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IT'S HOMEWORK TIME? You said we pressured the Portland School District to fire a teacher because he criticized a state test. You would know this was not the case had you actually read my letter. We asked the district to investigate how secure test items in a pilot test got into that teacher's hands. We welcome criticism, but we must protect test item security. You also criticized the State Board of Education for what you called a "sudden" decision to move to composite scores on our writing and math problem-solving tests. After a one-year review, the Board made the change because it was the right thing to do. Recent research from national testing experts indicates that an overall score on a test is more reliable than requiring students to meet a series of subscores. State assessment continues to evolve, and adjustments must be made. When we ask students to meet higher academic standards, we must be certain we have the best system in place to measure achievement. Greg McMurdo WW responds: Mr. McMurdo is correct that the letter he wrote to Portland School Superintendent Ben Canada did not specifically call for Bill Bigelow's dismissal. At the same time, the letter sternly criticized the Franklin High teacher; and McMurdo copied the letter and forwarded it to the Teachers and Standards Practices Commission. Moreover, according to Bigelow and one other source, McMurdo's boss, then-Superintendent of Public Instruction Norma Paulus, called Canada one week before the letter was sent and did, in fact, ask that Bigelow lose his job. NO RITALIN RIDDLE There is no doubt that Ritalin or other stimulant drugs have a calming effect on these over-sensitive and hyper-responding children (and adults). Nigel Jaquiss points out how the use of this prescription drug has increased exponentially in the last few decades. I am a retired pediatrician who learned from Dr. Charles Bradley here in Portland of the paradoxical effects of stimulant drugs on hyper kids. It has been assumed that these children do not have enough norepinephrine in their limbic systems. This is the part of the brain that helps to screen out unimportant stimuli. These children are unable to disregard unimportant stimuli. Everything comes into the cortex or conscious part of the brain with equal intensity. They are goosey, ticklish; they notice everything and have to respond to those incoming stimuli. Someone drops a pencil; he has to go pick it up. This distractibility is what gets him into trouble and makes the teacher report him to the parents. This message gets to the pediatrician or the psychiatrist who feels that medication is appropriate. The rule of the prescribing doctor seems to be "If the Ritalin works, he needs it." (Ritalin deficiency?) The science here is that the child is not making enough of a brain chemical that helps him ignore unimportant stimuli. In my practice I treated thousands of these children with stimulant drugs. I soon noticed a pattern. They were usually boys (5 to 1, boys to girls, as Jaquiss notes), and there was a strong history of obesity, diabetes and alcoholism in the family. That suggested a sugar problem. My first therapeutic trial was to stop all foods with sugar. (That is tough.) I then noticed that they were difficult to examine: ticklish and sensitive. I could hardly do a hernia check or look in their ears. With suitable blood and hair tests I found that all hyper kids were low in calcium and magnesium, despite excessive consumption of dairy products. They were not absorbing the nutrients they needed to correct their "neurological" problem. My results: 60 to 80 percent of these children were 70 to 100 percent better and did not need stimulant drugs when the whole family followed these diet and supplemental rules: Eat six to 10 small meals daily, no sugar, eat fruits and vegetables, chicken, fish, soy; take 1,000 mg of calcium daily (no cow milk) and, most important, 500 mg of magnesium daily. A Mars bar for lunch is guaranteed to make the child hyper or put him to sleep. The Ritalin might be a diagnostic or used as a therapeutic test. If it works, the child needs more of that chemical (norepinephrine) in his limbic system. Essential fatty acids, zinc, B6 and other nutrients may all be necessary to help the body produce its own. I hope people will have a chance to try the ideas in my book, How to Raise a Healthy Child. Thank you for bringing this important issue to the attention of the public. There seems to be a monetary motivation for diagnosing ADD. The psychiatrist labels this a "disease." He gets paid, and the school gets federal funding for counseling. Doctors make diagnoses. This is not a disease; it is a nutritional deficiency. Children are not eating foods that have magnesium in them. Lendon H. Smith, MD
MIS-DIAGNOSIS Also, the symptoms of ADHD emerge before age 7, while the symptoms of TS usually appear between 7 and 18. Taking Ritalin for ADHD symptoms may hasten the onset of tics that otherwise would have emerged later. People with perseveration or tics that are worsened by prescription stimulants might prefer Clonadine or Tenex. Developed to treat high blood pressure, these medications can also reduce impulsiveness, attention problems and tics. My son has a mild form of autism in addition to ADHD, TS and other neurological problems. He had a very bad reaction to Ritalin, but Clonadine helped. Also, about one-fourth of children diagnosed with ADHD have a bipolar disorder instead of, or in addition to, ADHD. Ritalin doesn't help bipolar disorders at all--in fact, as with TS, it can sometimes make the symptoms worse Environmental and lifestyle changes alone can help most children and adults with mild attention deficits. If you spend time with a child who has severe ADHD, you'll find out how important medication can be, but these kids also need changes in their schools and homes. Mitzi Waltz BEWARE OF NUMBERS We all know a good portion of those jobs have been and will be filled by personnel brought in from outside of Oregon. And we wonder why our population keeps growing so fast, why traffic congestion is atrocious, etc. The local government's constant, greedy drive for "economic growth" has to wane eventually. If a company chooses not to build in Oregon, fine. If we taxed those companies who are here already evenly, fairly and consistently, we wouldn't have to worry about local government and program funding so much. Dave Schwanke MAKING SOME DIFFERENCE Jim Francesconi REPUBLICAN PRINCIPLES? Harold Schnitzer and his family have certainly given a tremendous amount to Portland. We are lucky to have such a generous fellow citizen. But this doesn't give him the right to run roughshod over our democratic institutions. He ought to consider the implications for the low-income tenants. As Martin Luther King Jr. wisely observed: "Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice that make philanthropy a necessity." All this points to where Republicans and others will go and not go in the name of local control and limited government. In a similar move, Republican Steve Harper (Klamath Falls) has submitted HB 2431 to overturn Eugene's "right to know" ordinance. But what is really disturbing about HB2636 is that it smacks so clearly of class warfare. Should Portland landlords realize all the speculative increase in housing rents that have accrued partially from public investment and planning? What of the "vested" rights of the folks who live in the buildings. For them this is a matter of bread and butter, not cream off the top. Property rights have never stood outside of the history of inequality that has granted these rights to some and denied them (through government action and discrimination) to others. That's why the "radical Republicans" of the last century wanted to redistribute "40 acres and a mule" to the freed slaves during Reconstruction. I guess Republicans really aren't that republican after all. Jim Labbe AN OREGON TRADITION It's nice to see another Oregon tradition getting passed from father to sons. A family business based on influence peddling. It's so reassuring to see how effective the institution of mandatory term limits was on restricting entrenched centers of power and influence that made voters fear that the Oregon Legislature was not putting the needs of the electorate first.... Excuse me, I'm told my cynicism is showing through. I was told that term limitations were for my own good, that I wasn't qualified to pick someone with experience and demonstrated results to represent me in Salem. What I want to know now is: Who the hell voted for Larry Campbell, and how the hell do we vote him (and his kind) out of Salem? If we are restricting any group from lobbying, then we should be consistent and restrict everyone from lobbying. A lack of meaningful campaign and lobby reform just compounds the stupidity of term limits. We've always had term limits. Peter Phelps
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