Are We Overmedicating Kids??

I often think of this topic as I see students in my class drowzy and just "out of it". I was recently sitting in an IEP meeting listening to a parent explain that she basically pleaded with the child's doctor to up his dosage because at home this student wouldn't just sit and watch TV. The educators in the meeting all agreed that there was no need that we could see that the child need a higher dose of his medication, but the parent some how convinced the doctor to change the prescription, or the doctor may not have needed any convincing??? This child now sits in my class half asleep and doesn't interact as he did before. It is really hard to watch a slip away. I have seen medication work wonders on some students, but it seems like medication seems to be the answer very quickly nowadays. I am by far a doctor or educated on medications, but it is hard to see kids take steps back when they are being overmedicated.

New York Times Article

Educational Issue - Teacher Shortage

I find this issue very interesting. I am still within my first 5 years of teacher and so are many of my friends. We often have the same concerns about our career: it's not what we expected, we put way too much time into our days, the pay is less than other careers with the same education, our expectations keep changing and increasing, etc. Many of us have looked into other options just out of curiosity. We love working with the kids, but sometimes feel unappreciated and not as successful as we would feel in other fields. If it was just about working with the kids we probably wouldn't have these thoughts. I found it interesting that 20% of teachers in their first 5 years leave the profession and 50% of teachers that work in urban areas leave the profession within 5 years. I find this scary, because there are many great young teachers that have a tremendous amount of energy that they put into their job. I fear with all of the add expectations that people will begin to look into other fields. It seems as though this started shifting when No Child Left Behind was introduced?????

Teacher Shortage