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Teaching the Restless: One School's Remarkable No-Ritalin Approach to Helping Children Learn and Succeed
We’ve all read the stories about medicating hyperactive (ADHD) kids. The controversy shows no signs of ending, as parents and doctors debate the merits of diagnosing and medicating children at younger and younger ages. Chris Mercogliano has a strong opinion on the matter, and he enters the debate as an educator. In Teaching the Restless, Mercogliano issues an urgent call for a shift in how our society perceives hyperactive children—away from theories of faulty brain chemistry and toward an understanding of children’s lives.
Mercogliano codirects the Albany Free School in Albany, New York. There, he and his faculty have developed numerous ways to help hyperactive children relax, focus, modulate emotional expression, make responsible choices, and forge lasting friendships—all prerequisites for learning—without assigning pathological labels to the children or resorting to the use of biopsychiatric drugs.
Teaching the Restless profiles a handful of Free School students, six boys and three girls. All were either labeled and drugged in their previous schools, or would have been had they not thrown in their lot with the Free School. While in Mercogliano’s mind there is no such thing as a “typical” child, these nine kids represent the legions of children across the country—estimates currently run as high as 6 million—that have been diagnosed with learning and behavioral disorders and prescribed corresponding drugs.
Speaking both to parents who worry that their kids cannot attend classes without drugs and to educators who wonder how to best teach these hyperactive kids, Teaching the Restless should bring new hope into an overcharged debate.
“TEACHING THE RESTLESS is a very important book for our time. That we continue to prescribe drugs to our children in such massive numbers is appalling. There are no historical precendents for a society perpetrating such a travesty on its offspring. Chris Mercogliano deserves a medal for his courage and insight, as well as his years of hard work on behalf of America’s children.”
—Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of MAGICAL CHILD
“Take a ride with master teacher Chris Mercogliano as he writes his way straight into your heart. This powerful tale reflects his work as a master educator and writer and gives us an up-close look at what is possible for America’s school children when we choose not to drug them into silence. The Albany Free School is a hermitage for children, a model to the nation of how a school environment built on love, honor, respect, and responsibility can effect profound changes in kids’ lives.”
—Yehudah Fine, family therapist and author of TIMES SQUARE FINDING THE HOPE IN LOST KIDS’ LIVES
“TEACHING THE RESTLESS is a finely crafted moral commentary on a society that would rather “tranquilize our children than create a more tranquil world for them to grow up in.” Chris Mercogliano is a gifted writer as well as a superb observer of children’s lives. Here, he offers a rich blend of insights and observations based on his own extensive teaching experience. His stories of real kids struggling against the cultural constraints on their lives, including inappropriate labeling and drugging, are deeply moving and convincing.”
—Ron Miller, executive editor, Paths of Learning magazine, educational historian, author of WHAT ARE SCHOOLS FOR?
“God bless Chris Mercogliano. He has turned his lifelong commitment to the creation of free learning communities for children and families toward a passionate defense against the oppression of children by psychiatry and the schools. May his longstanding drug-free school zone in Albany extend throughout our country and the world.”
—John Breeding, clinical psychologist, author of THE WILDEST COLTS MAKE THE BEST HORSES
“A wonderful contribution to the growing literature on the sad practice of labeling and drugging America’s “free spirits.” Chris Mercogliano sees past the scientific jargon and deficit-rridden orientation of the ADD/ADHD paradigm, and reveals with great humanistic sensibility the passionate worlds of active kids who don't fit into the tight little boxes of most American classrooms.”
—Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D., author of THE MYTH OF THE A.D.D. CHILD
Mercogliano codirects the Albany Free School in Albany, New York. There, he and his faculty have developed numerous ways to help hyperactive children relax, focus, modulate emotional expression, make responsible choices, and forge lasting friendships—all prerequisites for learning—without assigning pathological labels to the children or resorting to the use of biopsychiatric drugs.
Teaching the Restless profiles a handful of Free School students, six boys and three girls. All were either labeled and drugged in their previous schools, or would have been had they not thrown in their lot with the Free School. While in Mercogliano’s mind there is no such thing as a “typical” child, these nine kids represent the legions of children across the country—estimates currently run as high as 6 million—that have been diagnosed with learning and behavioral disorders and prescribed corresponding drugs.
Speaking both to parents who worry that their kids cannot attend classes without drugs and to educators who wonder how to best teach these hyperactive kids, Teaching the Restless should bring new hope into an overcharged debate.
“TEACHING THE RESTLESS is a very important book for our time. That we continue to prescribe drugs to our children in such massive numbers is appalling. There are no historical precendents for a society perpetrating such a travesty on its offspring. Chris Mercogliano deserves a medal for his courage and insight, as well as his years of hard work on behalf of America’s children.”
—Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of MAGICAL CHILD
“Take a ride with master teacher Chris Mercogliano as he writes his way straight into your heart. This powerful tale reflects his work as a master educator and writer and gives us an up-close look at what is possible for America’s school children when we choose not to drug them into silence. The Albany Free School is a hermitage for children, a model to the nation of how a school environment built on love, honor, respect, and responsibility can effect profound changes in kids’ lives.”
—Yehudah Fine, family therapist and author of TIMES SQUARE FINDING THE HOPE IN LOST KIDS’ LIVES
“TEACHING THE RESTLESS is a finely crafted moral commentary on a society that would rather “tranquilize our children than create a more tranquil world for them to grow up in.” Chris Mercogliano is a gifted writer as well as a superb observer of children’s lives. Here, he offers a rich blend of insights and observations based on his own extensive teaching experience. His stories of real kids struggling against the cultural constraints on their lives, including inappropriate labeling and drugging, are deeply moving and convincing.”
—Ron Miller, executive editor, Paths of Learning magazine, educational historian, author of WHAT ARE SCHOOLS FOR?
“God bless Chris Mercogliano. He has turned his lifelong commitment to the creation of free learning communities for children and families toward a passionate defense against the oppression of children by psychiatry and the schools. May his longstanding drug-free school zone in Albany extend throughout our country and the world.”
—John Breeding, clinical psychologist, author of THE WILDEST COLTS MAKE THE BEST HORSES
“A wonderful contribution to the growing literature on the sad practice of labeling and drugging America’s “free spirits.” Chris Mercogliano sees past the scientific jargon and deficit-rridden orientation of the ADD/ADHD paradigm, and reveals with great humanistic sensibility the passionate worlds of active kids who don't fit into the tight little boxes of most American classrooms.”
—Thomas Armstrong, Ph.D., author of THE MYTH OF THE A.D.D. CHILD
- GenresEducationNonfiction
252 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
3 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Chris Mercogliano
14 books4 followersChris is the author of
How to Grow a School: Starting and Sustaining Schools That Work
,
In Defense of Childhood
,
Teaching the Restless
, and
Making It Up as We Go Along
and long time director at The Free School in Albany.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 27, 2011
I thought this book was going to be about the strategies a public school took to keep kids off meds, so I was annoyed when I realized that the school in question was a Sudbury-style free school, a school that pretty much could not be more different than a typical public school. "Of course," I thought to myself as I rolled my eyes, "Of course you can keep these kids off meds when you give them freedom to be who they are and don't try to mash their creative, energetic little selves into unnatural little "educational" boxes, but that doesn't really help me and my creative, energetic public school kid."
Except that it totally did. Reading this book and reading about the daily life in a free school made me realize how much I love the Sudbury model (and I always have, I just forgot), how completely disgusted I am with the public school system, especially now that I've been dealing with it first hand for the past three years, and how outraged I feel that so many kids are being put on meds to force them to fit into this awful system.
My son has had trouble fitting into public school from the moment he started. I've resisted endless suggestions that he be medicated, but nothing changes from year to year and finally I was worn down enough to seriously consider it. In fact, I had gone pretty far down the path before reading this book: the evaluation was done, the medication was sitting in my medicine cabinet, and I was actually planning to give him his first dose the next day. But then I read this book and now the medication remains untouched in my bathroom and instead I'm going to tour my local Sudbury school and am calculating and recalculating to figure out how I can possibly afford private school tuition. Because this book is what I want for my son. If our local Sudbury school is anything like the one in the book, I know it will be a perfect fit.
Except that it totally did. Reading this book and reading about the daily life in a free school made me realize how much I love the Sudbury model (and I always have, I just forgot), how completely disgusted I am with the public school system, especially now that I've been dealing with it first hand for the past three years, and how outraged I feel that so many kids are being put on meds to force them to fit into this awful system.
My son has had trouble fitting into public school from the moment he started. I've resisted endless suggestions that he be medicated, but nothing changes from year to year and finally I was worn down enough to seriously consider it. In fact, I had gone pretty far down the path before reading this book: the evaluation was done, the medication was sitting in my medicine cabinet, and I was actually planning to give him his first dose the next day. But then I read this book and now the medication remains untouched in my bathroom and instead I'm going to tour my local Sudbury school and am calculating and recalculating to figure out how I can possibly afford private school tuition. Because this book is what I want for my son. If our local Sudbury school is anything like the one in the book, I know it will be a perfect fit.
September 13, 2014
This book was captivating. It was such a novel, refreshing take on teaching children labelled as having ADHD. Mercogliano describes in an honest, heartwarming way his perspective as an educator as he supports his students in the Free School he works at. At the Free School these children, diagnosed with ADHD and sometimes forced by school boards to take medications that essentially numb their minds, are not allowed to take Ritalin. Instead, they are engaged in a very open-ended form of education called a Free School. You've got to read it to believe it. The transformation, and how the changes each student experiences are unique to them, is very interesting to see. It was a beautiful description of the free school movement and hugely inspiring. Get ready to take a completely new angle on what education looks like. A must-read for any educator.
December 28, 2011
Story of Albany Free School. Let's see if it has any implications for my classroom. Nope. Just skimmed this one because it wasn't that good. Free school is hippy-dippy place where the kids decide what and when they are learning. Fine in practice, but in high-stakes testing world I teach in, there isn't a chance of this being put into place.
April 13, 2018
Another fascinating read illustrating the magic that comes from respecting children enough to give them autonomy and letting them learn at their own pace and following the bent of their own interests rather than shoving them to fit rigid, unnatural environments and standards. I wish I had read this sooner in life, but “when you know better, you do better.”
August 4, 2018
This story was inspirational.
It reminded me of kidders among school children.
He addresses the importance of identifying and defining concerns
The author identifies bias and tries to show both sides of the adhd conversation
Well presented
Worth the time reading
It reminded me of kidders among school children.
He addresses the importance of identifying and defining concerns
The author identifies bias and tries to show both sides of the adhd conversation
Well presented
Worth the time reading
January 14, 2020
While I found the strategies interesting for a research project around ADHD and literacy, I found the book more problematic as it implies that ADHD is not real and ADHD is a result of being poorly raised by a proper mother.
The four rules of the school I really liked as it places an emphasis on the child's social-emotional learning, but otherwise, I found this book to be more frustrating and upsetting rather than helpful.
The four rules of the school I really liked as it places an emphasis on the child's social-emotional learning, but otherwise, I found this book to be more frustrating and upsetting rather than helpful.
May 1, 2016
I really enjoyed this book. The author is an excellent writer and has a skilled way of drawing quickly into the lives of the children he describes. As a public school teacher myself, I first felt that I was being labeled as the "bad" educator, but as I read I realized that the author is not blaming teachers for what is wrong with our educational system, but is blaming the system itself and the dysfunctional culture that has created it. There are many pieces that come together to create "Ritalin kids." Broken families, television, unrealistic expectations, ever higher standards, large class sizes, little play time, early childhood crises, etc. are all coming together to create children who are stressed, unsocialized and pushed to do too much too early. The teachers at the Free School have taken a completely unconventional approach to working with Albany's most damaged children. I can't even imagine a school suggesting that some of the kids in this book should take Ritalin, but I can feel for the teachers who have no way to meet the needs of these children in a public school system. Although I don't agree with all the policies of the Free School, I do appreciate that they are taking very challenging kids and giving them an environment where they can use their energy, learn to live with others and grow in ways that are more important than academics. This book definitely challenged me to think about some of my underlying assumptions about what children should be doing in elementary school and how they should be doing it. It highlighted how far we have advanced down the road of unnatural expectations for children. Working with the struggling math students in my school, I often wonder how much of the struggle is that the kids simply aren't developmentally (or emotionally) ready to handle the content. What would happen if we just waited another year and then tried again? The problem is that public schools are under so much pressure to get kids ready for that (in my state) third grade tests. There is so much in our system and our culture that needs to shift in order to get back to a healthier educational environment for our children. There will always be kids that the public school can't serve properly so we will always need alternative schools like the Free School to step in. We can, however, do much to move our public schools back to the most important lessons of childhood: living in community, being excited about learning, loving to read and being able to control oneself enough to be a functional member of society.
March 17, 2008
This book is a smooth and easy read due to having an anecdotal plot. At the same time the author's views and opinions make it intelligent and insightful.
This book focuses on the type of kids who don't easily succeed in the traditional school system because they are so energetic and independent-minded(often labeled ADHD and prescribed biopsychiatric drugs like Ritalin and Aderol). Coupled with difficult home lives, these kids are often expelled from school (even at a very young age) because their teachers don't have the freedom to offer them anything except the "normal" inflexible curriculum. As an alternative, the author's school is small and flexible so that these types of kids can be allowed to learn at their own pace. Imagine a kid that doesn't learn to read until age 9? But then goes on to get 2 Ph.D's? These types of kids bloom in this school, and reading the book is encouraging and heartwarming.
This book focuses on the type of kids who don't easily succeed in the traditional school system because they are so energetic and independent-minded(often labeled ADHD and prescribed biopsychiatric drugs like Ritalin and Aderol). Coupled with difficult home lives, these kids are often expelled from school (even at a very young age) because their teachers don't have the freedom to offer them anything except the "normal" inflexible curriculum. As an alternative, the author's school is small and flexible so that these types of kids can be allowed to learn at their own pace. Imagine a kid that doesn't learn to read until age 9? But then goes on to get 2 Ph.D's? These types of kids bloom in this school, and reading the book is encouraging and heartwarming.
May 23, 2011
A really thought-provoking book for anyone who has, has worked with, or has taught hyper-active children and/or those labeled AD(H)D. Mercogliano is very upfront about his bias against medicating children with biopsychiatric drugs and offers insight and anecdotes from his 30+ year experience teaching in a "free" school (very similar to a Montessori approach). I appreciated his willingness to view each child as an individual, to seek to uncover any and all factors influencing the child's behavior, to treat families as units and strive for their wholeness. However, I come at this discussion from a completely different worldview, believing that children (and all people) do NOT have it "within themselves" to overcome every obstacle. Instead, I believe children are made in the image of God and that is why they can exercise responsibility, interact socially, seek forgiveness, etc. This book is worth reading and discussing for sure.
May 31, 2011
This is not a how-to book for people looking for methods that will work with rambunctious kids. This is the story of several children who were either forced to, or candidates for, Ritalin and other "behavioral" drugs for children. The author, a director at the school the kids entered into, the Albany Free School, makes no bones about his bias against these drugs. He tells the stories of their experiences there.
It's a great read. It reminds us to look at children as full humans and respect them accordingly, and not see them as just small people with no life experiences. We need to trust our kids more to know who they are, and if they don't, help guide them in letting them figure it out. I'm definitely inspired to change some of the ways we've been homeschooling and let my kids have a larger partnership role in their education.
It's a great read. It reminds us to look at children as full humans and respect them accordingly, and not see them as just small people with no life experiences. We need to trust our kids more to know who they are, and if they don't, help guide them in letting them figure it out. I'm definitely inspired to change some of the ways we've been homeschooling and let my kids have a larger partnership role in their education.
January 25, 2008
please read this if youre into alternative education or parenting. i picked it up because i visited the school and was pretty interested in their philosophies. although it only applies somewhat to the 10 hours a week i spend working with kids at an after school, its confirmed my sense of the need for individuality and working at your own pace in learning. i always felt annoyed when i couldnt keep up with some learning in school. its seems its better just focus on finding the right social outlets and not always focusing on sheer academics. the narration can be a little dry, but the quirky kids stories are still fun. also mixed in with applicable research on childhood development, which gives it a little more "text book" feel.
August 31, 2011
I really enjoyed the beginning of this book and the explanation of the Free School philosphy, but it got quite preachy in the middle. The author blames both absentee/uninvolved fathers and unattached/distracted mothers for their childrenss' ADHD. His short discussion of 'unbonded' children shows only a superfical understanding of attachment and bonding. I felt that his theories and analysis of the root causes of ADHD distracted from the much more interesting story of how a different learning environment can help kids with ADHD.
July 21, 2008
thought provoking for sure! while it references various studies and research, it was easy to read. valuable for teachers, parents, and concerned individuals. really strong call for caring for the inner healing of children and not settling for quick fixes. as an educator, i would have liked to know more about the logistics of the "free school". corroborates other things i've been hearing about how tv watching (regardless of any "educational value" it may have) is soooooo harmful to kids.
July 28, 2007
really caused a lot of reflection on growing up add, and ways it interacts with my life now- has gotten me thinking a LOT about teaching at less traditional schools.
July 4, 2011
Really made me question the way in which we medicate/educate our students. The Free School (upon which this book is based) sounds like a truly innovative and special place for young learners.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews