Musings from Friday

Today was department meeting day and, aside from a double header risk assessment which was really pretty mundane, the highlight of the meeting to me was something a coworker brought up during the meeting.

The subject involved the I&RS team at my coworker's school reporting that they were seeing an increase in ADD type behaviors and was asking if there was a simple screening tool that they could use at the general education level to assist parents when they go to see their child's doctor.  Now putting aside the part of the screening tool and the issues regarding qualifications to administer and interpret, the real issue that sprung to my mind and the mind of the transition coordinator was the rumination of whether the ADD type symptoms is something that is going to become the norm in students.  Meaning that it may not be a disorder.

This made me think of some things that I had read in transhumanist science-fiction.  While the idea of something in science-fiction having an application in the real world may rub some people the wrong way, I do subscribe to the belief that science-fiction provides an area to explore uncomfortable subjects in a safe environment.  Such as exploring racism using alien races.

In addition to this, transhumanism isn't just something from science-fiction.  It is a movement that is involved in a number of areas: social, political, economic, technological.

So the particular piece of fiction that came to mind involved the idea that as time went by and biology and technology becomes more integrated and indistinguishable from each other, and as the internet evolves and we reach a point where we may be constantly in contact with it then part of the definition of intelligence may involve our ability to mentally multi-task and be able to access multiple sources of information.

With that idea in mind then ADD may not be a disorder but an evolutionary step.

If that is the case then perhaps it isn't the students that are the problem but the teachers.  Not the teachers but the educational institutions.

The final thought I had was that it is a shame that the current generation has to teach the coming generation because it is not a level playing field.  The coming generation always has a leg up, technologically.  I grew up in a time where I got to see cable TV and the internet has gone from practically nothing and has exploded.  The availability of information now is astounding.

I think back to my previous career and I think the type of psychiatric outreach program that I worked for wouldn't have been possible prior to the invention of cellphones and pagers.  There is no way we would have been able to respond to changing situations as quickly as we did without it.

The amount of information that children are exposed to these days is astounding and it must be difficult to adjust or manage that amount of information.  It is difficult and numbing for me.  Perhaps the malleability of young minds are better suited for it but it is having consequences that appear to be a disability to a fading society or age.  In addition, the generation that is in school now may be that transition period that is going to have the toughest time of it because they are a part of two different technological ages.

Even so, I can't help think that something is being lost.  Some sort of depth of being or loss of introspection.  But perhaps that is just the inclination to think that the time that you occupy was better than the age that is coming.