Last year, after a horrible start to the school year (for both of them), my friend's child was diagnosed with ADHD. He was disruptive in class and getting poor grades. Medication helped his behavior, although not profoundly, and he did manage to bring his grades up. Now that a new school year is is starting, my friend has decided to hold off on giving her child the medication to "see how he does." My question is this: If a child is a problem at the beginning of the school year, does that color a teacher's opinion of them for the rest of the year, even if the child's behavior improves later on? I feel like she is putting her child at a disadvantage by not giving him one of the tools he needs to succeed.

My son is about to start kindergarten next week. I saw his daily schedule and noticed that he only gets 20 minutes of recess every day and art once per week. His schedule is absolutely packed with academic classes- math and reading.

I'm absolutely terrified that this sort of schedule is going to stifle his creativity and lead to more problems in the future than it purports to solve (ie low test scores).

In light of recent studies (see link below), I'd like to know what regulations local schools must follow in determining how much play time / art time kindergartners have.

The Crisis in Kindergarten:

http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/sites/allianceforchildhood.org/files/file/kindergarten_report.pdf