Add/adhd

[CatherineM]

[quote name='Don John of Austria' post='1653849' date='Sep 12 2008, 10:47 AM']Can you explain this, access to catholic schools is an issue I take very seriously, so I looked up some random schools in the Archdiocese of Miami... they were about 10% more than here in Houston, but the average person in Miami makes significantly more than we make here as well.
4-5 thousand a student with a discount for more children doesn't seem like it is only for the super rich. The schools I worked at, and the schools I attended where that much ( accounting for inflation) and most of my students and most of those I went to school with were NOT rich. In fact some were/ are exceedingly poor. Is Miami the exception is the rest of Flordia much more expensive?

And as for the precentage thing, you are saying that as a percentage of the student body there are more catholics in the public school than in the Catholic one, despite the significant up in expenence that many of the schools charge non catholics and non parish members?[/quote]

I can't think of a way to answer this question without offending people, so I'll just dump the PC and speak plainly. I lived in the southern half of Pinellas county. That is Tarpon Springs and Clearwater in the north, and St. Pete in the south. When the schools were de-segregated, a large number of white families moved north. The more money the family had, the farther north in the county they went. The exception is the ring around the beach front. Pinellas county is a long narrow peninsula. There is a ring of very expensive water front neighborhoods butting up next to areas of horrible poverty and crumbling homes. For those people in those expensive neighborhoods, the public school wasn't going to be an option. They flooded the private schools. Some of them went above $10,000, so the middle class flooded the Catholic schools which were slightly cheaper. The school attached to our parish was $7000. At the time, I was raising 2 foster kids on about $12,000 a year, so I obviously couldn't afford it. A lot of people couldn't have. St. Pete can be an expensive place to live. St. Pete has a large population of immigrants from Mexico, and Catholics who fled Bosnia during the war. There is also a large population of Cubans and people originally from New England who are primarily Catholic. Their school was is a working class neighborhood where none of us could afford the $7000, so a large percentage of their classmates were Catholic, 50-60%. Our Parish school back then was 30% tops.

[jenna311]

[quote name='rachael' post='1653816' date='Sep 12 2008, 11:22 AM']We had mandotory testing, but we never skipped over other studies because of it. FCAT sounds like it smells of elderberries.[/quote]

Yes. It does. I'm still in school to become a teacher, but I remember taking the FCAT. For me, at least, it was ridiculously easy, and I would have to sit there for an hour after finishing the section, doing nothing but doodling in my book. Luckily, we didn't have to prepare too much for the tests in class, because my classes were tough enough that the teachers didn't need to teach to the test.

[corban711]

[quote name='rachael' post='1653150' date='Sep 11 2008, 01:30 PM']What are everyone's thoughts on ADD/ADHD? How about the medication that is often taken for it?

After many years (since around 8th grade) of having doctors and psychiatrists egging me on to get tested for them, I finally gave in earlier this year. I was subsequently diagnosed with ADHD, but I refused any medication. One of the main reasons was because of everybody telling me that I didn't have it or that the doctors were full of c[font="Arial"]ra[/font]p. Anyways, I went back to class a few weeks ago, and I started noticing how badly I pay attention. I cannot sit still to save my life and cannot concentrate.

One of my worst issues is my impulse control...lately, it has been getting worse...MUCH worse. I went back to the doctor to discuss these. We agreed that I should go on medication for it. So far, so good.[/quote]


rachael,

first of all...i do agree that add/adhd can be misdiagnosed at times. i don't want to say overdiagnosed exactly...maybe overdiagnosed...i don't know. i do know that i have had friends that were put on medications when in fact they weren't struggling in school...they just didn't care about it. i also have friends that were put on meds at a young age because they were young boys (liked to play, wrestle, run around, etc) also, ive read (and it seems that it certainly could be true) that every era has its "disease" or "illness" that gets all the publicity and so that illness gets "blamed" for a wide variety of problems having nothing to do with a real illness. i do believe though, that they are very real mental illnesses which can be quite troubling and there is absolutely nothing wrong with seeking help that can benefit your ability to live your day to day life I think its awesome that you were willing to get help and also that you were willing to share that here. awesome

[jeffpugh]

I had 3 recesses in elementary school... one 15 min one in the morning, almost an hour long at lunch, and maybe 20 minutes in the afternoon. It was great.

[rizz_loves_jesus]

^^ Same here. We had like one or two kids in our class with ADD/ADHD.