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I came across this article today and thought it was interesting and something we should all be looking into and keeping an eye out on. I don't know about you guys but my son will be there soon and I don't want to see him go through something like that and I definitely don't want to "medicate" him just to help him make it through school.

Wow. Great article. I have an very active 3-yr old boy. We'll be dealing with issues like this soon, too. Thanks for posting this for us all to read.

Sadly, there is no concrete data in the article with regard to the WHY's. I would venture to guess that there are many reasons our boys are having problems, but the biggest one will always be the time-proven one. As the old saying about "so goes the neighborhood" is remembered, I would change it to when the "family" goes so goes the child.

When children are from strong families there seems to be so few problems. There will always be the exceptions, but for the most part a child in a strong, moral family will turn out just fine.

Boys are given such mixed messages in our society. They get the messages from TV, music, videos, girls, us adults, etc. We want them strong yet gentle, tough yet submissive, they are supposed to be leaders but how dare they lead, opening a door is a compliment or it is sexist, sex is a sin but only nerds don't have it, etc. Girls get similar mixed messages, but girls have had the protection of large groups of women (N.O.W., legislators, school administrators, psychologists, American Med Assoc, etc). We look out for girls and have even worked over the last 2 decades to make sure they stay in school and get good educations. We've somehow forgotten about our boys. We've devalued them at times (who needs a man when we can have sperm) and what child needs a father when we can give him outside male role models, etc.

It's no wonder ALL our children are facing uphill battles. When the family and society go sliding downward, so goes the baby in the bathwater.

Sorry, but this topic is near and dear to my heart and not because I have a son. I saw the disconnect with boys in the schools while we tried to save girls; the only problem is that ALL kids need protection, attention and strong families...

Very interesting article. I can;t believe that "experts" think our children need MORE medication!!! Oh yes, by all means lets put more kids on drugs, that will solve ALL our problems.

And Nonny, I think you raise a very valid point, even if it is politically incorrect (come on, lady, don't you know that women have had a bad time in this country, and therefore it's okay today if male children are treated poorly?)

I think that this discrepancy will mean that if a girl has issues, she will more likely get counseling or an honest attempt to fix the problem, whereas a boy will more likely get drugs to "correct" him.

I agree with you all. I am the mother of 3 happy, yet active little boys. I believe that boys are wired differently than girls; rather than fighting it with more medication, I think there can be more productive ways to "control" their wily behavior - more recess time to get the wiggles out! I homeschool my boys and need to take many breaks and move around often (from the kitchen table, to the couch, to the bedroom, to even outside on their fort). I just can't imagine how difficult it must be for today's school aged boys to have to sit down, be quiet and have no "relief" for all that energy. Granted, I'm sure there are many many kids who genuinely could benefit from proper administration of medication, but I don't think that's the answer for a lot of them. And Nonny has a very good point, that it's also their home environment that shapes them and their behavior, too.

I so agree with this one. Boys just can't be boys anymore without being labeled "aggressive" or "overactive." Most of them just need some time to run around, jump, play. As schools continue to take away recess and PE, even music, art and library time -- that somewhat unstructured time not spent at a desk -- I think we'll just continue to see things get worse.

That said, yes, there are some children that need counseling and mediation, and they should be able to get that.

My question is, how do we change this? If all of these studies are proving that children need the recess, need the PE, need to be out running and playing, why aren't they doing anything about it? Because they make money from medication and not from letting kids be kids, or in this case, letting boys be boys?!

"Because they make money from medication and not from letting kids be kids, or in this case, letting boys be boys?!"

That's at least part of it. There is big money in medicine. Also, there is the control aspect. Drugging our youth ensures complience and obedience, instead of independant thought.

I am 100% against drugging kids and I will never be convinced otherwise. My brother was a hyper kid, who no doubt would have been drugged to holy heck if I did not have a strong mother who believed in him. There is no way he would sit still in a class room. He was home schooled and could not read until he was well past 12. He graduated from UF at 22, got a MBA at 30 and is extremely (financially) successful running his own company. He has a beautiful family etc. Had he been in school and put in the many “troubled kids” classes and drugged, I do not know that he would have fared as well. Parents have to fight for what they believe in for their kids and not fall victim to a flawed system. Sorry, big soap box topic!

LEW I agree! Congrats to your brother and to your mother for helping to make all of that happen!! You have a very strong family! Can I join (LOL)? My son at the age of 2 is very hyper and very active, he also has apraxia of speech, luckily we have a great doctor who doesn't, at this point, think he will have any problems once he finishes therapy, though he will need a lot. Hopefully we will never have to come to the "medication" fight but we will have to see once he is in school.