Drugging our Children

11/03/2006

Seek to delight, that they may mend mankind. And, while they captivate, inform the mind.
William Cowper

In a powerful editorial, "Why Are We Drugging Our Children?" in the September 27, 2006 issue of Education Week (edweek.org) Julian Weissglass raises serious concerns with our society's increasing use of drugs with children. A recent study found that the use of antipsychotic drugs to treat children and adolescents increased by more than five times from 1993 to 2002. Weissglass believes that much of the increase in prescriptions of psychiatric drugs is because children’s behavior and emotions are difficult for adults to handle. This is impossible to prove, but if even one child is prescribed drugs because of adults’ discomfort with his or her behavior, it is a grave injustice.

Children have the right to be themselves as they grow up, to be loved and supported, and to have their emotions attended to by caring adults. If they are acting in ways that are inconvenient or difficult for adults to handle, then it would be wise to give the adults emotional support, so that they can constructively handle the young people’s behavior, rather than resort to drugging them.

When such large numbers of children have to be drugged to cope in school, we should consider changing schools, so that they are better places for young people. We could well begin by asking what kind of school will assist young people to have full, meaningful lives, rather than measuring the success of schools by students’ performance on standardized tests.

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