Was going to mention adhd.
Not being able to focus and read books is a major adhd symptom.
People swear by stimulants for this kind of thing.
Docs just give out antidepressants and dont normally consider adhd unfortunately
When I later made a volitional choice to have myself medicated on Ritalin, I monitored my response to it through my ability to read. My optimal reading ability peaked at 150 mg Ritalin before the efficacy of the medication permanently tapered off.
The most important consideration was how medication worked for
ME when
I CHOOSE to take it.
Drugs should not be given to children for the sake of school, teachers, parents, grades, or any other stupid and meaningless thing.
School and grades are the only reason I ever became depressed. Like Karl Hess famously said when asked in a Playboy interview about dropping out of school at age 15:
"I
loved education, which is why I spent as little time as possible in school...the only thing you have to do to get kids educated is abolish the school system."
(Karl's mother encouraged curiosity and direct learning. She often insisted that Karl figure things out for himself, or increase his knowledge through reading. Karl, believing [as his mother did] that public "education" was a waste of time, rarely attended school; to evade truancy officers, he registered at every elementary school in town and gradually withdrew from each one, making it impossible for the authorities to know exactly where he was supposed to be, He has developed great reverence for libraries; this became very basic to his personal philosophy, and in his autobiography he wrote: "Literacy is the basic tool in the workshop of the entire world.")
Ultimately, we can learn how to produce and purify our own nitrogen and sodium nitrite. The authorities can't eradicate that information.
Years ago, instead of buying kids alcohol, I gave them books on how to brew their own, and they actually gifted me with some of their home brew (some of which was pretty good stuff).