ADHD, Really?

So, we didn't tell his school that he has ADHD. We started looking for another school. I've been reading all I can get a hold of regarding ADHD, and they say that the open pod arrangement is the absolute worst for kids with the inattention tendencies. Of course the kindergarten class is all open pod. And it has 26 kids with one teacher.

I really love the school district - I went to high school there. It is very strong academically. Made college seem easy for me. But, I realize it's geared toward kids who have strong academic skills, i.e. the desire to sit around and read, write and analyze. I am one of those people. My son is not.

Ya see, there's all types of intelligence. I've always thought of the types as analytical, social and mechanical. But I guess now there are up to 9 types (??): http://skyview.vansd.org/lschmidt/Projects/The%20Nine%20Types%20of%20Intelligence.htm

My gut tells me that my son is pretty low in the social skills, a little higher in analytical and highest in mechanical. He loves to draw, arrange, and take things apart. He's not bad at putting things back together either. But mechanical skills (roughly summarized - that involving hands/bodies/things) aren't very celebrated in schools. So my little guy gets a double whammy against him because of course if he had social skills he could use his diplomatic powers to at least partially compensate for his lack of desire in academic areas. I'm not blaming the school or teachers - I think kindergarten teachers are saints with all they put up with. But I think he has a rough road to go.

Not sure if his intelligence type is related to ADHD or not. But it has been going through my head while school searching.

By the way, my youngest son was sick so I took him to the family Dr. and casually mentioned to Dr. H that our middle child was diagnosed with ADHD by Dr. Z, and would he need to see him? He said, sure, we need to get him on his medicine. I said, uh, I don't want to put him on medicine right now. At which point he stopped multi-tasking and gave me a 10 minute dissertation on why I should put him on medication (which is why I love my Dr. - because he actually cares to explain things to me). His main reasoning was that kids with ADHD often fall further and further behind in school, which affects their self-esteem, which makes them feel bad about themselves etc. That's why he suggests medication.

OK. My son whizzes through his homework and, when he actually pays attention to tests, scores above average. But at school it is true he falls behind. What does that mean? I don't know. But I know he can do the work quickly and accurately. Just not at school. But it doesn't seem like a reason to medicate him, you know?

(sigh)