Thank for that post @plonkster.
What interested me is that as these diagnoses became more public domain, I looked back and thought “oh, so-and-so at school might had had that”. But back then it didn’t have a name and the kid would just be regarded as disruptive or irredeemably stupid (after a couple of canings or writing out of lines had no effect).
I asked a health care professional about this. Saying that when I look back epecially at my days at school in England (higher numbers per class) it seemed to me likely that a couple of them had ADHD or something similar, yet nothing was done.
She said “what year was this? Oh… back then the focus was on eliminating polio and doctors spent large amounts of time dealing with mumps and measles. There was no research money for your class mates, and some of those children just fell through the cracks.”
ADHD had actually been identified in the 60s at least, but the health systems then had bigger fish to fry. And teachers didn’t understand because there was so little publicity, they just saw a disruptive kid that they had to manage somehow.
Of course the parents were expected to do something about this, but they had as little clue as the teachers.