[quote=SD Realtor]As a side note I also believe that more physical activity would improve academic achievement dramatically. It is bad enough that pretty much any normal 7 year old boy is classified as ADD cuz he cannot sit still. I think that in most cases this is simply a boy being a boy. They need to be running around. Tire them out and you find they are a hell of alot more attentive. Adding more physical activity and maybe scaling back a bit on the academics may serve to INCREASE attentiveness and the quality of what the kids learn. Just my two cents. I do like the military style idea though. Lots of physical activity and more of a focus on respect, discipline, and other intangibles that will accelerate learning in the future. [/quote]

As the mother of an two boys – age 8 and 6 – I completely agree with this. Fortunately, last year, my older son’s teacher figured this out and when he was too fidgety, she let him run laps. (He likes running, it wasn’t punishment). He’d come back ready to learn. I wish his current teacher did the same thing.