The War on Children
Several months ago I gave a lecture to a native Chinese audience at a Chinese university. The lecture, entitled ‘The War on Children’, examines three problem areas within Western society that I argue are causing untold suffering to millions of children. These include; public schooling, corporal punishment, and ADHD.
Lecture Contents
The first section of the lecture discusses the origins of modern public schooling and what the intentions of its proponents were. Afterwards, I discuss some alternative approaches to education. Then, I tackle corporal punishment; examining its prevalence and effects on children’s development. Finally, I discuss attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); its diagnostic criteria, prevalence, and current treatment methods.
If you are familiar with my work, you may have noticed that this video was originally included in my introductory post on Steemit.
Why share it again?
I recently stumbled upon a post by @sykochica in which she raised some issues regarding the US educational system. The content of her post was reminiscent of some of the issues I had covered in my lecture, and so I decided to share the video in the post’s comment section. Here’s the comment I received in response:
As you can imagine, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only by her positive feedback but also because she’d actually watched the whole thing. I think that’s one of the reasons I didn’t originally feel the video was worthy of its own post: I feared the play-time would put people off.
Sink or Swim
Well, let’s give it a shot, Steemit. It will be an experiment. I’m interested to see how the video does considering its length. Of course, if it doesn’t get much attention, it may simply be due to a lack of interest, rather than the long running-time.
Finally, I want to make clear that it’s by no means necessary to watch the entire video. I have included a table of contents with time-stamps below, so if a particular topic area is of interest to you, feel free to jump straight to that. I think there’s something to gain from each section but based on your interests, certain subjects may be more appealing to you, personally.
Note: projector image becomes clearer after a few minutes.
Introduction: 0:00
Public schooling: 7:56
Alternatives to public schooling: 24:56
College: 31:34
Corporal punishment: 39:57
ADHD: 49:09
Conclusion: 59:59
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My name’s Jonathan and I recently launched PsychologyTube: a YouTube channel devoted to discussing psychological issues from a critical perspective. I created the channel, in part, because I was dissatisfied with existing YouTube channels which tend to simply echo the information found in most textbooks. Thus, with PsychologyTube, I aim to engage viewers with ideas and perspectives that aren't usually covered by the mainstream.
Follow me @invisiblegorilla
Lecture Sources
Arum, R., & Roksa, J. (2011). Academically adrift: Limited learning on college campuses. University of Chicago Press.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Boult, A. (2016, April 26). Why you should never spank a child - major research project confirms dangers. Retrieved August 13, 2016, from The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/20...
Frances, A. (2014). Saving normal: An insider's revolt against out-of-control psychiatric diagnosis, DSM-5, big pharma and the medicalization of ordinary life. New York: William Morrow.
Gatto, J. T. (2000). The underground history of American education. New York, NY: Oxford Village Press.
Gatto, J. T. (2009). Weapons of mass instruction. Canada: New Society Publishers.
Gershoff, E. T., & Grogan-Kaylor, A. (2016). Spanking and Child Outcomes: Old Controversies and New Meta-Analyses. Journal of family psychology: Journal of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association, 30(4), 453-469.
Gershoff, E. T. (2013). Spanking and Child Development: We Know Enough Now to Stop Hitting Our Children. Child Development Perspectives, 7(3), 133-137.
Kohn, A. (2007). The homework myth: Why our kids get too much of a bad thing. Da Capo Press.
The War on Kids: http://thewaronkids.com/
Ending Corporal Punishment: http://www.endcorporalpunishment.org/
Summerhill: http://www.summerhillschool.co.uk/
UK state schools ban corporal punishment: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/las...
19 states allow corporal punishment: http://www.businessinsider.com/19-sta...
Homeschooling: http://www.nheri.org/research/researc...
The College Con: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/edu...
George H. Smith: The Success of America's Public School System
Morrow, R. L., Garland, E. J., Wright, J. M., Maclure, M., Taylor, S., & Dormuth, C. R. (2012). Influence of relative age on diagnosis and treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 184(7), 755-762.
Szasz, T. (1961). Myth of mental illness (Vol. 15). New York.
Whitaker, R. (2010). Anatomy of an epidemic. New York: Crown.
This is an absolute must watch especially for those looking for insight into issues of the modern American education system.
Great presentation @invisiblegorilla!
Thanks again for the support, sykochica.
I'm so happy to help! Just send me a direct message (DM) on steem.chat if there's anything I can do for ya.
A great polished piece. Thank you for your continued work.
And thank you for the kind words.