Paul Tough

that in fact symptoms often fluctuate over time, that there are different sorts of treatments that work for different sorts of kids, that that gives them maybe less certainty, which can sometimes be scary, but also more of a sense of possibility, that this is something that can, like the young person you're talking to who was sort of cured by chess, that there may be ways that life can change that will really change these symptoms as well.

Yeah, so this is a psychiatrist named Charles Bradley who ran a home for children with psychological problems in Rhode Island. And at the time, this was in the 1930s, Benzedrine, which is a kind of amphetamine, had become this really popular drug among jazz musicians, actually, and among college students who felt like it helped them focus. It sort of amped them up in various ways.

Yeah, so this is a psychiatrist named Charles Bradley who ran a home for children with psychological problems in Rhode Island. And at the time, this was in the 1930s, Benzedrine, which is a kind of amphetamine, had become this really popular drug among jazz musicians, actually, and among college students who felt like it helped them focus. It sort of amped them up in various ways.

Yeah, so this is a psychiatrist named Charles Bradley who ran a home for children with psychological problems in Rhode Island. And at the time, this was in the 1930s, Benzedrine, which is a kind of amphetamine, had become this really popular drug among jazz musicians, actually, and among college students who felt like it helped them focus. It sort of amped them up in various ways.

And he thought, maybe I should try this on these kids. There was nothing that was seeming to help them. So he did a very small but rigorous experiment where he gave 30 kids a daily dose of Benzedrine. And he noticed this, in about half of them, this vast change in their behavior. So they were more placid. They were more easygoing. They could get things done. They felt better about their work.

And he thought, maybe I should try this on these kids. There was nothing that was seeming to help them. So he did a very small but rigorous experiment where he gave 30 kids a daily dose of Benzedrine. And he noticed this, in about half of them, this vast change in their behavior. So they were more placid. They were more easygoing. They could get things done. They felt better about their work.

And he thought, maybe I should try this on these kids. There was nothing that was seeming to help them. So he did a very small but rigorous experiment where he gave 30 kids a daily dose of Benzedrine. And he noticed this, in about half of them, this vast change in their behavior. So they were more placid. They were more easygoing. They could get things done. They felt better about their work.

And it felt to him like this kind of miracle cure.

And it felt to him like this kind of miracle cure.

And it felt to him like this kind of miracle cure.

Yeah, so I spoke to this NYU researcher named Xavier Castellanos, who actually told me about the Charles Bradley paper and said that he sees the same things now when he first prescribes Ritalin or Adderall to kids, that overnight there's this kind of miraculous change.

Yeah, so I spoke to this NYU researcher named Xavier Castellanos, who actually told me about the Charles Bradley paper and said that he sees the same things now when he first prescribes Ritalin or Adderall to kids, that overnight there's this kind of miraculous change.

Yeah, so I spoke to this NYU researcher named Xavier Castellanos, who actually told me about the Charles Bradley paper and said that he sees the same things now when he first prescribes Ritalin or Adderall to kids, that overnight there's this kind of miraculous change.

transformation for a lot of them that their their behaviors really change what he said was frustrating though was that when you look at the sort of academic results for kids even though they are able to sit and focus more and get more seat work done their test scores don't go up and that i think has been this puzzle that doctors have been wrestling with for the past couple of decades

transformation for a lot of them that their their behaviors really change what he said was frustrating though was that when you look at the sort of academic results for kids even though they are able to sit and focus more and get more seat work done their test scores don't go up and that i think has been this puzzle that doctors have been wrestling with for the past couple of decades

transformation for a lot of them that their their behaviors really change what he said was frustrating though was that when you look at the sort of academic results for kids even though they are able to sit and focus more and get more seat work done their test scores don't go up and that i think has been this puzzle that doctors have been wrestling with for the past couple of decades

That at least in the short term, these medications seem to have a powerful effect for some kids on their symptoms. But over time, they don't seem to have an effect on academic achievement, at least measured in test scores.

That at least in the short term, these medications seem to have a powerful effect for some kids on their symptoms. But over time, they don't seem to have an effect on academic achievement, at least measured in test scores.

That at least in the short term, these medications seem to have a powerful effect for some kids on their symptoms. But over time, they don't seem to have an effect on academic achievement, at least measured in test scores.

So I'd never heard of this test before. It's called the knapsack test. But apparently it's pretty common in psychology and computer science. You give a kid a backpack. In this case, it's a virtual backpack. And it's just this kind of game. You give them a bunch of different things of different weights and prices.