Good article. Makes one think that f you really care about your child, you should send them to a parochial school. Unfortunately I can attest that even parochial schools teach in a manner that is better geared to girls than to boys.
I can somewhat relate as when I was in middle school, I was hyperactive and didn't really care a hill of beans about school. I got sent to special education classes for a short stint and was sent back to the regular classes. The problem with me was that school was boring as hell. I liked math and science, but couldn't sit still in the reading classes and most certainly couldn't stand the repetitive and tedious nature of copying sentences out of textbooks when my brain was working at 100 mph. In 6th grade, I had the highest grades in math, science, and close to the top in history, with low C scores in reading and writing. I was held back because I got an F in religeon mainly because of my attitude. I still have that report card somewhere- its a keeper, the only Ds and Fs I ever got from K through BS degree.
I can imagine that if ritalin was available at that time, there might have been a push to put me on it. I don't think there's anything unique about me either, my nextdoor neighbor and two of my brother-in-laws all guys in their early 30s pretty much went through the same crap in middle school, if I were to poll others in my age group I would bet there would be even more of the same. The difference now is that there is a fix-all drug out there that seems to cure the disease known as 'boyhood,' in fact my neighbor recently pulled his 7 year old son out of school because they were pushing him to be put on pharmaceuticals.