My son was diagnosed as ADHD in elementary school. Despite that, he wasn't disrespectful in the classroom and was a straight A student so our pediatrician was against medicating him. We decided that medication wouldn't be in order unless his eduation began to suffer. When he started 8th grade it became clear he needed some help to get through the school day. He was put on 30 mg of Vyvanse and it helped him focus in class, remember to write down his homework and he got his grades back up. He didn't feel any different taking it and he wasn't violent or disrespectful so he only took it on school days. This year he started high school and wanted to try school without the medication and he's doing fine and has great grades. I've been told he could outgrow the symptoms that affected his grades and I"m cautiously optimistic this has happened. The medication has some side effects that I'm not fond of, but there was a risk/reward argument to be made when it came to his education.
I'm not sure every active kid has ADD/ADHD, but I know there's a lot teachers could do to help kids keep their act together as young students and many have lacked the ingenuity to handle these kids. They think medication is the easy solution, but that's because it isn't there kid who could potentially be addicted to drugs easier in the future or have their growth stunted, etc. I'd like to see more focus on how to handle ADD/ADHD kids as part of the credential program. We were lucky that my son mostly had great teachers who cared about him and had creative ways of allowing him to burn off energy throughout the day, which for him, was the biggest hurdle.
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