>>>I disagree with much of what you say here. In fact, I see the increased diagnosis of ADD as a symptom of our increased expectations for children. It's only in the last 40-50 years that we expect every kid to complete high school. There used to be a significant portion of the population who was happy to make it through 8th grade and then left school to go to work.
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>>Wow, what a burden to expect our children to commplete 12 years of school or at least until we consider them to be "adults" at age 18.
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>I didn't say that we shouldn't expect all kids to go through high school, just that it's a fairly recent expectation. A century ago, students who have what we now recognize as ADD/ADHD would have left school early and, with luck, gone into some job where their disability became a strength. Today, we expect them to be able to sit still and to learn quadratic equations, analysis of Shakespeare, a foreign language, the causes of the War of 1812, the periodic table, and much more.

Yeah, but "we" are putting them on Ritalin, etc., before they even start grade school or at worst sometime during elementary school. There is a way to teach these kids; our schools have just become an assembly line to move these kids along like cattle so they have no time for strays. So these strays are deemed to have some kind of syndrome and doped up in the name of expediency. Schools can no longer afford to lose kids. Each kid that leaves school, is money lost to that school. Just follow the money. In this case there are at least 2 trails.

Those who left school early however long ago still had to learn whatever trade they found work in. All without the "benefit" of Ritalin.

>>Not everyone can perform at the same levels, agreed, but ever school does have high achievers who should not be penalized by a lack of proper advanced subjects or advanced track.
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>Here, I couldn't agree with you more. I spent a lot of time working with the schools here to see to it that my kids got what they needed. One of the truly unfortunate things in our society is that many people don't understand that gifted kids need extra help from the school as much as low-acheiving kids. What they need is different, but not that they need it.
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>>We actually had to submit a petition with enough students to make a second year Biology class. The school's lame excuse was it would have competed with the Band class. Say what? The Biology teacher was definitely not the Band instructor.
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>Where did you go to school? (What part of the country?)

Texas in a town of about 8,000 at the time.

>>The school she was in is an excellent school as far as the teachers and curricula are concerned. The problem is the schools and the administration are too afraid of lawsuits so when something goes wrong, the injured child gets "shunned", most communication with the parents is immediately cut off or severely "filtered". After another kid ran into my daughter and fractured her leg, Kate went through hell the final 4 months of school last year.
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>A school where administration doesn't stand behind the teachers when they should, by definition, is not an excellent school. A school where a child is punished for being injured or when parents raise a concern, by definition, is not an excellent school.
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>Excellent (as opposed to good) schools accept criticism and solve problems as (or even before) they occur. Excellence in a school requires more than dedicated teachers and strong curriculum.

I challenge you to investigate a school in your district where a student NOT in organized sports at the school was seriously injured. There is no way I believe in this day of litigation where the school did not circle the wagons. This accident to my daughter happened in a teacher supervised Physical Ed class in the 3rd grade. My daughter stopped when the teacher blew the whistle. The other kid, unfortunately, did not. He admitted hearing the whistle, but decided to keep running.