, therewas no ADD or ADHD.

But we are now in the 19905,and 00, howa re s us pe c te d ADD patients diagnosed? Theauthors write:

Education Letter, Pg. 4 , September 1995 --

There is no definitive test fOT ADD, no blood testOT electro encephalo gram reading, o r CAT scan OTPE T scan or X ray, no pathognomonic neurologicalf inding OT psychological testing score .[T]he diagnosis of ADD is based first and fore-

most on the individual's history or life story. (p, 195 )

expected that children under such condi-tions would be able to calmly concentrate onlearning the c om p le x a bstra ctio n s of alpha-betic writing and aritlunetic being taught ina fragmentary, disorganized manner by anequally distracted, befuddled teacher withnoises of all sorts corning from all directions?How could any normal child fail to be dis-tracted and annoyed by the din of activitiesaround him and by the constant interrup-tions inherent in such a learning-hostileenvironment?Yet, apparently, none of the experts onAD D has bothered. to investigate the pos-sible school causes of attention deficit disor-der. They might surmise that since manystudents have emerged from that classroomturmoil without A D D , that those who wereaf fec ted by the environment were biologi-cal ly predisposed. And they might wellhave been. But the point is that schools aresupposed to be healthy environments for allchildren, not just for those with nerves ofsteel.N o T w o C hildre n A r e Alike

It is common knowledge that no twochildren are alike. Parents of more than onechild reoognize this phenomenon quite read-ily. Some chi ldren can tolerate loud noises,o thers c an 't Some chi ldren require silencein order to concentrate, others can listen torock-and-roll music while reading. A properschool provides an environment that makesit possible for all students to thrive. ButAmerican schools have become increasinglychaotic not only in curriculum and method-ology but also in classroom configurations.

Those o f us who went to the traditionalpublic school s o f the 1930s and '40s remem-

\ be r the order and silence that prevailed. Ourattention was focused on th e teacher who satat th e front o f the room. T he re was nodistractibility, no impulsive behavior, no

Many people with ADD point to school as th efirst place they realized th at a ny th in g was differentabout them. (p . 198 )

So even the experts know that schoolhas something to do with ADD. But they areso committed to the biological theory, thatthis crucial information doesn't register asanything but background biographical data.Meanwhile, th e biological view becomes thebasis for th e treatment of ADD. FIrst, thepatient must understand that he or she has aneurological condition that is at the source ofthe individual's nonconformist behavior. Theauthors explain:

Telling the truth to the child, and to the school,helps destigmatize ADD. It helps normalize thesyndrome. (p. 217) ... Most children take some timeto get used to th e idea of having ADD. Most childrenare ashamed and embanassed at first However, Ihave found that the sooner the topic can be broughtout into th e open and all questions addressed clearly,th e sooner the condition can be accepted by the childas just another part of his or h er e ve ry d ay life. (p. 218)

Then comes medication and psycho-therapy. They write:

1here are two main classes of medication forADD : the stimulants and the antidepressants. . . .Finding th e right medication and the right dosage cantake several months of trial and error, as we do not asye t have a way of predicting what medication in whatdosage will help a given individual. . . . Often anincrease in dosage OT a change in medication willmake a dramatic difference. (p. 237) . . .

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[The stimulants are Ritalin, Dexedrine andCylert.] [They] act on neu: ros t ransmi t te rs to activateo r stimulate th e cent ra l nervous syste m . . T he y donot "drug up" or cloud the sensorium of the individ-ual taking them. They are not addictive indoses pre-scr ibed for ADD . (p. 238)

The medications do not alw ays w ork ,and sometimes they have to be disrontinueddue to intolerable side effects. The possibleside effects of Ritalin, for example, are sup-pression of appetite, loss of sleep, increasedblood pressure and heart rate, nausea, head-aches, and jitteriness. Rarer but more severeside effects include involuntary muscletwitches, growth suppression, alteration inblood coun t or other blood chemistries .

As for th e antidepressants, Norpraminis the the most common ly used in th e treat-ment of ADD. Its r om m on side effects in-clude dry mouth, mild urinary retention,and transient lowering of blood pressureupon standing up, which results in dizzi-ness. One can occasional ly develop cardiacarrhythmias while on Norpramin with theextremely rare possibility of sudden death.Other antidepressants include Pame1or,Tofranil, Wellbutrin, Ludiornil, Prozac andCatapres. Prozac is helpful if there is depres-sion involved.

How effective is Ritalin or any of theother drugs? Some adult ADDers feel morefocussed and organized. The authors write:

The fact is that when Ritalin and the othermedications used in th e treatment of ADD are usedproperly, they are very safe indeed, and can be asdramatically effective as the right pair of e y e g 1 a S " ' f f lcan be for nearsightedre;s. (p. 237) -

But the authors stress that the drugsmay o nly help alleviate some of the symp-toms. They do not eradicate the basic ADDcondition, That's why the authors includepsychotherapy in their treatment And theessence of their psychotherapy is to bringstructure into the life of the patient They

write:Struct tm! is rentral to th e treatment of ADD ...

Structure makes possible the expression of talentWithout structure, no matter how mudt talent there~y be, ~ is only chaos .... [Alll creative expres-SIOn reqwres structure. . .

Structure refers to essential tools like lists re-minders, notepads, appoinbnent books, filing' sys-~, Rolodexes, bulletin boards, schedules, receipts,m and out boxes, answering machines, computersystems, alarm docks, and alann watches. Structurerefers to the set of external controls that one se ts up tocompensate for unreliable internal controls. Mostpeople with ADD c anno t d ep end upon their internalcontrols to keep th ings organized and to keep tbem-selves on task over time. For them a reliable systemof ex te rna l controls is essential. (p, 221) . . .

We partia.darly reromtrend a scheme o f reor-~ o ne's life that we call pattern planning. . ..[P]attem planning can reduce the s t r esses of planningone's life considerably, (p, 222)

Structure is exactly what is missing fromtoday's classrooms. The look-say method ofteaching reading, particularly the whole-language variety, destroys the structure ofour alphabetic system. Invented spellingdestroys the structure of our orthography.The new math destroyed the structure of ourarithmetic system. The authors describe theincidence of a six-year-old ADD child whow~ si~g ~n the classroom floor doingprojects m pans, when suddenly he took hisja r of paint and smashed it on the floor. Whyhe did that nobody really knows. But obvi-ously the child was annoyed or frustrated bysomething.St ructure in Traditiona l Education

In the structured first-grade classroom Iattended back in the 19305, no one sat onf loors with jars of paint We all sat beh inddesks bolted to the floor, with our attentionriveted on the teacher up front. She was nota facilitator. T he re were no sudden out-burs ts of impulsive behavior from anytxxly

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.tQucanon Letter, rg. t) , eeptemoer l~!> _ - - - . . . .- - . - . . - . . . - - - -at any time. And if you so much as whis-pe red to a fellow student, you were liable tobe reprimanded.But in today's classrooms, social inter-action and conversation are encouraged.Thus, in advising teachers, the authors write:

R e m e m b e r that ADD kids need structure. . . .Th ey n e e d direction T h e y need l imits. (p, 255 ) . . .Repeat directio ns. . . . Make frequent e ye con tac t . .. .Seat th e A DD child near your desk or wherever yo uare mos t of th e time. . . . Have as predictable aschedule as p ossib le, .. . Transit ions and unannounced .changes are very difficult for these childre n. T he ybe come d is combobu la te d by the m. (p . 256) ... [W]atcho u t for overs t imuJat ion . Like a po t o n fire, ADD canboi l o ver . . . . S eek o ut and undersco re success as muchas possible. These kids live with so m uch failu re, theyn e e d all th e posit ive handling they ca n get (p. 258)

What the authors are describing is thetypical American classroom designed toconfonn with the principles of progressiveeducation: kids seated around tables, or atmovable desks, creating an atmosphere ofconstant noise and movement The walls arecovered with posters and papers and pic-tures that easily distract the eye. The room isdisorderly, with bo o k s and papers scatteredal l over the place inwhat we would normallycall a mess.

Is it any wonder that some chi ld ren findthis atmosphere confusing and nerve jan-gling? It is somehow assumed that chi ld renhave a higher tolerance for disorder thanadults. But obviously this is not the case.Being forced to put up with chaos and may-hem six hours a day for the first three yearsin primary school, may very well be hazard-ous to a child's nervous system. Inaddition,today's irrational curriculum=-which in-cludes whole language, invented spelling,the new new math, etc.-is enough to con-fuse any young logical mind.Children come to school feeling veryintelligent Why? Because they have taughtthemselves to speak their own language

without the help of any certified teacher.And by the time they are ready to enter thefirst grade they have acquired a speakingvocabulary in the thousands of words. Nosmall accomplishment for a child of six. Inaddition, they exhibit an acute sense of logicin that they speak grammatically. And that'swhat grammar is: logic, the ability to articu-late words in their proper order to conveymeaning. This they do quite naturally. Boththe language faculty and the grammatical-or logical-faculty are innate in all normalhuman beings. That is why children feel sointelligent at that early age, in which theirbrain power is far greater than it will be inlater years.The C h ild's V uln e rab le B rain

But that young brain, as innately pow-erful as it may be, is also extremely vulner-able to irrational stimuli. That is why th eirrational, chaotic classroom presents suchproblems for the child who wants to pleasehis teachers and parents but is "educated" insuch a way as to make that impossible, Theresult is rognitive confusion and intolerablefrustration.What a natural spawning ground forthe kind of disruptive, impulsive, restlessbehaviors that add up to ADD and ADHD!The question then becomes: why are somechildren more "allergic" to classroom irra-tionality than others? And why are theremore kids and adults with ADD in Americathan anywhere else? Is it possible that a largenumber of children are simply allergic toprogressive education, with all of its irra-tional, chaotic trappings? Or is it merely acoincidence that ADD problems usually startin school and are usually first diagnosed aslearning disorders? The authors write:

The pain of a le arn in g d is o rd er resides not onlyin th e strain one feels in trying to function bu t in th edisconnections one can suffer, a disco nn ectio n fro m

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The truth is we know that in whole.language teaching, normal children aretaught to read as if they were defect ive . Andthis kind o f reading instruction has beengoing on for decades.

But th e authors o f Dr i v en to D i s t r a c t i o nare so convinred that ADD starts with abiologically based brain disorder, that theycannot see th e effect that ir ra ti o na l e du c atio nhas on rat ional children, They write:

It is true that th e prevalence of ADD is higle" ~Am e r i c a than it is overseas. W e do not know why thisis so. ~ poosible explanation is that our gene poo l is

~ I _ _ - The Blumenfeld Education Letter - Post Office Box 45161- Boise, Idaho 83711 ....

language and from thought, from expression andcreativity, from bo o k s and from words, as well asfrom people an d f rom feelings. (p . 15 9) .. .

These prople---and Icount myrelf arrong themas one who is dyslexic and has ADD--rev8' qui teknow what to expect from wonts. Our re lationshipwith words is roo ted in unpredictabil ity. (p. 1 61 ) .. .

ADD, t h e n . . is one kind of learning disorder. Itmay be acoompanied by other learning disorders,such as dyslexia or an acquired memo ry disorder, . .

Since ADD affects all areas of rognition, . it willexacerOOte any learning disability .. A sped6c mathdisability may often be found with A DD .. .. (p, 163)

A DD ooans IOOre frequently rurong dyslexicsthan in th e population at large. (p, 165)

Obviously, it is the irrational amiru-lum that produces the learning disorderamong chi ldren who were born with a logi-cal language faculty. The doctor writes:

Inm y work with adults with ADD I hmr manystories o f sdlool days gone w r o n g . People tell lh:sestories much in th e same manner as victim; of trauma,. . . N o t mum emotion, pst a long narrative of what itwas like to be in schoo l . Gradually, as I empathizewith what it must have b e e n like for them, . th e emo-lion begins to emerge: the hurt. the anger, th e disap-pointment,. the fear.

"You just don't know how much Ihated goingto school,." Fr.mny, a woman inm thirties, said tome. "M y main idea w as just to g e t through the daywithout get t ing hurt 0 Ore tmcher actually said tome, 'Your handwriting looks like a moron's.' .. 0 IrroIly thought I was defective" (p. 1(8)

heavily lo aded fo r AD D. ... The higher prevalen:e ofAD D in our current oociety m ay be due to its higherprevalence am ong tho se w o o s e tt le d A m e ric a. (p .191 ) . . H it is true that J I D 1 of th e high ene rgy and risk-taking of our ancestors was due to ADD, tren that .would expla in , to some extent, w hy OlD' rates of ADDare higher than other people's. (p. 192)

Clearly, these doctors cannot see whatall of their own evidence keeps pointing atthe schools and their irrational curriculum,That's why America is so different We havean education system designed to artificiallyproduce behavioral and rognitive disorder.a has been cal led the dumbing-down pr0c-ess, and we can trace its origins to the "re-fonns" made by John D e w e y an d his pn rgressive colleagues early in this century,C r e a t in g B e h a v io r a l D i s o rg a n iz a t io n

V \e also know that the idea of artificiallycreating behavioral disorganization is notjust a figment of our imagination. Sovietpsychologists Pavlov and Luria experi-mented with methods of creating such disor-ganization in the 1920s and '305. A book onthe subject by A R Luria,The N a t u r e ifH U 1 t 1 J l 1 tConf licts : A s tudy o f th e e x p e r i m e n t a l disorgani-zai ion and c on tro l o f hu~n b e h a v i o r , was trans-lated. by behavioral psychologist W. HorsleyGantt and published in the U.S. in 1932 Towhat extent these methods have been delib-erately or inadvertently incorporated in theprocesses of progressive education shouldb e th e subject of research and investigation.What we do know is that social psychologistKur t Lewin, who perfonned th e sam e so rt ofexperiments in Gennany, came to Americain the 1930s and, in 1946, founded the Na-tio n al T ra in in g laboratory at Bethel, Maine;sponsored by th e National Education Ass0-ciation. Lewin invented "sensitivity train-ing" an d pioneered in group dynamics. O neof Lewin's most significant exper iments wasa imed at detennining the behavioral effects


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for the individual with ADD. Is th e stronganti-religious bias o f the public schools con-tributing to the increase in ADD?

F r e e Inquiry, a secular-humanist maga-zine, reported, surprisingly, in its summer1993 issue that "religion does tend to act inthe service of mental health." Is it possiblethat the moral and historical structure thatBiblical religion provides may also help tostem the symptoms of ADD, and that theincreasing absence of Biblical religion fromsecular education and our mainstream secu-lar culture is contnbuting to the growth ofADD in America? All of these factors haveyet to be investigated by the experts on ADDwhose devotion to science should also in-clude an open mind and a willingness to testother hypotheses .

Meanwhile, the biological-genetic the-ory will continue to get th e educators off thehook, and more and more vulnerable chi l -dren will be placed at risk in schools wherecognitive ronfusion and frustration are the.order o f the day.

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of frustration on children and how. theseeffects ar e produced. l..ewin's biographer,Alfred Mar r ow, writes in The P r a c t i c a l T h e o -rist: .

Th e e xp eri m en t indicated. that i n f ru st ra ti o n theChi ldren tended to regress to a su rp r is ing degree . .. .the degree of i nt el le ct ua l r eg re ss io n var ied directlywith th e strength of the frustration. Change in em0-tio n al b eh av io r was also recorded. 1here was lesssmiling an d s in gin g and more thumbsuck ing , noisi-ness, and r es tl es s a ct io n s. Aggressive.ness also in-c r e a s e d and some ch i ld ren went so fa r as to hit, kick,and break objects. . .The authors summarized their f indings as fol -l ows : ' 'Frustration as it opera ted in these expe r imentsresu l ted in a n a ve ra ge re gre ssio n in th e intelJectua1functioning, in increased unhappiness , restlessness,and destructiveness, in ~ ultra-group unity,and. in i n c r e a s e d out-group aggression The amountsof increase in negative emotionality were positivelyre la ted to strength of frustration (p, I22}.~_ Sounds like the experimenters hadfound that they could create considerablebehavioral disorganization-or the symp-toms of ADD-by the use o f frustration. Weknow that Amer ican schools are the sourceo f great frustration for many students. Infact, what th e authors o f Dr iven to D i s t r a c t i o nhave inadvertently done is provide us withoverwhelming evidence that Americanschools are causing extremely high levels offrustration among students, which may bethe crucial ke y to understanding th e cause ofour ADD epidemicBut because the authors are so finnlyrommitted to the biological-genetic theory,they can't seem to see what their own data istelling t h e m . Why? Because. to admit thatthe schools are blatantly engaged in creatingbehavioral and cognitive disorganization issimply inadmissible in their 'current state ofbelief.Another area which seems to be closedto th es ecu la r minds o f the exper ts is re l igion .Orthodox re l igion, of course, provides thekind o f structure that the experts say is needed.

W h a t C a n P a r e n ts D o ?If you have an energetic, yet emotion-

ally sensitive child, with a low frustrationthreshold, the public school will be th e worstplace fo r him or her. If you can homeschool,do so . If you can't, find a good privateschool. If the public school is your onlyrecourse, then get my book s , H ow to Tutorand Alpha-Phonics and teach your child theth ree R's at home before he or she goes toschool. A whole-language teacher will try toundo what you have accomplished. So beprepared for a tugof war with the school andcontinue to teach you r child until the threeRs have been securely learned. In that way,your child will be spared the frustration andcognitive confusion that lead to th e symp-toms o f ADD.

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The Blumenfeld Education Letter September_1995-Are Schools Causing ADD