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Page 1 of 6 Children, Attention and Homeopathy The Issue of Attention
How does a child pay attention, focus, and concentrate persistently on tasks? What constitutes the norms of attention? What are the cultural expectations projected on children? How do these effect the child's view of herself? How do attention functions intersect with other issues in a child's life? What is the homeopathic view of attention issues and how should the homeopathic treatment be integrated with other approaches?
Attention as an issue has become a focus for our culture in recent years. Although the allopathic treatment of attention problems has not changed much over the past quarter century, the amount of interest in this field has grown tremendously. In fact there is now an entire industry devoted to attention problems with departments in University medical centers and their affiliated programs dedicated to treating this supposed disorder. The identified syndrome has an official allopathic diagnostic name, Attention Deficit Disorder with or without Hyperactivity (ADD and ADHD). Children are labeled with the disorder, the pharmaceutical industry supports research on the various corresponding drugs, scholarly books are written on the subject, huge parent support groups have formed, catalogues of educational materials are published specific to this disease, and regular conferences are held on the disorder.
My fundamental assumption is that children are naturally inquisitive, explorative, demonstrative, and sensitive. If this is the natural state of a child, then an environment which confines the child in some way is contrary to her fundamental nature. Although children are expected to learn certain rules of social interaction and respect others in their environment, it is not reasonable to expect that most children will thrive in an environment as restrictive and stultifying as a classroom. Admittedly, there are some schools that respect the individual child and her learning style, providing opportunities for creative discovery and freedom. The majority of schools, however, demand that children conform to more or less rigid expectations for behavior and punish any significant deviations. The truly amazing thing about this is that parents tolerate it.
A child may choose one of several styles of reaction to a classroom that suppresses her fundamental nature. Often children learn to repress their natural inclinations and seek styles of behavior that will win them praise and recognition. When a child chooses some other reaction, such as rebellion, or simply cannot repress a natural exuberance for learning and social interaction, then the whole industry of academic disciplinarians, psychologists, and physicians is brought into the game. A child reacts to all of this with typical and predictable behaviors and emotions which are studied, dissected, and treated. I say all of this to place the blame for these symptoms squarely where it belongs, on the child's environment. Some children, of course, do have a state of imbalance and express symptoms prior to entry in school. Many infants and preschoolers are in need of homeopathic treatment for an imbalance that manifests as temperament extremes and behavioral symptoms which have a variety of causes, chemical, environmental, miasmatic, and spiritual. Often parents can cope with these symptoms and develop a sensitivity to their child's individual nature that promotes their growth, development, and healing. Then when they hit the environment of school with its unusual expectations that the true conflict arises. Then the child's nature is pitted against the school in an unfolding drama.
The irony is that the ADD industry sees itself as humanizing the treatment of children. Instead of blaming children for their antisocial behavior, this new field seeks to identify a disorder that underlies the symptoms. The problem is that like most allopathic diagnostic entities, ADD does not exist. The identification and labeling of ADD provides a mechanism for its chemical investigation and chemical treatment. It is the typical allopathic paradigm, first identify a theoretical disorder through observation of symptoms, then observe the chemical nature of this group of patients, then treat the chemical problem with chemicals. This process conforms easily to the model of double blind studies because of its reductionist nature. And now we have drugs that allow children to sit in a stultifying classroom. This is not like science fiction, it is science fiction.
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