Labelling Children

I happen to have a 9 year old grandson who is exceptionally bright. His father is in the military and has had to move his family to foreign countries occasionally over the last few years which, besides being stressful on the family, is immensely stressful on a young boy. The language barrier alone is hard on the family.

My grandson, although very polite and well mannered, has had a few anger issues at school...none of which resulted in parents being called or him being sent to the principal's office for discipline. They were mainly mild temper tantrums and crying jags. True, that needs to be looked into to see what is bothering him so much but is it something that needs to be "labelled"?

One teacher suggested he might have a rare form of Autism called "Asberger Syndrome" (not sure of spelling). Since when can a teacher diagnose a child with a mental condition? Sound silly? Well, teachers have been diagnosing young children with ADHD for years so why not go even deeper with their uneducated diagnosis? There are many, many children today taking the drug, Ritalin, on the advice of their teachers, not their doctors.

This nasty trend of labelling a young child by an unqualified adult scares me. Label anyone and it follows them throughout their lives. Label a bratty child with ADHD just because you're having difficulty handling them, and then suggesting drugging them, is criminal.

Children today are subjected to stresses that were almost unheard of even 30 years ago. Families are on the move more often and their children can find it difficult to blend into a new school or neighborhood. 9 year olds do occasionally have temper tantrums which, if serious enough, require a teacher to notify the parents if there is a concern. A teacher's place is not to diagnose and label children but to educate them.

I believe some teachers have stepped over the bounds of their qualifications. Labelling has become a popular habit used to glorify their positions.

Like my oldest daughter once said about her troublesome son, "He has B.R.A.T., not A.D.H.T.". Now that's a label we can all accept.