Pushing Just A Little Bit Harder

Katherine Odland, Visuals Editor

Today, it is not uncommon for kids in school to be taking some form of medication for Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) stated that approximately 6.4 million (11 percent of) children have been diagnosed with ADHD as of 2011. Also, between 2007 to 2011 the amount of children taking medication, between the ages of four to 17, increased by 28 percent.

Why is it that so many kids are being diagnosed with ADHD? What if kids are just being pushed too far? Otherwise, besides the newer versions of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, what could possibly account for the increases in recent years? Should the United States population be looking for a cause to the increases?

Orono High School (OHS) students are constantly tempted with enriched, accelerated, honors, or even the infamous Advanced Placement (AP) classes. It’s true that students should challenge themselves with harder classes, but why should students cough up their social life? In 2014, 334 students took at least one AP test. The number of exams that were administered that year was 625.

If someone goes to the Intermediate school (OIS), third graders have interpretative drawings of the book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. The book is 36 chapters long and is an autobiography of Angelou’s life. It talks about how she was sexually abused throughout her childhood, becoming a mother at 16, trying to find her identity, racisms, and issues with literacy in the Deep South before the Civil Rights Act.

Books like I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings or To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, were written to show the wrongs of society. If To Kill a Mockingbird is read by OHS students in ninth grade why are third graders being exposed to similar topics?

English is not the only subject that has been pushed to harder levels. In math it’s not uncommon for students to not understand the basics. Some teachers do not permit calculators on test and quizzes. It’s not that the teacher is mean, they are just helping students. If a student can’t do the simple math by themselves how could they truly understand more advanced concepts?

If we keep pushing kids too far what will we overlook? Life skills like communication, because kids don’t have time to make friends? Stop pushing and start looking.