What do the terms ADD and EBD mean to educators and what re-thinking might be appropriate?

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and Emotional or Behavioral Disorder (EBD) are the traditional definitions the education community gives for syndromes that didn’t seem to exist until about 30 years ago. Evidently these disorders are a result of something that has happened in recent time. Could it be that the “D” in this should be for “Distraction” or “Discipline (lack of)?”

I have tutored many kids who were supposed to have ADD over the past few years. I checked this question with a high school friend of mine who was a school psychologist for most of his career, and another friend who taught in high school for his entire career.

There were no reservations about my contention. The psychologist even suggested in some terms, I will not use in this column, that lack of discipline was a major factor in both of these “syndromes.”

At a recent school board meeting I sat behind some elementary students who were there to get an award. All of them had either a game-boy or text message device out as they could not engage in a conversation among themselves or with others!

The proliferation of these “syndromes” just might be related to this situation. We, parents and schools, have allowed our children to develop an attention span that seems to be close to that of a kitten! X-Box, text messaging, entertainment with short attention spans, etc, have invaded the lives of our children, and are destroying their ability to do any substantive thinking. They are “Distracted” by a constant stream of stimuli that are counter-productive to learning. Those who do not have an organized home life seem to be exhibiting this “Syndrome” very frequently. Could this be “Discipline?” Why is it that in recent years school districts have had to provide “planners” for each student to try to get them to be organized? Too many distractions? Too little discipline and requirement for organization? Those kids whose eyes are wondering, squirming in their seats, text messaging, etc., usually end up “Emotionally and Behaviorally Disabled.

Having worked with some of these kids, I can report that when they are placed in an environment where there isn’t an alternative to being quiet and focusing upon a task, most can do far more than we might expect. Just give them an alternative and this achievement seems to disappear. Larry, the Cable Guy, puts it quite well when he says, “Hard work pays off in the long run, but laziness pays off right now!”

What do I think it would take then to “Cure” these syndromes for a very large portion of the “Disabled?” Schools and homes where distractions are missing would seem like a great start. Instead of “I want it now,” “You will get what you need when we believe that you have earned it,” might be a significant step in improving our achievement levels.

“Education Week,” the national weekly on Education has an excellent article on “Student Responsibility.” They point out that all of the “Education Reform” discussion to date has overlooked the student’s responsibility for learning. The article points out that this “feed me what I like to eat” concept just doesn’t exist in the nations that have surpassed us because they have much higher expectations of the students. Exchange teachers from higher achievement countries report, "In China, if you teach the students and they don't get it, that's their problem. Here if they don't get it, you teach it again." As the Chinese teacher observed, teachers in America get little respect. In China, teaching is an honorable career.

Isn’t this just a little like our obesity problem? Impulses, as Larry the Cable Guy suggests, do not lead to long term results. This long term, for children, is only to the age of 18, when they are left to their own devices. In this state less than 30% of our children are prepared for this! 30% have dropped out, by the school district’s own admission, at least 40% have “graduated” from high school without any employment skills, and the final 30% have attained admission to higher education or a vocation.

Could it be that we are digging our own graves? Could it be that we are so infatuated with our youth, and them not having any “hard times,” that we are self-destructing?