Memorandum submitted by Maryla Carter
This submission concerns children who suffer
from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and particularly
concentrates on:
— Provision for ADHD pupils in "mainstream"
schools: availability of expertise.
— The system of statements of need
for pupils with ADHD.
SUMMARY
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
affects around 3% of the child-hood population of this country
and persists into adulthood. In a non-selective mainstream school,
on average every class of around 30 children can be expected to
have one such child. ADHD is a genuine neurological condition—an
under-functioning of the frontal lobes of the brain. A child with
ADHD is typically characterised by:
— impulsive behaviour—words as
well as actions;
— being very easily distracted;
— excessive squirming, running about,
or climbing;
— difficulty in sustaining attention/concentrating
on tasks;
— short-term memory problems;
— interrupting the conversations and
activities of others;
— serious disorganisation;
— a strong tendency to lose or break
personal property;
— deficits in executive functioning;
and
— a different perception of time and
its passage.
In mainstream school classrooms, every teacher
is nowadays expected to be a teacher of children with special
educational needs. But ADHD is an extremely complex condition
and even the way in which it is exhibited will be different from
one child to another. The outplay of ADHD characteristics looks
to the non-expert as though the child is deliberately being awkward,
rude, lazy, mis-behaved, off-task, disorganised and, because of
his/her different perception of time, may come across as though
s/he is a liar. Neither LEAs nor teachers have been trained to
understand the complexity of ADHD and how to deal with it. Indeed,
it can only be properly addressed educationally by using teaching
methods which are atypical to the mainstream environment, and
a curriculum which is likely to differ significantly from the
National Curriculum.
Getting a Statement of Special Educational Needs
for a child with ADHD is fraught with difficulties. Even when
a child does have a Statement, it extremely rare for Part 4 to
specify a Special School, which is the only kind where all members
of staff are likely to have a thorough understanding of ADHD.
This situation is leading to more and more children
with ADHD being "abused" by the system—a system
which has not been designed to include such neuro-atypical human
beings. And yet with the prevalence being around 3% one could
argue that having ADHD is not particularly atypical, but merely
different. The differences are not and cannot easily be accommodated
in our mainstream schools, and as a result many children with
ADHD are being excluded, with dire consequence for them and society.
The Government needs to investigate the true
needs of children with ADHD and set up systems to ensure that
these needs can be met by LAs, teachers and other school staff
who have the necessary expertise in ADHD.
1. About the Author
1.1 Born in London in 1953, I was educated
at Croydon High School. Later, I studied at the Universities of
Cambridge, Reading, Cranfield and at Regent College, British Columbia
where I read Natural Sciences, Earth Sciences, Agricultural Engineering
and Theology. My work took me to many parts of England and Africa—to
lecture-room, laboratory and field. Married to Richard Carter
and living in the English Midlands, we adopted two children in
the 1980s—a daughter Rosie, and a son Timothy who has ADHD.
For some 13 years I worked as a full-time parent, snatching at
spare moments to research ADHD, to understand our son better and
meet his very complex needs. More recently I took up part-time
work as a writer and technical editor and have just began studying
with the Open University on their Flexible PGCE Course for Secondary
Science Teaching. I have been a Beaver Scout Leader (mostly boys,
aged six to eight years) since 1995. In 2003 I had my first book
published, entitled ADHD: A Challenging Journey, under
the pseudonym of Anna Richards, by SAGE Publications, ISBN 1-87394-284-2.
2. The Characteristics of Children with ADHD
2.1 Most, but not all of these children,
are boys. If they have the hyperactivity component of the condition
they are likely to be fidgety, physically very active ("bouncing
off the walls") and highly impulsive. Our son, prior to being
medicated, would smash objects and hit other children for no apparent
reason, and then not even know why he had done it. ADHD children
without hyperactivity (mostly, but not exclusively, girls) are
likely to day-dream a great deal, sit quietly in a corner, and
even go unnoticed. Many ADHD children have co-morbid (ie co-existing)
learning difficulties such as dyslexia or excessively poor or
slow handwriting skills, although ADHD can occur right across
the IQ spectrum.
2.2 Many children with ADHD exhibit serious
or severe executive functioning deficits (EFDs). Executive functions
(EFs) can be thought of as the decision-making and planning processes
that help to control and direct our behaviour. For example, when
a child has a long-term assignment to complete, the executive
functioning tasks involved would include dividing the task into
sub-tasks, making a plan for completing those tasks, and monitoring
performance along the way. Although no single list of EFs is universally
agreed upon, most experts would agree that important EFs include
such abilities as planning, reasoning, working memory (ie, holding
information in memory for later use), inhibiting behaviour that
may bring immediate rewards in pursuit of a long-term goal, some
aspects of attention, and shifting cognitive sets, ie, flexibility
in thinking. EF skills are believed to be critically important
for complex human behaviour because they serve to organise and
guide behaviour in flexible and adaptive ways.
2.3 One of the main problems for children
with ADHD in the school environment is that their lack of EFs
come across to the staff as if the child were being lazy. As a
consequence the necessary concessions are not made, neither is
help given, but more commonly the child is punished in some form
or other.
2.4 With a deficit of EF skills the child
is frequently seriously disorganised. Another "give-away"
sign is where the behaviour exhibited by the child is highly incongruous
with his family background, that is, when he seems to come from
a "good" home. He may well have a problem-free older
sibling, whose exemplary behaviour and positive lifestyle indicate
more than adequate parenting within the family. Why would the
younger, difficult child so consistently behave in a way that
is so much at odds with his family, the school and so much against
his own best interests? Why would he go on generating more and
more condemnation when what he desires above all else is everyone's
approval? The answer is that either he is unable to help it (a
problem of inability to "self-regulate"), or it is an
attempt to cover up what he perceives to be his continual failure
in an orderly or academic setting. In the latter case, this failure
to be able to give to the adult world what they require of him
is probably not his fault either. It is because he suffers from
a condition, ADHD, which, if untreated or inadequately addressed
especially in the educational setting, is beyond his control.
2.5 In Text Box 1 you will see a summary
of the most usually accepted set of criteria for determining whether
a child has ADD or ADHD—the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, 1994, commonly known as the
"DSM-IVTM".
TEXT BOX 1: SUMMARY OF DSM-IVTM
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| A. Either (1) or (2) |
| (1) six (or more) of the following symptoms of inattention have persisted for at least six months to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with developmental level:
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Inattention
[Here follow nine specific examples of inattention, labelled "a" to "i"]
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| (2) six (or more), of the following symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity have persisted for at least six months to a degree that is maladaptive and inconsistent with developmental level:
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Hyperactivity
[Here follow six specific examples of hyperactivity, labelled "a" to "f", and then three further specific examples of impulsivity labelled "g" to "i"]
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B. Some hyperactive-impulsive or inattentive symptoms that caused impairment were present before the age of seven years.
C. Some impairment from the symptoms is present in two or more settings (eg at school and at home).
D. There must be clear evidence of clinically significant impairment in social, academic or occupational functioning.
E. The symptoms do not occur exclusively during the course of a Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Schizophrenia, or other Psychotic Disorder, and are not better accounted for by another mental disorder (eg Mood Disorder, Anxiety Disorder, Dissociative Disorder or a Personality Disorder).
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3. Why Children With ADHD Behave as They Do
3.1 Children (and adults) with ADHD have an under-functioning
of the frontal lobes of the brain compared to the majority of
the population. This is why stimulant medication can assist them
to concentrate and thereby conform more easily. However, medication
does not eliminate the problems completely.
3.2 In their brains, there is relatively little filtering
and selection of incoming stimuli, so they are highly distracted
by anything and everything which enters ears, eyes, nose, mouth
or via their sense of touch. Moreover, many of these children
have co-morbid Neuro-Developmental Delay (NDD) which exacerbates
their incapacity to sit still for long periods. NDD (in which
primitive foetal reflexes still persist) is fairly common in children
who have been born prematurely or by Caesarean Section. To tell
such children to sit still can sometimes be as unreasonable as
asking me to stop kicking my foot into the air when my leg is
being struck by a rubber hammer just below the knee-cap.
3.3 Children with ADHD have a very different perception
of time, due to significant differences in the basal ganglia area
of their brain. Many of them have sequencing problems (ie find
it difficult to report events in an accurate chronological order)
and end up being labelled as liars.
4. THE PROBLEM
OF MIDDLE/UPPER/SECONDARY
SCHOOLS
4.1 Another danger is that we design and implement compulsory
education systems which are totally, or in great part, at variance
with the way these children are "designed". The Middle
School and Upper (Secondary) School systems, I believe, are prime
examples of this. I have come to this conclusion not only by experiencing
what happened to Timothy when he changed from Lower School to
Middle School, but also by observing the same thing happening
to many other children with ADHD. Some children, like our son,
may just about have "survived" at Lower School without
being excluded or labelled severely problematical, on account
of the tighter structure and control which these schools provide
compared to a Middle School or Secondary School. (The Lower School
child has one classroom, one place where he is expected to sit,
one teacher who gets to know him very well indeed and will soon
sort out the best place to position him, and the best way overall
to deal with him). However, when the child gets to Middle School,
as we found with Timothy, all this crumbles. In addition, the
child is expected to organise himself, thus exposing his great
lack of this particular life-skill. The majority of Timothy's
peers, who undertook this same transition as he, could, after
an initial settling-in period, cope. Timothy, (despite being on
medication), plus some of his classmates, clearly could not. I
suspect that, broadly speaking, those without ADHD were the copers
and those with ADHD (and/or other "invisible" disabilities)
were the flounderers. I am, through a large network of contacts,
sadly aware that this is the picture across the whole of the UK.
5. DANGERS OF
IGNORING ADD/ADHD
5.1 The ADHD child usually looks quite "normal".
When confronted by a static child of this type, the condition
is quite invisible. If a child suffers from Down's Syndrome, others
usually make immediate concessions for his or her unusual or demanding
behaviour, based on the child's appearance. Children with ADHD
do not have this "advantage". On the contrary, they
are frequently branded as naughty, unco-operative, lazy and defiant.
All too often the child appears to come to fit this description
more and more as he struggles with confusion, frustration and
anxiety, plus a progressively plummeting self-esteem as he repeatedly
fails to dance to the tunes called by the school staff. It is
more than possible that ADHD underlies "that hard core of
underachievers—the 7% who gain no qualifications at all"
who were identified by this Government as long ago as 1999.
5.2 If ADHD goes undiagnosed and untreated (medically,
socially and educationally) then by the time the child hits the
teenage years he is often in big trouble. It is virtually impossible
to keep these children playing nicely inside the home, and doing
their homework as and when told. They are very vulnerable to getting
in with a bad crowd, very easily led, very prone to substance
abuse and to crime. Truancy is likely to occur. Whilst there is
much talk now about "parent partnership" and parents
being ultimately responsible for their truant children, how (may
I ask), short of strait-jacketing them, can they possibly get
their youngsters to school? Most of them are physically bigger
and stronger than their parents by then. Even fining the parents
several thousand pounds is unlikely to change the impulsive behaviour
of a persistent truant. So by the time they are adults, with years
of constant failure and rejection behind them, many become severely
depressed and some commit suicide.
5.3 At the 2nd Annual ADD Information Services Conference,
held in London in October 1998 (at which I was present), Doctor
Alison Munden, a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist working at
the Birmingham Children's Hospital, NHS Trust, presented the results
of a study which she had been carrying out. The study had investigated
ADHD plus behavioural and emotional problems in children who had
been excluded from mainstream education. Her study team found
that excluded children had a very high incidence of ADHD and Emotional
and Behavioural Disorders. John Sanford, HM Prison Officer and
parent of an adopted son with ADHD, gave a talk at this same conference
in which he said that 90% of crime is committed by just 6% of
the population. He estimates that half of that 6% have ADHD and
do not know it.
6. THE ADHD TIME
BOMB
6.1 It is clear that there are many of these children
around (the prevalence of ADHD is around 3% of the population)
and their condition will not just "go away" by being
ignored. Unless and until every child is appropriately and successfully
treated, the ensuing situations will explode in everyone's face
resulting in damaged children, dysfunctional families, dysfunctional
schools and society. There is no other possible outcome. We are
already seeing "explosion" after "explosion"
in school after school in the UK, where children with ADHD are
misunderstood and consequently being mistreated.
7. PROFESSIONAL IGNORANCE
OF ADHD
7.1 Even after our son had a diagnosis of ADHD and a
Statement, the majority of his teachers would write in his school
report remarks like "Timothy must develop a much more positive
attitude towards work and begin to recognise the value of concentrated
attention". Every other parent that I know of a child with
ADHD also receives similar kinds of school reports. We don't need
to be told that our child has concentration problems, organisational
problems and is impulsive. We already know that. What teacher
would ever dream of telling the parent of a blind boy that their
son has a problem with his sight? Who in their right mind would
feel they need to inform the parents of a deaf girl that their
daughter has a problem with her hearing? The fact that teachers
are continuing to write reports such as these is a complete give-away
that they do not grasp the true nature of ADHD, however much one
tries as a parent to inform them. It is a very complex condition
and teachers' extent of such specialised knowledge and understanding
in the mainstream environment is woefully and dangerously inadequate.
7.2 In our experience, the LA (Bedfordshire) were no
better than the school at understanding what ADHD is all about.
Timothy was Statemented in 1998. In May 2003 my husband and I
had to attend a meeting with LA officers at County Hall, Bedford.
Since Timothy was home for half-term break from his residential
school, we thought it would be a good idea if LA officers had
the opportunity to meet with him so we took him with us. Our daughter
(then aged 17 years of age and extremely mature) came too, our
idea being that she accompanied Tim into a brief meeting with
the LA officers (without us, the parents) and then took him into
Bedford city centre to occupy him until we could all meet up again.
To our astonishment the LA officers asked whether our daughter
and Timothy would wait (in an amusement-free waiting area) until
after the meeting with my husband and myself, and then they would
meet with our children. Now these were officers from the Assessment
and Monitoring Team. They should understand the nature of various
disabilities, and ADHD is by no means uncommon. Surely they should
have known that it is extremely difficult for a child with ADHD
to "wait his turn". Even if they knew this in theory,
they proved that they had no idea how to make reasonable adjustments
in practice! It was an equivalent disability faux-pas to that
of asking parents of a wheelchair-bound child to change the venue
of the meeting to a room on a different floor in a building where
there were no ramps or lifts.
7.3 Then again, at a meeting with LA officers (from the
same Assessment and Monitoring Team) in January 2004, I had to
bargain very hard with both Tim's Statementing Officer and the
Head of Educational Psychology regarding their wording in Part
2 of Timothy's Draft Statement. They had put "Timothy is
unwilling to take responsibility . . ." Given that Timothy
does not have significant Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties,
but does have very significant ADHD, the wording should be "Timothy
is unable to take responsibility" The officers eventually
conceded to my arguments and claimed that they could not be expected
to understand every medical condition which existed. But if they
are going to be making meaningful, appropriate Statements for
children with ADHD, they absolutely must understand the condition—or
"buy in" the necessary expertise. They did neither.
Reports from parents of other children with ADHD in other parts
of the UK indicate that their LAs are no better equipped than
ours.
8. THE ECONOMICS
OF TREATING—AND
NOT TREATING—ADHD
8.1 Most people would probably agree that we have a moral
obligation to treat ADHD children and adults with respect, justice
and support, quite apart from any economic arguments. But even
if one were heartless enough to argue the case on economic grounds
alone, the case for early diagnosis and treatment as opposed to
ignoring the condition is overwhelming. Treatment might include
medication (where symptoms are sufficiently severe), but will
certainly mean some kind of modified or alternative education.
8.2 The figures given below marked "*" were
quoted by John Sanford, HM Prison Officer, at the 2nd Annual ADD
Information Services Conference, October 1998.
| Costs of ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment
| | |
| ADHD diagnosis by a qualified professional |
| £500* |
| One year's supply of Ritalin tablets |
| £200* |
| Statement of Special Educational Needs (LevelG)
| | £2,330 pa (1998) |
| Total | £3,030 pa (approx)
|
| Potential Cost of Not Diagnosing and Treating ADHD
| | |
| Cost of supporting someone in prison |
| £26,000* pa |
| Cost of supporting someone in high security prison
| | £62,400* pa |
| |
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Of course, the cost of all these items will have risen since
1998 but the underlying principles remain the same.
9. MISUNDERSTANDING OR
PERSECUTION?
9.1 Jerry Mills, an American teacher and songwriter who
has ADHD, and is now around 50-years-old, describes his experience
of school as "a bizarre descent into a Living Hell".
At best he was misunderstood: at worst, he was persecuted. I have
had the great pleasure of hearing Jerry speak at several conferences.
He sums up his thoughts brilliantly and succinctly in his song
entitled "The Ones Responsible", reproduced in Text
Box 2.
9.2 This song gives an insider's perspective of ADHD
which can be more helpful than all the text books on ADHD put
together in coming to a better understanding of what it is like
to be an "ADDer" (ie ADHD-sufferer) undergoing compulsory
mainstream education. In this regard, the situation is very similar
in the UK compared to that in the USA.
TEXT BOX 2: THE ONES RESPONSIBLE
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In my hometown there was a school that I attended as a child
Where I earned the reputation for bein' a little too wild.
And even though I left that place over twenty years ago
The memories of it haunt me almost everywhere I go!
I went there for nine long years, from kindergarten through eighth grade,
And I wish I had a dollar for every screw up that I made
Because maybe with all those riches I'd be able to make some sense
Of just what the hell was goin' on! What the hell was goin' on . . .?
"Spare the rod and spoil the child." But why couldn't they just let me rot
Instead of having to endure all of the punishment that I got
For not payin' attention, for bein' the class clown,
For not obeyin' orders when I was told to settle down,
For forgetting to do my homework, for not bein' ready on time,
For failin' to keep my way of life between their dotted lines?
For thirty years it's haunted me until I figured out
Just what the hell was goin' on. What the hell was goin' on . . .
Heaven help the children who live their lives with restless, achin' souls,
Always acting so impulsively and lacking self-control.
Heaven help someone to change the children's nightmares into dreams.
But God help the ones responsible for destroying their self-esteem.
It takes all kinds to make a world, and some can make the world unkind.
But there's no one in this world with the right to blow a young kid's mind
By treating them like trouble instead of trying to figure out
Just what the hell is goin' on.
What the hell is goin' on!
What the hell is goin' on?
The Ones Responsible
From the recording "Urgent Reply"
1993 Jerry Mills
Reprinted with permission
For information contact www.jerrymills.com
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10. WHAT CAN
SCHOOLS DO
ABOUT CHILDREN
WITH ADHD?
10.1 Mainstream schools in the UK are by no means ADHD-user-friendly.
Indeed, one could legitimately claim that the majority of schools
are "user-hostile" to these children. Most of the "ADDer"
children could probably thrive in an education system that was
geared towards their brain type—an education system that
was built upon their strengths rather than on their weaknesses—just
as many children without ADHD can thrive in the current set-up.
10.2 But the only type of education which closely approaches
this ideal which I have come across in the UK is the "Forest
School" system, being pioneered from Bridgwater in Somerset
and also by Oxford County Council. Even then, the proportion of
time that any one child spends in the forest environment is relatively
minute compared to the totality of their education. Moreover,
the proportion of children in the UK who have access to Forest
School is also minute.
10.3 Try to imagine the day-to-day school life for a
child whose curriculum is centred on his weaknesses and not his
strengths. Now think about what you know to be your greatest weakness
in your profession (if you don't know, a colleague could probably
tell you!). Next, imagine an inspector repeatedly visiting you
whilst you were carrying out duties based on this weakness, and
the effect that it would have on your self-esteem. And finally,
try to identify your greatest strength, which will probably be
the part of your work which gives you greatest pleasure. Imagine
now the inspector repeatedly visiting you whilst you were engaged
in tasks based on this strength. What would your self-esteem be
like now? This simple thought experiment is very revealing and
can help one understand enormously the current plight of the ADHD
child, whose education is centred upon his/her weaknesses. Just
think how all this could be transformed if the curriculum were
geared to their strengths.
10.4 One might argue that every school needs to support
their ADHD children by pressing for a Statement of Special Educational
Needs (in which the specific needs of each child are identified,
with a programme of provision to meet those needs). Certainly
this will be necessary where the child has co-morbid learning
difficulties. Our son was extremely fortunate to get a Statement
(back in 1988). But it turned out that even with a Statement,
his needs could not be met in an in-county (Bedfordshire) mainstream
school. He was given a Learning Support Assistant (LSA) to help
him but only for seven hours a week. The Statement failed him
both quantitatively and qualitatively.
— Quantitatively—the seven hours one-to-one
support was insufficient. It left him free to roam either physically
or mentally the rest of the time in class.
— Qualitatively—having a one-to-one
LSA, untrained as a teacher, was not "scratching where Timothy
itched". Although she may have been doing an excellent job
within her terms of reference, she was for the most-part having
to keep Timothy on-task in academic subjects which were not his
forte, and merely helping to squeeze him into a mould which by
nature he did not fit. With no disrespect, and I have no proof,
I suspect that there must have been times when all the LSA could
do was provide a glorified baby-sitting service. One LSA after
another resigned and he got through five of them in one year.
This speaks for itself. I am virtually certain that Timothy wasn't
being given appropriately differentiated work to do all of the
time. Despite Timothy having a Statement, the school clearly did
not have the human resources available for this. It is no criticism
of them, but rather a criticism of a system which promises to
meet a child's special educational needs but in practice is unable
to do so. Inclusion is the name of the game, but maximum inclusion
means maximum differentiation. Perhaps most important of all,
Timothy's Statement made no provision for the adapted or alternative
curriculum which (was apparent to us) that he needed. Neither
the school nor the LEA were able to meet this need. In the end
Timothy had to be sent out of county to a (mainstream) independent
school which had very small class sizes, Slindon College in West
Sussex.
10.5 Timothy is just one of hundreds of thousands of
youngsters with ADHD in the UK. We were so grateful that he was
placed at Slindon, but the battle which we as parents were forced
to go through was time-sapping, energy-sapping, health-destroying
and, I hesitate but feel compelled to say, immoral. It is outrageous
that parents of children with ADHD (not just ourselves, but thousands
of others), who are as a result already severely disadvantaged
in time, energy and even money, should be forced to fight their
LAs which are so adversarial and so ignorant of the nature of
ADHD.
10.6 It is clear that our education system needs to be
adjusted—even re-designed, to cater for children with ADHD.
At 3% of the population they can hardly be considered rare specimens.
But how can their education be made compatible with their non-ADHD-suffering
peers?
10.7 One suggestion is by setting up a rather different
type of educational programme—a school within a school,
perhaps, building on the successes of Forest Schooling and any
other suitable systems that might be identified. Such special
units could address the needs of children with ADHD whether Statemented
or not, and be run along different lines to the current Individual
Education Plan (IEP) system. I personally know of no ADHD child
whose needs have been adequately met by the current IEP method.
This is not particularly surprising, as they are being offered
more of the same, still in a group setting, rather than what they
really need, ie an alternative curriculum. The nature of the problem
which I am trying to explain is probably best illustrated by The
Animal School, printed in Text Box 3, below.
10.8 Whatever education is being offered to children
with ADHD, their teachers and all school staff must be informed
by knowledge about the brain, neural sciences, and neuro-development
as well as by the more traditional educational disciplines if
these children's needs are going to be met in accordance with
their human rights. The current situation in which children with
ADHD are being expected to conform to the "norm" is,
I believe, as barbaric as the now-abandoned practice of compelling
left-handed children to perform in class as though they were right-handed.
TEXT BOX 3 THE ANIMAL SCHOOL
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Once upon a time, the Animal State, having decided that education should be compulsory for all species between the ages of five to 16 months, set up a school. It was agreed that the curriculum should include
*running *climbing *swimming *flying
All animals were required to take all subjects, since it was politically correct to practise inclusion, regardless of the natural aptitudes of the different creatures. It was also decided to give a standard assessment test to all pupils at regular intervals.
The Duck obtained Grade A in swimming (and was even better than the instructor), Grade C in flying, Grade D in running and Grade E in climbing. Her webbed feet became badly worn from running, so her swimming grade eventually dropped from an A to a C. An average grade (C) for swimming was quite acceptable to the school authorities, so nobody worried about it—except the Duck, whose self-esteem and overall enjoyment of school life began to plummet.
The Rabbit, at his first assessment, gained a Grade A for running and was top of his class. However, he soon had a nervous breakdown because he was made to attend extra lessons in swimming in order to improve upon his low grade.
The Squirrel excelled at climbing (Grade A) and also did well at running (Grade B). But he became extremely frustrated at the school because the flying-class teacher forced him to start from the ground up instead of from the tree-top down. Consequently he persistently failed all flying tests (Grade F), whereas he knew that he could at least have achieved B+ if he had been allowed to do it his way. In addition, his climbing grade fell to a C and his running to a D. His doctor diagnosed him as suffering from a severe anxiety disorder, which had not been evident at the pre-school medical.
The Eagle came to the school as a reasonably happy pupil. Problems arose when, during the climbing classes, he beat all the others to the top of the tree but had insisted on using his own way to get there. He was labelled as suffering from conduct disorder and severely disciplined. Firstly he was made to stand on one leg outside the headteacher's study, and then he was forced to eat his lunch out of school.
At the end of the school year, the star pupil, gaining the headteacher's award, was an abnormal Eel who could swim exceedingly well, and could also run, climb and fly a little.
The Fox's parents withdrew him from the school because the administration refused to add digging and burrowing to the curriculum, even though they conceded that he might have a special need to do this. His parents were by then at their wits' end, since education was, by law, compulsory. Fortunately they happened to meet, and were very impressed by, the headteacher of another school, who was an open-minded Badger. Although his school was privately run, they felt that they had no option but to send their son there, joining an assortment of stoats, hedgehogs and sewer rats, and incurring an enormous cost to themselves of 12,000 chicken bones per year.
[Adapted for a British audience by Maryla Carter, 1999, (based on a story in Chapter 22, "Learning Disabilities", in Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology: Fourth Edition. By Kolb, Bryan and Wishaw (1996].
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11. CONCLUSIONS
11.1 There is a dearth of appropriate provision for pupils
with ADHD in mainstream schools in the UK. The methods of teaching
employed and the curriculum imposed are for the most-part ADHD-user-hostile.
Even when such children have a Statement of Special Educational
Needs, and even when they take medication, for as long as they
are in a mainstream school with typical class sizes of between
20-30 children, their needs are very unlikely to be met. It is
extremely rare for teachers and other members of staff in mainstream
schools to understand the nature and complexity of ADHD, let alone
know how to cater for it, even if the "system" were
to allow for suitable adjustments. LA officers, too, are ignorant.
Consequently many of these children are suffering fear, frustration
and ultimately failure.
11.2 As things stand at present, the real needs of children
with ADHD are being sacrificed upon the altar of inclusion. All
too often the outcome is the complete opposite of this —
exclusion, frequently followed by problems with addiction, mental
health and the criminal justice system. Our society is paying
an enormous price for this imposition of inappropriate education.
11.3 This situation needs to be addressed urgently as
a matter of Human Rights. [53]
September 2005
53
United Nation's Convention On The Rights Of The Child, 1989 (Article
23), Ratified by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland in December 1991. Back
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