Stop Penalizing Boys for Not Being Able to Sit Still at School

It's only disruptive to a disciplinarian, industrial age approach to education.

Every time I had a new teacher, my parents were called into the school, and warned that I had some sort of problem (and my parents went into full denial hell not of course my child is not crazy... later I found out I DO probably have Aspergers, seemly inherited from the father of my mother), my parents reply were: "Alright, wait until the tests, and if he fails, THEN you can call us."

Unfortunately to those teachers, and me, I did not failed... Meaning I had to endure them, and they had to endure me. Specially because I completely ignored their lessons, and in the time of the tests I answered correctly but in my own way, this was specially bad related to hard sciences because I would use formulas I invented on the spot, and I wrote in totally random patterns, forcing teachers to spend LOOOOOONG time to figure what I did, also my calligraphy is horrible, thus all my teachers hated reading my tests, yet they could not just zero them, because I always passed, so if they did that, they knew I would send the test to their superior and would get them punished.

So yes, I can totally relate to the article.

Also I STILL don't sit still, right now as I type I am vibrating one of my legs. (I guess this is a way to keep energy burning considering I stay sitting the entire day).

It doesn't necessarily take a lot of money to homeschool children. (Been there, still doing that.) It does take agreement among the parents about what lifestyle adjustments each parent is willing to make so that children have flexibility in their learning. My oldest son, now a programmer working for a startup, sent me a very touching email for Father's Day in which he attributed some of his success so far in the business world to having been homeschooled rather than being put in public school. "That has made it very easy for me to step into a leadership position and feel very comfortable in positions of responsibility" is part of what he wrote.

Finding truly excellent third-party educational materials and programs can be inexpensive

http://www.singaporemath.com/Primary_Math_s/21.htm

or expensive,

http://ohs.stanford.edu/

depending on what your selection criteria are for "excellent" programs, and what your child's specific needs are, but some of the expensive third-party programs have significant financial aid that reaches up into the middle class, and some of the commercial materials and programs are available in a thriving used-materials or group-purchase market for homeschooling families. So shop around, and see what fits your family's needs.

There is a lot of information about how to get started in homeschooling

http://learninfreedom.org/sidlifgetstarted.html

on the World Wide Web, and my goal for next few years is to update my personal website (the link here) with more been-there, done-thats as I launch my younger three children into adulthood to joint their older brother in the big world.

Being able to not disrupt a class or meeting is a valuable skill upon which other skills can be built.

Thumb-twiddling doesn't matter, but listening and not being pointlessly disruptive DOES matter and learning skills like this is part of growing up.