give it to the children

i read an article that purports children are getting expelled from preschools at a rate higher than teens are getting expelled from high school. the article did not claim, though hinted, that the problem seems to stem from attention deficit disorder.

i am on record that the true meaning of attention deficit is a person having too little attention from predictable and stable and non-confusing people...mostly parents...in their lives. the rise in the diagnosis of 'attention deficit w/without hyperactivity disorder is both a sign of the behavioral health profession once again jumping on the 'make a buck' scene, and also a sign of parents who are too busy with the other aspects of their lives at the expense of time with their children. i dare say that modern american parents spend more time in the following non-work activities than they do spending time with their children: watching t.v., engaging in physical self-care programs.

children don't get enough attention from the people best suited to caring for their needs...their families. while i believe most day-care settings are helpful...good attentive staff, enabling parents to balance needs and life in a costly world...i also believe day-care settings are first and foremost a resource for parents (not the child) and, in a close second, a business. thus stated, day-cares don't provide care for children at a commensurate rate in which they meet the needs of the parents; the child while helped, is the secondary recipient. further, children are not a business...they are lives. life is not a business....life is primary.

children in modern american society are more like commodities. if that contention is indeed true, such a sad state of united americans.

now, if i am a child spending 6 - hours in a day-care setting, starting at an age of a few weeks and even if starting at age 3, i am not sure i can find meaningful and trusting connections with attentive workers...people...who are both running a business and tending to the needs of a dozen or more children. even children born into large families had a different experience...older children in parenting roles who were better able to provide the emotional safety and security that would typically come from mom/dad. without those strong emotional attachments, children are free far too soon. children free far too soon are independent before they have finished learning how to be dependent. children free far too soon are the centers of their own universes, rather than having mom/dad to ground them. children free far too soon are going to strike out and be unruly and not be attached and will always be wary...and these are the roots of what we safely categorize as attention deficit. children of modern american culture don't like people...they haven't learned how.