Teachers and Other Educators

For many years, I saw children with learning and behavioral problems and interacted often with teachers. I was frequently invited to speak at teacher's conferences and parents groups. Teachers often faced children that were not doing well or who behaved badly. The question always was -- who owns the problem? Different participants in child care and education blamed the child, the parents or blamed each other.

My message was simple:  children are strongly affected by the food they eat and their physical environments. I advocated finding solutions for learning and behavioral problems by changing the child's diet and improving the physical environment where they lived and learned. Without a sound biological base, even the most expert teaching and parenting skills will fail.

For several years, many teachers, school psychologists and one child psychiatrist joined me in developing remedial programs for children. This turned out to be professionally dangerous work since so many other professionals from different disciplines compete to explain and manage children's problems. These professionals are hostile to anyone who does not share their views.  Psychiatrists were specially hostile toward biological facts and denied that food had anything to do with learning and behavior. Many years later, I have retired from the struggles with hostile colleagues, but remain an advocate of compassionate biological interventions for children in trouble. I define biological interventions as changes in the food supply and environment, not the use of drugs that affect brain function.

I hope there are articles at this website that will interest and inform teachers.

I suggest starting with Child Psychology, Understanding Children

Stephen Gislason MD