The question that parents ultimately face is not so much whether doctors are too quick to prescribe medication in general, but whether medication is necessary and appropriate for their child.

A recent study reported that the second, third and fourth most commonly prescribed classes of medications for children (behind asthma medication) are ADHD medications, antidepressants and antipsychotics, respectively.

9% of U.S. kids between the ages of 5-17 have received at least one prescription for ADHD in their lifetimes.

They get seven minutes face to face, [the doctor gives] them a prescription, and then 30 days later they come back to get it renewed.”

“[That number] is preposterous,” says Connors, who studied and treated ADHD for 50 years before retiring. “That would make it an epidemic.”

A survey of 76,000 parents conducted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) every four years estimates that one in 11 children had been diagnosed with ADHD by a health care professional, an increase of 42% between 2003 and 2014.

Saul criticizes the catchall-nature of an ADHD diagnosis, which he believes corrals a lot of real conditions into one.

But ADHD isn’t a disorder of the modern age. It may have been first described in the medical literature in 1763 by Scottish physician Sir Arthur Crichton, who observed patients so unable to focus that “the barking of dogs, an ill-tuned organ, or the scolding of women, are sufficient to distract patients of this description to such a degree, as almost approaches to the nature of delirium.” Those patients, he noted, referred to their own symptoms, including anger “bordering on insanity,” as “the fidgets.”

family, friends, strangers, even scientists—say that ADHD doesn’t exist, that the symptoms are caused by poor parenting, food additives, or 21st century life in the fast lane, lack of physical activity, or that they’re just kids being kids, albeit less manageable than most. “A lot of people don’t believe in it,” she says. “I think that’s because they’ve never experienced it firsthand.”

5% to 11% of American children 4 to 17 years of age who are diagnosed with the disorder—the numbers are up for debate depending on whom you talk to—also face a lifetime of increased risk for accidents, teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse, smoking, and even dying prematurely. Overall, boys (13.2%) are more likely than girls (5.6%) to be given an ADHD diagnosis.

Being fidgety and easily distracted are two of the most common and recognized symptoms of ADHD, often leading to poor performance in school, the most recognized fallout of the condition.

“We’ve got to move forward, not look back,” he said. “As long as we are dealing with these statues, we’re not moving forward.”

“The statue being removed is not going to keep anyone from dying,” she said. “It’s not going to save a life.”

“easy appeasement.”

The push has largely been welcomed by activists from the Black Lives Matter movement who see Confederate and other monuments as reminders of the oppressive history that created the reality they are battling today. But some of them worried that the focus on historic symbols would do little to keep attention on the more pressing issue of ending the brutal treatment of many African-Americans by the police.

He said that statues removed from parks and street corners could be teaching points if they are placed in museums, side-by-side with documents and first-person accounts from the era.

“It is a turning point insofar as there are a lot of people now who are invested in telling the story that historians have been laying down for decades,”

The debate over how to represent the uncomfortable parts of American history has been going on for decades, but the traction for knocking down monuments seen in recent days raises new questions about whether it will result in a fundamental shift in how history is taught to new generations.

“These pieces of systemic racism took the form of monuments and statues and parks,” Mr. King said.

The Black Lives Matter movement, he said, had encouraged people to examine the history around them, and not all of it was merely written in books.