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We live in an age where more and more kids seem to have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), which makes them restless and inattentive in class. Nearly one in five high school age boys in the United States and 11% of school-age children over all have received a medical diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to new data from the CDC.

Instead of just wringing their hands and letting these kids fail, some physicians are giving them a dose of some powerful medicine: Adderall. This drug increases the amount of dopamine in the brain, and can be addictive. It’s commercially available and legal ONLY in the US.
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Studies show that parents live much longer than people who do not have children–they even get fewer colds.

Using statistics, Danish researcher Esben Agerbo discovered that women without children experienced an annual rate of death four times greater than those who gave birth, and for childless men the death rate was twice that of fathers.

However, the November 15-21st edition of the Economist reports that Agerbo was unable to discover WHY having children might be life-prolonging. He thinks it may be that people who have parental responsibilities may feel more of an obligation to look after themselves than those without don’t–but that’s just a guess.
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More and more US schools have their own police forces. Pupils are being arrested for throwing paper planes and failing to pick up crumbs from the cafeteria floor. The state has taken over discipline from the classroom teacher and is now criminalizing normal childhood behavior–or is it?

In Austin, Texas, 12-year-old Sarah Bustamantes was arrested for spraying perfume on her neck in class after the other kids were taunting her and saying she smelled bad. In the Guardian Weekly, Chris McGreal quotes Sarah as saying, "They were saying a lot of rude things to me. Just picking on me. So I sprayed myself with perfume. Then the teacher called the police."
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Give him or her music lessons! Those childhood music lessons keep our minds sharper as people age, even if we no longer play the instrument. A study recruited 70 healthy adults age 60 to 83 who were divided into groups based on their levels of musical experience. The musicians performed better on several cognitive tests than individuals who had never studied an instrument or learned how to read music. Psychologist Brenda Hanna-Pladdy says, "Musical activity throughout life may serve as a challenging cognitive exercise, making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of aging.read more