Is ADHD Overdiagnosed?
In an Op-Ed piece featured in USA Today, Landmark College Professor MacLean Gander wonders if we are medicating children too quickly or if society is doing a better job recognizing and treating a pervasive disorder. The time is now, Dr. Gander says, for school systems to account for bright restless kids and recognize these problems are real.
Read Dr. Gander's Op-Ed for USA Today
About Dr. Mac Gander:
After studying literature and creative writing at Harvard University and Boston University, where he was the Hoyt Fellow in 1982, MacLean “Mac” Gander spent time at Newsweek in Manhattan and later in the Philippines as a freelance journalist during the Philippine Revolution. Returning from that experience, Dr. Gander took on a position at Landmark College, moving from writing teacher, to English department chair, to a decade as the chief academic and student affairs officer.
"Landmark has been accurately described as the ‘gold standard’ for postsecondary education for individuals with learning differences. I played a central role in Landmark's development, and am privileged to have been able to spread my knowledge to many different organizations and individuals," Dr. Gander said.
In 2008, Landmark was focused on external opportunities, and he took on a new role, working to create partnerships with other organizations, from the Prince Salman Center for Disabilities Research in Saudi Arabia to the KIPP School movement in the United States.
"After a year of this work, I decided to return to faculty in order to pursue creative work and scholarship, and took an appointment as Professor of English and Journalism, while continuing a role as a primary spokesperson for the college as Senior Associate with Landmark's Institute for Research and Training."
Dr. Brent Betit, senior vice president at Landmark College, says Dr. Gander is a national authority on attention deficit disorders and has become a renowned and extremely popular faculty member at Landmark College. "He has always been one of those professors whose classes fill immediately when they are announced," Dr. Betit says. "I think some of that is due to his style, some is due to his reputation among students, and some is due to his expertise in the field."
About Landmark College:
Landmark College was the first institution of higher learning to pioneer college-level studies for students with dyslexia. Today we are a global leader in integrated teaching methods for students with learning differences including dyslexia, ADHD, and ASD, and draws students from all over the world for its innovative educational model, designed to help all students who learn differently become confident, self-empowered, and independently successful learners.