The Home Schooler
A Biblical Light on Education -
With Special Emphasis on Home Schooling

March 1997

                                                                     
Contents

1) A.D.D. - Fact or Fraud?
2) Dyslexia
3) Psychology Redefines Religion
4) Dying to Self!
5) Home-schooler triumphs

A.D.D. - Fact or Fraud?

What Every Home Schooling Parent Needs to Know About A.D.D.

Ann Landers said, "Parents need new skills to deal with children with A.D.D." What "new skills"?

A.D.D. also known as A.D.H.D. has become the most common "disease" of childhood and is spreading like wildfire. The professionals say it is affecting 6-33% of the children in the elementary grades. A.D.D. is striking children in their adolescent years also. It is affecting adults, causing school failure, causing drop outs from academics and life, causes aggression, violence, criminality, substance abuse et al. It supposedly needs treatment with addictive medication, that is "uppers" and is a certifiable disability.

Characterized by inattention, impulsivity and sometimes hyperactivity it is supposedly a "brain disease" due to a "chemical imbalance of the brain". It is usually diagnosed by a teacher checking any 8 of 14 behaviors on a pencil-and-paper behaviors checklist. This needs no physician, laboratory, x-ray or brain scan for confirmation.

  • WHY

    Because there is no confirmation.

    In numbers unmatched anywhere in the world, U.S. children are diagnosed and drugged in a quid pro quo association between education and for-profit psychiatry and psychology.

    Labeled "brain-diseased", schools and parents have an excuse for the rampant illiteracy and unpreparedness of their children. Psychiatry/psychology is gaining lifetime patients.

  • Parents! Educators! Wake UP!!!

    Do you really believe that your child/ or a child seemingly normal/ normal or above intelligence until age eight (the average age at diagnosis) has suddenly acquired a "brain disease" due to a chemical imbalance of the brain? Diagnosed by a teacher! I don t think so.

    I have found no medical professional that studies scientifically "real diseases" that has been able to validate one scientific case of "brain disease".

    The company Ciba-Geigy which manufactures Ritalin has never published one article proving that A.D.D. is a real disease.

    On September 23, 1993 Dr. Fred Baughman, M.D. , a child neurologist for thirty five years, testified at the National Institutes of Health that A.D.D. , conduct disorder and oppositional defiant disorder- the so called disruptive behavior disorder (DBD) are not proven diseases. They are neither proven diseases,organic or biologic, and therefore, "it would be unehical and , fatally flawed, scientifically, to proceed with research into biological interventions, such as drugs."

    On November 17, 1994 Dr. Baughman wrote to David Kessler, M.D., Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration and asked how they could allow Ciba-Geigy to portray A.D.D. in the Ritalin "insert" as a syndrome, a term meaning the same thing as "disease." The FDA response:

    "We acknowledge that as yet no distinct pathophysiology for the disorder has been delineated:"

    Conclusion: A.D.D. is not a proven disease at least by the FDA.

    How did A.D.D., not a disease at all, become the most common "disease" of childhood? Why has its numbers doubled every 4 to 7 years and why has the U.S. Food and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) quota for Ritalin risen from 1700 kilograms in 1990 to 8000 kilograms in 1995.

    Advertising: The ties of psychiatry to the drug industry.

    If your child is not reading at grade level, is frustrated, increasingly unhappy, inattentive or even disruptive- there is no "diagnosis" or special "pill". To eradicate this "disease" we must get the medical/psychiatric/psychologic models out of the home and classroom and commit once again the proposition that children can read and they are educable and we must learn and find ways to teach them.

    If A.D.D. is the diagnosis given your child assert that it is not a "disease" and that representing it as such is false and is really "malpractice".

    Do children have problems learning? Do we need special programs to teach these children? Yes-and they are available. Lets use them.

    Let me give you one example of such an objective test now available.

    It is called the TOVA- which stands for the Test of Varibles of Attention.

    Auditory and Visual tests are individually administered computerized tests developed to assess objectively attention and impulse control. They measure inattention, or omissions that a person makes, impulse control or commissions, response time and response time variability.

    What does this test help find?Let s take one example. A young person was dismissed from high school because he couldn t pay attention, couldn t do his work and never turned assignments in. He had been seen by many experts. After running the TOVA visual test it was discovered his visual attention broke down after twelve minutes. When the optometric profession followed up on him they discovered that his vision changed from 20/20 during the first twelve minutes to 20/50 after twelve minutes. Getting him a correct eye proscription has changed his attention span, his attitude, his working habits and according to teachers he is a different person.

    There is a test called the TOMAL test which measures memory problems. The TOMAL measures memory problems as they affect learning in eight short term verbal areas, six short term non-verbal areas and four delayed recall areas. It has been found that children and adults can vary as many as four to nine years in these various subtests. What does this do? It helps us to determine the best way to teach this child so that both the child and the adult teaching him does not become frustrated.

    God says my way is easy, my burden is light. That does not apply to everything except home schooling. His word applies to every area including home schooling.

    For further information or help for your child who has been labeled "dsylexic" or ADD or ADHD please call:

    Faith Christian Ministries
    Dr. Paul Cates
    864 Poplar Creek Road
    Oliver Springs, TN 37840
    423-435-6185
    E-Mail: pcates@worldnet.att.net

    Dyslexia

    As an educator for over thirty five years, I have taken special notice of the number of children who are labeled "learning disabled" "dyslexic" or are placed in "special education classes". In most cases the problem is an inability to read.

    Professionals tell the parents that a brain abnormality "dyslexia" is the cause of their child's reading inability.

    Dyslexia is a fancy word, that comes from the Greek dys, meaning ill or bad, and lexia, meaning words. It is a term that is used in the United States to describe at least eight percent of school age children.

    Dyslexia, say the experts is a problem in the language arts part of the brain that comes to a parent s attention when the child fails to gain literacy in the early grades. What parents are not told is that in over sixty years of research nothing has been able to confirm that a defect of any sort exists in the brain of a child who has been labeled as dyslexic.

    Isn t dyslexia a scientific term?

    There are no well-defined reading behaviors that can clearly distinguish a dyslexic from other poor readers whose difficulties stem from limitations in experience or developmental delays. There are no distinguishing clinical patterns to determine a dyslexic person.

    In 1989 the Council of Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association concluded that "consensus has yet to be reached on a practical operational definition of the disorder and, while an organic etiology is often presumed, clear identification has not yet been made".

    Instead of screening and identifying dyslexia in pre-school and kindergarten and early elementary school children we should examine how these children are taught. Example schools such as the San Diego Unified School District showed an alarming drop in their reading scores. Why? During this period they changed reading methods- phonics was replaced by the whole language reading program. In 1990 51% of the students in San Diego scored above the national median. In 1991 only 25% did. Did an epidemic of dyslexia hit San Diego between 1990 and 1991?

    To label someone as dyslexic is convenient. Labeling absolves everyone from any responsibility. The person/victim is blamed not the methodology or lack thereof.

  • Psychology

    Psychiatry and Special Education to the Rescue???

    Special education has grown from serving about 2% of the population of children to now serving over 20%. Is this labeling improving our reading or academic scores-no. Why not? Because the focus has been and is on labeling and trying to blame the victim rather than on the problem-curriculum and doing something about it.

    You should know that this "disease" dyslexia has never been confirmed and that no test of proven validity to verify it exists is available.

    We should demand that all practices and labels which cannot be scientifically validated be stopped.

    It is time we look at the real culprits of the cause/etiology of "dyslexia" and that is improper curriculum for teaching many children and lack of knowledge in knowing what readiness activities need to be taught to prepare many of our children to learn how to read. Also improper methods of teaching are contributing to this misdiagnosis.

    We need to focus on training parents and teachers how to teach their children and what to use to teach them so they can be successful.

    Every child deserves the right to be able to learn how to read!!! They can learn- maybe not all to college or graduate level but they can learn to read. In over thirty years I have not seen one individual with an IQ over 25 that has not been able to read. Is Psychology A Science?

    No psychology is not a science. To qualify as a science there must be the possibility of not only refuting theories but also predicting future events. You must be able to reproduce results obtained and control what is observed.

    The cause and effect relationship so evident in the physical sciences is largely not found in the "social sciences". Instead of statistically significant cause-effect relationships the social science relies on covariation/ that is events or relationships which appear together but are not necessarily related.

    No one is able to cite even one true expert, that is a philosopher of science, a distinguished professor or Nobel Laureate who will state and write that psychology is a pure science.

  • If psychology is not a science what is it?

    Psychology studies behaviors, attitudes, morals and values. What is that? That is not a scientific study. It is the study of religion. In the case of psychology it is the study of secular humanism.

    Psychology is founded on eight false premises that are all humanistic from the core.

    I will be writing on this in the next issue.

    The faith, the solutions once delivered to the Saints is being displaced today by a substitute faith disguising itself as psychology, Christian psychology, psychiatry but is based upon the above foundations which are in direct contradiction to the holy Bible.

    We as Christians sit idle and do nothing while the church is being destroyed from within. The prophets have warned us of this.

  • Psychology Redefines Religion

    In the spiritually challenging decades between the two world wars, World War I and World War II, psychiatry and psychology grew by leaps and bounds.

    It was an era when fear and pessimism had engulfed the globe. An era when poison could masquerade as medicine.

    John Dewey, an adherent of psychologist Wilhelm Wundt, and the man who would later pollute America s education system with Wundt s theories, designed the 1933 Humanist Manifesto. Dewey, the father of progressive education, believed that what man had always done was precisely what should no longer be done.

    His manifesto denigrates religions and their ability to help solve people s problems. He couches his information in a deceptively mellifluous style and declares emphatically that man does not have a spiritual nature. He declares this with the arrogance of contemptuous authority.

    His Manifesto calls for a one world "religion" which was not to be chained to "old beliefs" but to be influenced by scientific and economic change

    "There is great danger of a final, and we believe fatal, identification of the word religion with doctrines and methods which have lost their significance and which are powerless to solve the problem of human living in the Twentieth Century"

    Religion should be a "human activity" in the direction of a "...candid and explicit humanism."

    A list of fifteen precepts was drafted. These included:

    Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created. Humanist hold an organic view of live Humanists find that the traditional dualism of mind and body must be rejected. Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modern science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values. Humanists say that religion must formulate its hopes and plans in the light of the scientific spirit and method. Humanists say that the distinction between the sacred and the secular can no longer be maintained. Humanists assume that humanism will take the path of social and mental hygiene and discourage sentimental and unreal hopes and wishful thinking.

    After World War II humanists went on to say, “. . .humanists still believe that traditional theism, especially faith in the prayer-hearing God, assumed to love and care for persons, to hear and understand their prayers, and to be able to do something about them, is an unproved and outmoded faith.

    Humanists say that "...traditional moral codes...fail to meet the pressing needs of today and tomorrow... " Humanists say, "promise of immortal salvation or fear of eternal damnation are both illusory and harmful. .. The total personality is a function of the biological organism transacting in a social and cultural context. There is no credible evidence that life survives the death of the body."

    Quotes from leading individuals in this movement:

    "More children from the fit, less from the unfit-that is the chief aim of birth control."

    "The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."

    "Birth control appeals to the advanced radical, because it is calculated to undermine the authority of the Christian Churches. I look forward to seeing humanity free someday of the tyranny of Christianity no less than capitalism."

    Parents! Christians! Church! Wake Up!!! Let s stop going to bed with the DEVIL Himself.

    How can we call ourselves Christians and call ourselves Christian Churches and Christian Colleges and go to bed with this philosophy? How can our Christian schools be awarding degrees in this field and related fields such as sociology and still say they proclaim the name of our Savior Jesus Christ?

    Headlines

    Michelle Mundy receives college scholarship

    Thank-You

    "We just wanted to write and thank you for the help you gave to Michelle. Michelle heard you speak at a home schooling meeting. She begged and pleaded for me to bring her to you to be tested...

    Michelle has always had a close walk with the Lord and has been praying to attend Bryan College since the 4th Grade. You told me that Michelle would progress and be able to attend college and would probably make you "look good." She has done very well.

    We owe much of Michelle s schooling success to you and your son, Peter. God bless you and your family."

    Love Cindy Mundy

    DYING TO SELF!

    When you are forgotten, or neglected, or
    purposely set at naught,
    And you don t sting and hurt with the insult
    or the oversight, but your heart is happy
    being counted worthy to suffer for Christ,
    THAT IS DYING TO SELF!
    When your good is evil spoken of,
    When your wishes are crossed, your advice
    disregarded, your opinions ridiculed,
    And your refuse to let anger rise in your
    heart, or even defend yourself, but take
    it all in patient, loving silence,
    THAT IS DYING TO SELF!
    When you lovingly and patiently bear any
    disorder, any irregularity, and impunctuality,
    or any annoyance,
    When you can stand face to face with waste,
    folly, extravagance, spiritual insensibility,
    And endure it as Jesus endured it,
    THAT IS DYING TO SELF!
    When you are content with any food,
    any offering, any raiment, any climate,
    any society, any solitude, any interruption
    By the will of God,
    THAT IS DYING TO SELF!
    When you never care to refer to yourself in
    conversation, or to record your own good
    works, or itch after commendation,
    When you can truly love to be unknown,
    THAT IS DYING TO SELF!
    When you can see your brother prosper and have
    his needs met, and can honestly rejoice
    with him in spirit and feel no envy nor
    question God,
    While your own needs are far greater and in
    desperate circumstances,
    THAT IS DYING TO SELF!
    When you can receive correction and reproof
    from one of less stature than yourself,
    and can humbly submit inwardly as well
    as outwardly,
    Finding no rebellion or resentment rising
    up within your heart,
    THAT IS DYING TO SELF!

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    Home-schooler triumphs

    Rebecca Sealfon, 13, a home-schooled eighth-grader from Brooklyn, N.Y., won the 70th annual National Spelling Bee on Thursday in Washington, D.C. Sealfon s winning word was euonym, which means "a name well-suited to the person, place or thing named." (Indpls Star, 5/1/97.)

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