There is, or has been a trend going among elementry school students in the past few years regarding ADD or ADHD. Many teachers, who do not like unfocused or unattentive children label them with having one of these disorders. How do I know this? In my 5th grade class of about 31 students, my teacher labeled about 5 in the class, including myself as having it a rather unusually large amount for any class. This turned into one long, stupid, annoying, and most importantly unecessary ordeal that I will explain below, as this has gotten so out of control that a few years ago Time ran a cover story about the issue.
During my 5th grade year, my teacher (My other, they tried to "team teach," teacher, was just a complete jerk, don't ask.) labeled me ADD. Why? Mostly because, I do not like to sit still...unless I'm doing something. Also, when we had silent reading at the beginning of the period I would have my nose stuck in a book for about 3-5 minutes after and not recall what he had said. Granted, I would understand that this would annoy anyone. Although I firmly believed he absolutely despised me, I asked him a question once and he yelled "SHUT UP!" in my face. But this isn't where it started, it began about 2 months after the beginning of the school year. When the school held parent/teacher conferences in November.
As always, my mom attended these. However, when she came home she was quite mad (We were on break while these were held) and explained how she had argued with my teacher who thought I exibited all the signs of ADD. My mom denied this explain that I simply didn't like to sit around idle. After this, he had several more meetings with my mom where he pressured her into giving me a ADD exam.
Guess what?
The doctor checked it, and stated I really didn't have ADD. But despite showing the results to my teacher. My teacher insisted my mom try another type and some how he ended up getting me a precscription for Ritalin. Despite his complaints, my mom never gave me it..
The ended to this came in around March. My mom gave him a small notebook and wrote that if you think my child has ADD, show me what he does in class that can be traced to an ADD child. He refused and it pretty much ended because the school year was over.
What is the point of this story? Well it shows, at least in my opinion, how teachers who are unwilling to deal with kids they don't necessarily like, will find incorrect, and possibly harmful (to the child) ways to achieve what they think is the "perfect child." Society doesn't work like that. Yet it still continues.