ABSTRACT
Central to schooling with large or small groups of children is the matter of discipline and no one who has ever taught children dare underestimate the potential difficulties. Popping pills into pupils, however, can be an evasion of our responsibility for the development of the child's executive character, and an excuse. In the first category, where we acknowledge responsibility, but deny the situation is bad, the author examines the moral implications of the use of drugs to treat school children diagnosed with ADD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) which he call the Ritalin Craze. Because the chemistry is obscure, the drug working may well in some, if not many cases, be the stimulus for the child to "modify his or her behavior. Yet, on the moral side, if indeed 'the education of the whole child' is a sincere educational purpose, it becomes difficult to justify the absence of an acknowledgment of responsibility.
