I don't usualy write much about my research interests on here since I try to keep this a blog about what kinds of things we get up to in our free time, but today Paul sent me this article on the CNN website that hit home. It's about how teachers are the first place parents go for advice on ADHD, and some teachers go so far as to "diagnose" kids with ADHD and suggest they be given medication. Clearly this is not all teachers, but it's an interesting issue from a sociological percpective (how does this change the medical profession, or should teachers be more or less involved in behavior issues?) and I am, after all, studying sociology.
So why does this aricle bother me? Because I applied for a 3-year fellowship, which would more than double my stipend and relieve me from being a teaching assistant, from the National Science Foundation (yes, they include sociology) last fall to study this very issue. I was rejected. There are very few awards I am eligible for because I am early in my program, am not studying an "underrepresented group" or the Middle East, nor am I an ethnic minority. So this was pretty much the only thing I could apply for. Clearly people care about this issue, since just this CNN article was published at 8AM this morning, and now 3 hours later there are over 200 comments on it. I would think that these people would be happy to see their tax dollars go to studying this issue, but they're not the ones who get to decide.
Wouldn't it be great if academia's and the real world's concerns were aligned? I try not to get too upset by this stuff, because I know I will only face more and more of it in my career.
1 comment:
that sucks! Teachers are definitely involved in the diagnosis process, but certainly shouldn't be making the diagnosis...it would have been an interesting topic for you to look into.
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