“There are two types of people in the world: those who divide the population of the world into two types, and those who don’t”

You might notice that Sir Ken Robinson’s work occupies a  similar field of ideas to the work of Dr Gabor Maté and Robert Whitaker.  Sir Ken Robinson focusses on one of our society’s intsitutions – education. He points out how education systems around the world are being constantly reformed:

“every country on earth is at the moment reforming education”

Everywhere, education systems rooted in ideas designed to meet the needs of industrial society are failing us and especially failing our kids.

Sir Ken Robinson suggests it is the very way we think about learning and the assumptions upon which that thinking relies that is a root cause of our societal problems. Our educational paradigm: the intellectual model of the mind,  driven by economic imperatives and reductive reasoning, is what creates  struggle.

When we separate our children into academic / non academic;  smart / non-smart we begin that process by which we separate out those who do not fit our idea of “normal” [says who?] .

So doing,  we begin to separate out those who will not succeed, drug them , label them, make sure they don’t –  can’t – succeed.

“So that this model of education, built on economic imperative and intellectual ability, in my view, has caused chaos.”

This is a call not for  reform – our intitutions of education are not in need of reform but of total transformation.

And, since they are part of the same whole: as it is in education so it is in health…..

Epidemic of ADHD

Notice how [at about  4mins in]   Sir Ken Robinson talks of the map of  a modern epidemic – “the Plague of ADHD” as it spreads across America.

Except it’s not an epidemic of illness –

“..it’s as misplaced as it is ficticious “

It is actually a map depicting real data – prescriptions for Ritalin given to children across America. It is a map of our response to what we think of as their ADHD. It’s a map of our collective, societal panic – and we need a giant paper bag to breathe into so we can realise what we’re doing and stop ourselves.

“our children are the most intensly stimulated generation in history”

Yet and our preferred response to their not being able to focus on boring things – instead of the bombardment they experience from hundreds of channels of interruption and a diet of chemical stimulants  – is to feed them yet more stimulants so that they can …

“this generation is being medicted as routinely as we had our tonsils taken out-  and on the same whimsical basis and for the same reason: medical fashion“.

So the truth is that we have an epidemic not of ADHD…

 but a growing epidemic of prescribing and administering psychoacticve substances to kids.

And we do this to make up for our own inability  to guide our kids in how to navigate their way  in the world that we created for them.

…it is an epidemic of adults pouring drugs down the necks of children so they can stay focussed on boring stuff that is likely and mostly out of date before they leave will school.

The Epidemic is Iatrogenic

And as Robert Whitaker shows us, we know that  Ritalin and other stimulants are key gateway drugs to a lifetime of dependency  on “anti-depressants” and “anti-psychotics”.

We have to think differently about human capacity

“We have to think differently about human capacity.  We have to get over this old conception of academic, non-academic, abstract, theoretical, vocational…and see it for what it is: a myth.”

related

• Dr Gabor Mate – coming to Toronto April 2012 https://recoverynetworktoronto.wordpress.com/2012/01/31/dr-gabor-mate-coming-to-toronto/
• The Psychiatric Drugging of Children and Elderly https://recoverynetworktoronto.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/the-psychiatric-drugging-of-children-elderly/
• Anatomy of an Epidemic https://recoverynetworktoronto.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/robert-whitaker-anatomy-of-an-epidemic/
• Sir Ken Robinson http://sirkenrobinson.com/skr/