Children as Special Patients 193Luckily this ticket to oblivion was struck from his records, and
everyone is very pleased. Michael is now simply ESN (educationally
subnormal). He was, inevitably, many years behind in learning, and it would
be a fairy-tale ending to imagine that he will one day be normal, and yet...
The children are our future
All compassionate and intelligent human beings love and care about
children. They are our future: their bright-eyed innocence, freedom and
beauty are the best we have to offer to the troubled world of tomorrow.
So, really, their problems are important to us: they affect our own and the
human race’s survival. Unfortunately, because of our profligate waste and
bad husbandry of resources, modern children are in for a tough time of it
when they become adults. Our folly has bequeathed them an environment
that is full of chemical toxins that pollute the earth, water and even the air
we breathe on a scale never before equaled. Already this accumulation of
poisons is making many people ill, and unless something is done to halt this
Gadarene rush (from the demon-possessed Gadarene swine in Matthew
8:28 that rushed into the sea). I’m sure not any man, woman or child will
escape its devastating effects.
For children more than adults, I hope this book succeeds. With
so many years before them, sick children need all the help they can get –
otherwise they may be condemned to a great deal of unnecessary illness.
Kids grow up!
Remember the obvious: children become adults. In my heyday kids were the
emerging problem and my life was filled with looking after them.
But I didn’t get to see more than a fraction of the total child cases
of ADD and behavioral disorder. Most of them grew up into adults and
most of them, of course, still have the problems in later life.
Maybe you suffer from ADD or ADHD? Typical symptoms in-
clude:
- a mind which easily wanders off the task in hand
- difficulty concentrating
- impatience and a tendency to try to rush things
- a difficulty bringing order into life’s tasks
- scatty thoughts and difficulty remembering appointments etc.