Educational Settings: Learning a New School of Thought

Abstract

Behavioural, emotional, and academic problems of children and youth in schools are widespread. An epidemiological study of children in Ontario found that 26 per cent of children experience one or more of these problems (Offord, Boyle, and Szatmari, 1987). Moreover, the researchers reported that at the very least 12 per cent ‘have clinically important mental disorders, and at least half of them are deemed severely disordered or handicapped by their mental illness’ (Offord, 1995:285). Similarly, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) (1994:487) reported that at least 12 per cent of children in the USA ‘suffer from one or more mental disorders–including autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, severe conduct disorder, depression, and alcohol and psychoactive substance abuse and dependence’. As critical psychologists, we are highly critical of such diagnostic labels and what gets counted as ‘disorder’. At the same time, however, we know that individual misery and suffering of children is widespread.