ABSTRACT
The production of Ritalin, an amphetamine derivative used for the treatment of attention deficit disorder in children has risen a whopping 700 percent since 1990. The rise in Ritalin simply reflects our commendably growing willingness to treat a serious and common disorder that has too long been left untreated. In the case of Ritalin, the fear is that the people will be content to give "problem children" a couple of little pills every day, rather than put in the extra effort as parents and teachers to help them learn and grow in a more messy and non-medicalized way. Parents who have a different vision of what childhood might be are reluctant to pursue it, for fear that their children will be left too far behind. With the rise of Ritalin, whose use is concentrated among white, upper-middle-class families, the children of the rich get cognitively richer, and the children of the poor fall ever further behind.
