Chains on Kids

...In Muncie, Indiana, according to Schrag and Divoky, every child in the school district is defined as "learning disabled...

...Criminals, eccentrics, dropouts, and even elementary school pupils can now be "helped" as patients, for whom the question of legal rights is inappropriate...

...In instances cited by Schrag and Divoky the police have become hip mod-squaders and the social workers have become the police, causing one criminologist to remark that "they ought to put guns and badges on the social workers so the kids will at least know who they're dealing with...

...According to the authors, " 'Science' in that sense abolishes the Constitution—informally, gradually, subtly—and scientism becomes the instrument by which the individual is subsumed to the requirements and impositions of an orderly system...

...Those interested in the subtle erosion of civil liberties from an unexpected source would do well to read it...

...The institutions of control are legitimized, institutional convenience is served, and individual children are manipulated according to vague and arbitrary labels that may stick with them for life...

...Each individual presumably has some problem...

...Individuals and groups within the comfortable professional center have already begun depriving millions of persons of their constitutional rights, employing "scientific" techniques, and enjoying the support and cooperation of well-meaning, well-educated Americans...

...The early astrologers on the Nile would have marveled at the successful use by social and medical scientists of undefined labels, ambiguous terminology, and unvali-dated and incomplete research to put millions of kids on amphetamines or subject them to non-chemical intervention such as behavior modification...

...The appendix, of all things, is as interesting as any chapter...

...Americans have always been easily taken in and even intimidated by the trappings of technology and the mystification of science...

...Behaviors that were formerly "bad" implied some measure of responsibility on the part of the individual...

...Entitled "Elements of Self-Defense," it is a practical manual for parents and other citizens who must deal with "professionals" whose style outweighs their substance...

...Peter Schrag and Diana Divoky have written an admirable book...

...Once the premise is accepted, often with enthusiasm by its victims, the treatment can proceed...

...Wonder Haar is coordinator of programs in public policy for the Extension Division of the University of Missouri-St...

...The major point is to persist in asking "dumb questions" so that the pseudo-scientific wind "that puffeth up" can be deflated...

...Peter Schrag and Diane Divoky provide profound and accurate insight into medicalization of behavior in their book, The Myth of the Hyperactive Child & Other Means of Child Control...

...VONDER HAAR Those concerned about civil liberties in the United States need not look to the far right or left for totalitarian intrusions into the lives of American citizens...

...Massive expenditures by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration have resulted in the unprecedented fusion of functions by professionals in attempting to deal with crime and delinquency...

...The Myth of the Hyperactive Child is well organized and suitably documented...

...Because the issue is the extinguishment by some scientists of the rights and personalities of individuals, the book is appropriate for those who may have no immediate concern with active children...

...Louis...

...The transfer of unacceptable behavior patterns from traditional responses to medical analysis and treatment eliminates the inconvenient question of right of individuals to refuse testing and treatment...

...But now the behavior is considered "maladaptive": robbing banks, rioting in the streets, drinking too much, running away from home, and failure to learn arithmetic are diseases that can be medically diagnosed and treated...