Jumping jacks or medications

Have you seen the hilarious comments of sir Ken Robinson on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in America? If not, watch RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms at approximately minute 3:40.

Can you imagine the following description of the human evolution: “Our predecessors evolved by sitting for hours and listening to the speeches of their tribal leaders. In fact, our predecessors rarely engaged in any physical activity. The children and adolescents occasionally (once or twice weekly) practiced hunting for 45 minutes, but for the rest of the time they sat and listened to the adults preaching them about many unrelated to life things.” 

Wait a minute! This is not how Homo sapiens developed! However, the fact that our children sit through hours of lessons in school means that our current educational system has gone against the very evolutionary mechanisms that allowed us to become humans. My child (and I assure you, your child) sits, listens or watches something for more than 12 hours every day. Our brain did not evolve to be occupied for 12 hours with listening, reading and learning, and our body did not evolve to be unused and restrained for 12 hours every day. ADHD is the result of our crime against our bodies and brains. 

What are the results of this crime? Here are some shocking facts from the Centers of Disease Control: Recent surveys asked parents whether their child received an ADHD diagnosis from a health care provider. The results show that:

• Approximately 11% of children 4-17 years of age (6.4 million) have been diagnosed with ADHD as of 2011.

• The percentage of children with an ADHD diagnosis continues to increase, from 7.8% in 2003 to 9.5% in 2007 and to 11.0% in 2011.

• Rates of ADHD diagnosis increased an average of 3% per year from 1997 to 2006 and an average of approximately 5% per year from 2003 to 2011.

• Boys (13.2%) were more likely than girls (5.6%) to have ever been diagnosed with ADHD.

• The average age of ADHD diagnosis was 7 years of age, but children reported by their parents as having more severe ADHD were diagnosed earlier.

• Prevalence of ADHD diagnosis varied substantially by state, from a low of 5.6% in Nevada to a high of 18.7% in Kentucky.

One of the many consequences of this ADHD obsession is that in adulthood, the number of stimulant misusers addicted to ADHD medications has been increasing. The drug supply has risen sharply: about 2.6 million American adults received ADHD medication in 2012, a rise of 53% in four years. Use of ADHD medications among adults 26- to 34-year old has almost doubled.  
Actionable
Dear doctors, instead of ADHD medications, would you please prescribe jumping jacks to our children? Dear federal government, instead of being blind to the drugging of our children, would you require the school system to offer time and space for the prescribed jumping jacks? By the way, sir Ken Robinson suggested that we offer dances instead of jumping. I agree, a daily dose of dancing might be better.