May 29, 2018, Breitbart: Mentally ‘Disabled’ College Students on the Rise http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/05/29/mentally-disabled-college-students-on-the-rise/ The number of college students labeled with depression, anxiety, and other psychological problems is increasing, leading colleges and universities to provider a greater number of special accommodations for them. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, as many as 25 percent of students enrolled in elite colleges are now classified as depressed, anxious, attention-impaired, and other labels that, under federal law, entitle them to special learning accommodations. Some students are labeled with more than one disability. … For example, at Pomona College in Claremont, California – a school that tied for the number six ranking in National Liberal Arts Colleges at U.S. News’s Best Colleges – 22 percent of students were classified as “disabled” this academic year, an increase of five percent since 2014. “At Pomona, we have extremely talented bright students with very high expectations who are coming in with a good level of anxiety and are highly stressed,” said Jan Collins-Eaglin, Pomona’s associate dean of students for personal success and wellness. “Our job here is to help them really thrive.”… Public schools, however, also saw an average hike of 71 percent in the number of students requiring special accommodations among 22 flagship state schools. A number of professors are unsure about the fairness of some of the special accommodations, such as extra time to take an exam, provided for students classified as “disabled.”… The number of students labeled with Attention Deficit Disorder has also risen, requiring increasing accommodations – in some cases, private testing rooms – for “low-distraction environments.” … Similarly, last year at the College Board, which administers the SAT and PSAT, 94 percent of requests for accommodations such as extra time were approved. Within the last seven years, these requests have risen 171 percent and the number of exam-takers jumped 22 percent. …
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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