The Harry Potter blockbuster movie series just wrapped up its eighth and final installment. The books have been on the New York Times bestseller list for more than five years. One explanation for the popularity of the series is the clear distinction between the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys are characterized by friendship, loyalty, self-sacrifice and love. The bad guys are cruel, selfish, and they enter and exit in a cloud of black smoke. The choice between good and evil is usually obvious.
When it comes to raising our children, our choices aren’t as obvious. Let’s take an example: As students are heading back to school, parents may be concerned about how well their kids will behave in the classroom. Children who are uncontrollably inattentive, impulsive, or hyperactive may fail at school and be ostracized by classmates. They may have a serious case of ADHD. If they do, a stimulant drug like Ritalin® or Adderall® may help them focus, remain calm, and improve their performance.
The President’s Council on Bioethics agrees, but also expressed concern about using drugs to have “better behaved” children.[1] This isn’t a matter of treating disease, but achieving a behavioral goal, such as making children more outgoing, happier or to calm them down. Medicalization of behavior taps into “the deeply felt desire for better-behaved, well-adjusted, sociable, high-performing, happier children.”[2] But mainstreaming drugs into parenting and educational practice is worrisome.
With careful medical management, these drugs can be relatively safe for children with genuine medical need. But the more difficult assessment is whether to use drugs to help our “otherwise healthy children behave better...”[3] We may be tempted to use drugs to control childish behavior, or boyish rambunction. Classroom fidgeting may not be ADHD, but the sign of a future drummer. We must protect the freedom of children to be different from each other, and to grow and mature at their own speed. Chemically-enhanced conformity may stifle the future entrepreneur, or inventor, or artist.
Drugs can be a tempting shortcut to the hard work of moral education. We risk teaching our children that good behavior comes from a pill, and not from learning self-control. Behavior-modifying drugs are changing our understanding of what it means to be human, why we do the things we do, what is normal and healthy, and how to truly flourish in this world and with the gifts God has given us.
Whether or not our child needs a behavior-modifying drug should depend on genuine medical need, not a socially-determined outcome. In order to make a wise choice for our children, we can’t rely on the black- and-white characters in a blockbuster movie or bestseller novel, but on godly wisdom and backbone. When it comes to the temptation to use drugs to create “better behaved” children, we should “just say no.”
[1] President’s Council on Bioethics, Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness (New York: HarperCollins, 2003).
[2] Ibid, 85.
[3] Ibid, 88.