Running on Ritalin
A Physician Reflects on Children, Society, and Performance in a Pill
Ritalin Ascendant: A Doctor's DilemmaSomething is awry, all right, but something not entirely medical in nature.
--Robert Coles, M.D., The Mind's Fate
It's midday at an elementary school in a comfortable American suburb. The lunch bell has just rung, and kids are noisily pouring out of classrooms to enjoy a brief recess in the schoolyard before mealtime.
Inside, next door to the principal's office, the school secretary is arranging bottles of medication on a tray. Scotch-taped to the tray are little photos of fourteen children, labeled with their names and keyed to the bottles. Though by now she pretty much knows who gets what, at the beginning of the school year this system helped make sure she didn't make mistakes--that each of the children taking Ritalin at school received the right pill and dose.
At least a dozen more youngsters among the 350 attending this school took the same medication at home before school but aren't required to take a midday dose. At a nearby school of similar size, the kids getting Rita ...
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