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Teaching the Restless: One School's Remarkable
no-Ritalin Approach to Helping Children Learn
and Succeed
By Chris Mercogliano
We’ve all read the stories about medicating
hyperactive (ADHD) kids. The controversy shows
no signs of ending, as parents and doctors
debate the merits of diagnosing and medicating
children at younger and younger ages. Chris
Mercogliano has a strong opinion on the matter,
and he enters the debate as an educator. In
Teaching the Restless, Mercogliano issues an
urgent call for a shift in how our society
perceives hyperactive children—away from
theories of faulty brain chemistry and toward an
understanding of children’s lives.
Mercogliano co-directs the
Albany Free School in Albany, New York.
The Necessity of Madness and Unproductivity:
Psychiatric Oppression or Human Transformation
by John Breeding, Ph.D.
This book is about psychiatric oppression: what
it is, how it works, and how it came to be. John
Breeding shows how psychiatry suppresses and
punishes experiences which are completely
natural and, in fact, necessary to achieve
spiritual maturity. He argues that experiences
of temporary "madness" and unproductivity, while
violating society's demand for continuous
productivity, are essential if individuals are
to grow and mature. Readers will find
information to help themselves and their
families; psychiatric survivors will better
understand their experiences and find guidance
for the process of renewal; professionals will
be stimulated to think in new ways about their
work and about the system in which they play so
vital a role.
"True Nature and Great Misunderstandings"
by John Breeding, Ph.D.
Breeding says that we care for children
according to our understanding. If we understand
children to be inherently violent, we can expect
to be struggling to tame violent urges from here
on. If we forget that children are born with an
insatiable curiosity and absorbent minds, and
instead think we need to use reward and
punishment to make them learn, then we get a
system that creates dumb, unmotivated students.
If we believe that failures in adjustment are
due to biologically based "mental illnesses"
like "attention deficit disorder," then we end
up with millions of our precious children on
toxic drugs. This book will help to clean these
distorted mirrors of perception.
The Wildest Colts Make the Best Horses.
by John Breeding, Ph.D.
This timely book calls for a halt to the
epidemic drugging of young people in our society
today for so-called ADHD. John Breeding is a
clear, strong advocate for young people and a
great ally to parents wanting support to resist
pressure to label and drug their children. He
offers a wealth of information and guidance to
concerned adults on biopsychiatry, on schools,
and on counseling children.
Ritalin Is Not The Answer : A Drug-Free,
Practical Program for Children Diagnosed with
ADD or ADHD
by Dr. David B. Stein
Nearly one-tenth of all school-aged children in
the United States are being coerced into taking
mood-altering drugs with side effects that
include insomnia, tearfulness, rebound
irritability, personality change, nervousness,
anorexia, nausea, dizziness, headaches, heart
palpitations, and cardiac arrhythmia. These are
the children diagnosed with attention deficit
disorder (ADD) or attention deficit with
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Ritalin Is Not
the Answer confronts and challenges what has
become common practice and teaches parents and
educators a healthy, comprehensive behavioral
program that really works as an alternative to
the epidemic use of medication-without teaching
children to use drugs in order to handle their
behavioral and emotional problems.
Ritalin is Not the Answer Action Guide: An
Interactive Companion to the Bestselling
Drug-Free ADD/ADHD Parenting Program
by Dr. David B. Stein
Now the same principles and tools of the
acclaimed Caregivers' Skill Program that Dr.
Stein outlined in Ritalin Is Not the Answer
are present in this easy-to-use companion
workbook. Filled with self-tests, specific
step-by-step guidelines, checklists, and
exercises, Ritalin Is Not the Answer Action
Guide offers a healthy, comprehensive
behavioral program that has been proven to work!
Unraveling The Add/Adhd Fiasco
by Dr. David B. Stein
The number of children being diagnosed with
ADD/ADHD has skyrocketed, along with
prescriptions for Ritalin and other powerful
amphetamine drugs to treat these problem
children. This pharmaceutical answer to a
behavioral disorder is one of the most
controversial subjects in parenting today, and
Dr. David Stein offers parents a safe, foolproof
alternative. Challenging the disease theories of
ADD/ADHD, Stein discusses the conditions in
modern society and the American family that
cause so many children to hate schoolwork and
behave disrespectfully to all authority figures.
Rejecting the pill solution, he presents a truly
effective parent training program called the
Caregivers' Skills Program that helps children
learn appropriate behavioral and cognitive
skills permanently, without drug therapy.
Controlling the Difficult Adolescent
by Dr. David B. Stein
Introduces specific methods for parents and for
therapists on how to teach parents to control
difficult and oppositional adolescents. The
oppositional/defiant adolescent engages in
behavior that can be described as abusive to and
inconsiderate of other family members. Such
teenagers do not typically respond well to
traditional methods of psychotherapy and often
therapists commit these youngsters to
psychiatric hospitals. The methods introduced in
this book are based on years of research and can
be effectively carried out in the home setting,
removing the need for hospitalization. Simple
rules of conduct and clear expectations for the
teen's behavior are established at the
beginning.
No More Ritalin: Treating Adhd Without Drugs
by Dr. Mary Ann Block
Ever year in the U.S., over two million children
are given the drug Ritalin to combat Attention
Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Now,
Dr. Mary Ann Block shows why Ritalin may be very
dangerous to a child's health--and offers
parents safer and more effective alternatives.
Using thorough research and actual case
histories from her clinic, Dr. Block provides
powerful evidence that a drug-free approach
works
No More ADHD
by Dr. Mary Ann Block
In her new book, No More ADHD, 10 Steps To Help
Improve Your Child`s Attention and Behavior
WITHOUT Drugs, Dr. Mary Ann Block, top-selling
author of the groundbreaking book, No More
Ritalin, reveals the truth about the ADHD
diagnosis and helps parents, step by step
identify and improve their child`s true health
and learning problems. Dr. Block takes the
reader on a shocking journey behind the scenes
of the medical profession to expose the origin
of the ADHD label and explains how children’s
attention and behavior symptoms can be the
result of real and explainable health and
learning problems.
Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of
Compulsory Schooling
by John Taylor Gatto
This radical treatise on public education has
been a New Society Publishers' bestseller for 10
years! Thirty years of award-winning teaching in
New York City's public schools led John Gatto to
the sad conclusion that compulsory governmental
schooling does little but teach young people to
follow orders as cogs in the industrial machine.
In celebration of the ten-year anniversary of
Dumbing Us Down and to keep this classic
current, we are renewing the cover art, adding
new material about John and the impact of the
book, and a new Foreword.
Understanding Waldorf Education: Teaching from
the Inside Out
by John Taylor Gatto
Written by a teacher with more than 25 years of
experience, this book offers a jargon-free view
of Waldorf schools with their philosophy of the
importance of a three-dimensional education.
Through learning experiences that involve all of
the senses, children use a variety of
intelligences to develop thought, feeling, and
intentional, purposeful activity. Whether you’re
a Waldorf parent or teacher, or you just want to
learn more about these innovative educational
concepts, this book contains important ideas on
learning that you can apply today.
The Exhausted School: Bending the Bars of
Traditional Education
by John Taylor Gatto
These 13 essays, presented at the 1993 National
Grassroots Speaks out on the Right to School
Choice, illustrate how education reform actually
works. Written by award-winning teachers and
their students, these essays present successful
teaching methods that work in both traditional
and nontraditional classroom settings.
A Different Kind of Teacher: Solving the Crisis
of American Schooling
by John Taylor Gatto
John Taylor Gatto analyzes the roots of the
modern American education system, detailing how
it was designed to foster economic interests and
facilitate management of the labor force. He
then outlines ways to revitalize the system,
advocating greater emphasis on critical
analysis, creativity, practicality, and
real-world exposure in the curriculum. He also
calls on educators and administrators to
acknowledge young people's need for a spiritual
and ethical framework upon which to build a good
life
Talking Back to Ritalin: What Doctors Aren't
Telling You About Stimulants and ADHD
by Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
Millions of children take Ritalin for
Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The
drug's manufacturer, Novartis, claims that
Ritalin is the "solution" to this widespread
problem. But hidden behind the well-oiled
public-relations machine is a potentially
devastating reality: children are being given a
drug that can cause the same bad effects as
amphetamine and cocaine, including behavioral
disorders, growth suppression, neurological
tics, agitation, addiction, and psychosis.
Talking Back to Ritalin uncovers these and
other startling facts and translates the
research findings for parents and doctors alike.
The Ritalin Fact Book: What Your Doctor Won't
Tell You
by Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
Known as the "Ralph Nader of psychiatry," Peter
Breggin has been the medical expert in countless
civil and criminal cases involving the use or
misuse of psychoactive medications. This unusual
position has given him unprecedented access to
private pharmaceutical research and
correspondence files, access that informs this
straight-talking guide to the most-prescribed
and controversial class of psychoactive
medications prescribed for children. From how
these drugs work in the brain to documented side
and withdrawal effects, The Ritalin Fact Book
is up-to-the-minute and easy-to-access. With its
suggestions for non-prescriptive ways to treat
ADD and ADHD, it is essential reading for every
parent whose child is on or who has been
recommended psychoactive medication.
Reclaiming Our Children: A Healing Solution for
a Nation in Crisis
by Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
Children have been sliding down our priority
list for too long. Busy parents give children
leftover time-those few remaining minutes after
work and recreation. Stressed teachers have put
conformity and good grades ahead of stimulating
children to love learning. The many adults who
are motivated to do their best often find
themselves at a loss over what to do. Our
children, desperately missing us in their lives,
look in the wrong places for solace and support.
While only a few become openly violent, many
more feel humiliated, frustrated, lonely, and
angry.
Your Drug May Be Your Problem: How and Why to
Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications
by Peter R. Breggin, M.D.
While a doctor may take fifteen minutes to
determine the need for a psychiatric drug, the
patient may end up taking it for months, years,
or a lifetime. We deserve to know the dangers in
advance -including the difficulties we may
encounter when trying to withdraw. Your Drug
May Be Your Problem is the only book to
provide an up-to-date, uncensored description of
the dangers involved in taking every kind of
psychiatric medication, and it is the first and
only book to explain how to coordinate a safe
withdrawal from them
Why Johnny Can't Read: And What You Can Do about
It
by Rudolf Flesch
The classic book on phonics--the method of
teaching recommended by the U.S. Department of
Education. Contains complete materials and
instructions on teaching children to read at
home.
Why Johnny Still Can't Read: A New Look at the
Scandal of Our Schools
by Rudolf Flesch
The first book was mainly a primer on phonic
reading, with enough about the phonics debate to
justify following his program. The second book
is devoted exclusively to the ongoing debate
about phonics, and makes for fascinating
reading--especially if you get steamed by
incompetence, and are fascinated by conflict.
Some thirty years after the first book was
written, Rudolph Flesch observes that things
haven't improved in reading class. Kids still
get through school functionally illiterate, and
the perpetrators of this crime still claim that
we need THEM to solve the problem.
The Boy Who Burned Too Brightly.
by David J. Welsh, Brandon Bolt (Illustrator)
Although it looks like a child's book, this
subversive little fable is actually written for
those who work with or care for children.
Colorful illustrations accompany this
allegorical tale about a mythical town where
everyone has a flame burning on top of their
head. Randall’s parents had always enjoyed their
son’s unusual and unpredictable flame. But to
other eyes, Randall’s flame was a source of
annoyance and distraction. Mrs. Steadfast (his
teacher) first brings it to their attention, and
Dr. Vaticinate (a child pyrologist) quickly
confirms the diagnosis of Defective Flicker
Syndrome. Soon Randall joins the many other
children in Flintville drinking a special
additive called “quiescence” in order to burn
with consistent, uniform flames.
Is This Your Child?
By Doris Rapp
Doris Rapp, M.D., F.A.A.A., F.A.A.P., is a
board-certified environmental medical specialist
and pediatric allergist for children. She is
clinical assistant professor of pediatrics at
the State University of New York at Buffalo. She
is the founder of the Practical Allergy
Foundation in Buffalo and is the past president
of the American Academy of Environmental
Medicine. This breakthrough book offers a simple
yet effective approach to handling "problem"
children. Is This Your Child? shows
parents how to identify the common foods,
chemicals, or common allergic substances that
could be the culprits that cause some children
or adults to feel unwell or act inappropriately.
If your child is always sick, hyperactive, a
slow learner, or cranky, the first question you
should ask is not "What drug should be
prescribed?" or "What have I done wrong as a
parent?" Instead, find out the cause.
The Hyperactivity Hoax : How To Stop Drugging
Your Child And Find Real Medical Help.
by Sydney Walker
Each year, millions of children take Ritalin,
which means thousands of doctors are diagnosing
them with hyperactivity or ADD. But what do
these diagnoses mean? Are drugs the answer for
these illnesses? And most importantly, is your
child getting the proper treatment for his or
her problem?
In The Hyperactivity Hoax,
neuropsychiatrist Dr. Sydney Walker cogently
explores the medical minefield of hyperactivity
and helps parents arrive at safe, effective
answers for their children, without
unnecessarily drugging them with potentially
dangerous mind-altering medicine.
Why Your Child Is Hyperactive
By Ben Feingold
Contains detailed information by the doctor who
first reported that hyperactivity in children is
often caused by artificial food coloring and
food flavoring. Includes the Feingold diet and
how it should be applied.
Feingold Cookbook for Hyperactive Children
Ben Feingold
Explains the problems of dietary management,
brings the scientific evidence up-to-date and
provides a list of forbidden foods. Includes
recipes and menus for additive and salicylate-free
meals for the entire family.
Informed Consent: The Consumer's Guide to the
Risks and Benefits of Volunteering for Clinical
Trials
by Kenneth Getz and Deborah Borfitz
Informed
Consent(tm) is a 300-page book designed to
assist patients, their family and advocates in
making more informed decisions before giving
their consent to volunteer for a clinical trial
and during their participation. This
first-of-its-kind consumer guidebook provides
comprehensive facts and objective, expert
commentary to assist patients and their
advocates in understanding their rights and
recourse as study volunteers, what to expect
when participating in a clinical trial and how
research professionals conduct studies on new
drug therapies
Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children
Feel Good About Themselves but Can't Read,
Write, Or Add
By Charles J. Sykes
Nowhere has the flight from quality plaguing
American life these days been more obvious than
in our primary and secondary schools -- on the
whole, the graduates seem less well-read and
less well-spoken, less knowledgeable and less
able to compute. In this book, Charles Sykes
asks why, and lays most of the blame at the feet
of the trainers of teachers, the writers of
textbooks and the educational policy wonks who
influence them. He convincingly shows that in
many different school systems, and in many
different academic fields, with the help of
goofy text-books, watered-down requirements and
"recentered" test grade scales, American
students have come to value feeling good about a
subject over being good in it.
The Feel-Good Curriculum: The Dumbing Down of
America's Kids in the Name of Self-Esteem
By Maureen Stout, Ph.D.
A scathing critique of the self-esteem movement
in American public education, complete with
practical solutions to counter its ill effects.
The so-called self-esteem movement-a
progressive, child-centered, discovery model of
schooling-has transformed schools into
therapeutic clinics and teachers into
counselors, creating a generation of entitled,
righteous, underachieving children. An insider's
account of the pernicious aspects of this
seemingly well-meaning movement, The Feel-Good
Curriculum provides devastating evidence that
our belief in the power and importance of
self-esteem in education is misplaced and
without basis.
The Conspiracy of Ignorance: The Failure of
American Public Schools
By Martin L. Gross
Never before have public school students been so
poorly educated. On national exams, almost 40
percent of fourth graders are reading at "below
basic" levels, and in international contests in
math and science, our seventeen-year-olds score
near the bottom.
In a shocking expose of the Educational
Establishment, Martin L. Gross describes how the
typical teacher is academically inferior and
trained in dubious "educational psychology" and
faddish "whole language" methods. Indeed, most
teachers and administrators come from the bottom
third of their class and are outscored on the
SAT tests by their own college-bound students.
The curriculum is so weak that only one in five
students ever take trigonometry, physics, or
geography in high school. The usual
remedies-from smaller class sizes to federal
aid-fail because the Etablishment is intent on
maintaining both control and lower academic
standards. Lucid, persuasive, and meticulously
researched, The Conspiracy of Ignorance
asks- and answers--the questions educators are
afraid to ask. This book is desperately needed
if American schoolchildren are to prosper in
today's competitive world.
The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America: A
Chronological Paper Trail
By Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt
“The entire history of the education
restructuring effort is carefully and thoroughly
documented in a recent book called The
Deliberate Dumbing Down of America. The book
was written by Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt, a
former official at the Department of Education
in the Reagan Administration. While there in
1981-1982, Charlotte found the “mother lode”
hidden away at the Department. In short, she
found all of the education establishment’s plans
for restructuring America’s classrooms. Not
only did she find the plans for what they
intended to do, she discovered how they were
going to do it and most importantly why. Since
uncovering this monstrous plan, Charlotte
Iserbyt has dedicated her life to getting that
information into the hands of parents,
politicians and the news media.” Tom DeWeese,
publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report and
president of the American Policy Center, a
grassroots, activist think tank. The Center,
headquartered in Warrenton, VA, maintains an
Internet site at
www.americanpolicy.org.
The Myth of the A.D.D Child: 50 Ways to Improve
Your Child's Behavior and Attention Span Without
Drugs, Labels, or Coercion
By Thomas Armstrong
A psychologist challenges current diagnoses of
Attention Deficit Disorder and shows how to deal
with hyperactivity and short attention spans
through practical strategies for making the most
of a child's vitality and creativity.
The Myth of the Hyperactive Child: And Other
Means of Child Control
By Diane Divoky and Peter Schrag 1975
“For the last half century, Americans have been
responding to real and imagined social problems
by pinning derogatory labels on people,
excluding them from opportunities available to
others, and then bemoaning the worsening of the
problems. Some of the newest and most dangerous
labels stigmatize young children. They are
called ‘hyperactive,’ ‘predelinquent,’ or are
said to suffer from ‘learning disabilities.’ In
their fine book, Diane Divoky and Peter Schrag
give us an absorbing account of what is going
on. The information they gather and the
insights they share with us give us a chance to
save our children from the awful things done to
them in the guise of helping them.” –Aryeh Neier
Executive Director, American Civil Liberties
Union.
Coping With Children's Temperament: A Guide for
Professionals.
By Dr. William Carey
The renowned Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
has once again produced a remarkably wise and
useful reference for parents. Former U.S.
Surgeon General C. Everett Koop is spot-on when
he says in the foreword that the book "should
revolutionize parenting for many readers." That
is, especially for those parents who are tired
of euphemistically referring to their kid as a
"spirited child" and find themselves frequently
exhausted and embarrassed by their child's
temper tantrums, insensitive remarks, and
general impatience, self-centeredness, and
irritability. Instead of merely advocating ways
to discipline behavioral problems, this book
will help you fathom just where your child's
inscrutable (but normal) outbursts are coming
from--to prevent and better manage them in the
future.
Once Dr. Carey has walked you through the
process of profiling your child's temperament
according to these easy-to-comprehend factors
(and the ways it affects you that you're
probably unaware of), you'll learn specific
techniques for managing your child's behavioral
problems both at home and at school.
The Underground History of American Education.
By John Taylor Gatto
With conspiracy so close to the surface of the
American imagination and American reality, I can
only approach with trepidation the task of
discouraging you in advance from thinking my
book the chronicle of some vast diabolical
conspiracy to seize all our children for the
personal ends of a small, elite minority.
Don’t get me wrong, American schooling has been
replete with chicanery from its very
beginnings.*
Indeed, it isn’t difficult to find various
conspirators boasting in public about
what they pulled off. But if you take that tack
you’ll miss the real horror of what I’m trying
to describe, that what has happened to our
schools was inherent in the original design for
a planned economy and a planned society laid
down so proudly at the end of the nineteenth
century. I think what happened would have
happened anyway—without the legions of venal,
half-mad men and women who schemed so hard to
make it as it is. If I’m correct, we’re in a
much worse position than we would be if we were
merely victims of an evil genius or two.
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