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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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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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Knowing the right way to handle stress in the classroom and on the sports field can make the difference between success and failure for the millions of students who are back in school this fall. The culprit? The stress hormone cortisol.

Psychologist Sian Beilock says, "We found that cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress, can either be tied to a student’s poor performance on a math test or contribute to success, depending on the frame of mind of the student going into the test."
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