On the subject of medicating children, there have been a few studies that have come out in the past year or so that pretty much have stated that the current generations, the ones who have guardians who are heavily into medicating them is going to fail because the adults that are innovators are the ones who take risks and think outside of the box, the ones who jump off of things, figure out ways around and through things, and because that's the way they think they come up with new things. Many many children who dont' need to be medicated are and the concern is that we're medicating the innovation out of an entire generation.
My own son is a kinetic learner, always has been, he never sits still but he's smart. Started walking at 9 months, was talking in full sentences before he was 2. He also climbs on, jumps off of, and takes apart anything and everything he can. He can only sit still for around 20 minutes and learns better if he's allowed to run off some of that energy after a lesson. Now he's only 3.5 but a few people have told me that he's much too active and will more than likely need to be medicated in school. While I dont' want my son to be a distraction within a classroom, I don't see the point of medicating numerous students because it's easier.
A few cities (including one we used to live in) have tried splitting classes down a "Kinetic learning" and "Traditional learning" line, traditional classrooms are pretty much the same as what we grew up with. In the other, what they're learning is the same but how they learn it is different, rooms are set up so students can stand while learning, sit down time is limited to 20-30 minutes, followed by some sort of activity that ties into what they're learning (Experiment, running to find a certain number of items in a room, etc.). The cities that have done this have found it raises test scores and they're having to medicate less kids.
We live in Europe now which has totally changed my parenting style. It's much more loose here, kids are very well behaved but parents aren't on top of them as much as they are in the states. Playground equipment here would shock a lot of US parents and we often joke that what the kids play on "Would make a US lawyer rich". One of my kids favorite places to go (they're 5 and 3.5) has a 15-20 foot high "volcano" shaped thing that's covered in slippery plastic, the kids run and climb up it and it has no hand holds at all. It also has a flat area that's blown up with a "bubble" sticking out of it...little kids sit on the bubble and older kids and parents jump on it, launching the little kids in every direction. My mom was horrified when she saw the picture, yet I've never, ever seen a child hurt. Parents tell their kids what the rules are, the kids follow them, and all is well. In fact you often see older kids, helping, and protecting the smaller ones when things get a little rough.
I think a lot of kids have been so sheltered that they just don't know how to cope when they get older. I have friends who have managed people who had their mom call for them at work when they were sick. My husband once had some 30 something's mom call him and argue with him about the job rating her son had gotten (It wasn't bad, just wasn't perfect. People in their job never get perfect ratings, they always have to say that there's room for some improvement, which is how they justify the raise the next year because they "improved".).
This got much longer than I intended, sorry.
