Spoiled Teens

Today’s youth are bombarded with images, music, games to play, and information with the click of a button on a mouse or the tap of a finger on a minute, hand-held device such as an iPod or iPhone. A teacher's writing lesson about personification is not nearly as entertaining as a game of Guitar Hero, and learning Shakespeare just can't compete with XBox. Is it any wonder there are record numbers of children and adolescents being diagnosed with ADD and/or ADHD? Is it surprising that 1/3 of my students leave class to go to the clinic to take their Ritalin or Adderall? What young people need today is not medication; it is time in which they use their imagination and slow down to take a breather from the instant-access world that never stops spinning.