A case study in ADHD. My son, Zahir, is 9 years old and diagnosed with ADHD. Last week in school, he and his classmates had to sit still for 10 minutes as a consequence for behaving inappropriately. He told me that sitting still for 10 minutes actually felt painful to him and quote "tears sprang to my eyes while I was sitting there." It was like a light bulb went off for me -- it is literally painful for him to sit still. Isn't that fascinating? This is why the Montessori model is so perfect for him. 1. He has to learn how to manage that pain because he will have to be able to sit still at some point but 2. He can move around the classroom while learning--he doesn't have to sit still. A traditional setting where he sat at a desk most of the day would actually be PAINFUL for him. Imagine the implications of that. He could easily be labeled, put in special ed or behaviorally emotionally disturbed (BED) classes, marginalized, ostracized, forced to replace his love of learning with actual pain and feeling misunderstood, put on the fast track to prison. Instead, this morning with a gleam in his eye he says "You think you know how far the sun is from the earth?" and goes on to school me about the speed of light. He is just awesome. And we are just learning.