OLD-FASHIONED TREATMENT

Many homeschooling parents have already figured this one out.

I've seen some horror stories of some boot camps for kids in the media. But I've had friends who have sent their kids to something like this Missouri Ozarks camp in this article and it helped.

This article got my attention because it said the camp homeschools some of the boys, while others go to school

Some of the boys are home-schooled at the ranch; others attend Blue Eye schools. After school, the boys rotate each month through vocational areas where they learn skills such as welding, small engine mechanics and carpentry. They also raise the trees they will sell at a fundraiser Friday and Saturday at Bass Pro Shops in Springfield.

Interesting in their use of whatever works for each kid. But below is the part that I've often wondered about and this couple seems to have experienced and understand watching these kids grow up without the drugs.

The boys are weaned from the drugs with permission from their parents and family doctors.

"If it was indicated, we'd put them back on the medication, but in 23 years, that hasn't been needed," says Ken Ortman. Hyperactive children and teenage depression have always existed, he says.

"It's not in any way a disorder. Here, we go back to a culture where everyone was useful in their home, where parents found a niche for every child because everyone had to carry their own weight," he says. Each boy has responsibilities from cooking to tending the livestock.

The statement below is where I've often wondered what brilliance our society has been hiding under a cloud of -classroom seat time maintenance- medication.

The children with ADHD are extraordinary, Ortman says.

"They are strong-willed, and they'll be the leaders and entrepreneurs of the future. We need these people," he says.

Mr. Ortman seems to have that figured out along with many homeschooled parents who have taken their kids out of the classroom and taken them off the drugs.