Reggie Taylor, 13, behaved badly in school. He had trouble sitting still, and he was disruptive in class-not because he overtly caused any problems or was disrespectful to his teachers, but because he nearly continually rustled papers and squirmed in his seat. Teachers wanted him to undergo psychological testing to get him into special education classes, and his parents agreed so that any psychological problem could be ruled out. Reggie had a 90-minute bus trip to school, which separated from his neighborhood friends, and what he wanted was to be in school with them, as he had been since elementary school. The results of the testing yielded the conclusion that Reggie suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). "The school recommended special education classes, with a modified curriculum. The Tatums disagreed and transferred Reggie to a school in their community" (Hill, 1998; p. C01). Now, two years later, he's a thriving high school junior, on the honor roll as he had been in elementary school. His mother said, "His turnaround has been amazing. At first, I thought they just misdiagnosed him. Then I thought it could be that he did not want to go there in the first place. I think race factored into it a lot. I think a lot of the female teachers up there could not handle black males or might have been intimidated by them...The teachers just needed to tell him to sit his butt down" (Hill, 1998; p. C01).
             Reggie's mom firmly believes that Reggie's teachers turned disciplinary problems into psychological ones: "If he would break a pencil or not sit down, they would write him up" (Hill, 1998; p. C01). Susan Puckett, an elementary special education teacher, says of the growth of disability and disorder diagnoses and the high percentage of public school students recommended for psychological testing, "Maybe we're to blame. We want the children to be helped. If a child doesn't have a label, he gets sent back to the c...