Good morning. President Trump is facing some setbacks. Peace talks between American and Ukrainian officials ended in Geneva with a new, slimmer plan to end the war — one that Russia will likely veto. This morning, Russia bombarded Kyiv and killed at least six people. And a federal judge dismissed cases against James Comey and Letitia James, two foes Trump has been trying to punish using the Justice Department. We have more news below. But before we get to it, I’d like to look at the mental health crisis facing America’s children. Some parents, educators and health experts are wondering: Are schools part of the problem?
School dazeThe numbers are staggering. Nearly one in four 17-year-old boys in the United States has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In the early 1980s, a diagnosis of autism was delivered to one child in 2,500. That figure is now one in 31. Almost 32 percent of adolescents have at some point been given a diagnosis of anxiety. More than one in 10 have experienced a major depressive disorder, my colleague Jia Lynn Yang reports. And the number of mental health conditions is expanding. A child might be tagged with oppositional defiance disorder or pathological avoidance disorder. “The track has become narrower and narrower, so a greater range of people don’t fit that track anymore,” an academic who studies children and education told Jia Lynn. “And the result is, we want to call it a disorder.” Why did this happen? A lot of reasons. Kids spend hours on screens, cutting into their sleep, exercise and socializing — activities that can ward off anxiety and depression. Mental health screenings have improved. And then there’s school itself: a cause of stress for many children and the very place that sends them toward a diagnosis. A slow transformationIn 1950, less than half of American children attended kindergarten. Only about 50 percent graduated from high school. After-school hours were filled with play or work. “But as the country’s economy shifted from factories and farms to offices, being a student became a more serious matter,” Jia Lynn writes. “The outcome of your life could depend on it.” College became a reliable path to the middle class. Schools leaned into new standards of testing and put in place measures of accountability. The No Child Left Behind Act in 2002 made it federal law. States rewarded schools for having high scores. They punished them for low ones. “Schools were treated more like publicly traded companies, with test scores as proxies for profits,” Jia Lynn writes. “Before long, schools had public ratings, so ubiquitous they now appear on real estate listings.” And there were clear incentives to diagnose students with psychiatric disorders: Treatment of one student, especially a disruptive one, could lead to higher test scores across the classroom. And in some states, the test scores of students with a diagnosis weren’t counted toward a school’s overall marks, nudging results higher as well. The metrics may have gotten many kids the support they needed. Either way, educational policymaking yielded a change: According to one analysis Jia Lynn found, the rate of A.D.H.D. among children ages 8 to 13 in low-income homes rose by half after the passage of No Child Left Behind.
The effect on kidsThe pressures on students became extreme. In 2020, Yale researchers found that nearly 80 percent of high schoolers said they were stressed. And that stress has trickled down to younger and younger kids. Kindergartners learn best through play, not through the rote lessons in math and reading that began to enter classrooms. Preschoolers are not predisposed to sitting still. And yet as they, too, now face greater academic expectations, many are being expelled for misbehavior. Even the school day became more regimented, with fewer periods of recess — by 2016, only eight states had mandatory recess in elementary schools. Class schedules are packed. “You’ve got seven different homework assignments that you’ve got to remember each night,” one expert told Jia Lynn. “Think of the cognitive load of a sixth-grade boy. I challenge many adults to do this.” It’s a vicious cycle, where bad outcomes lead to worse outcomes. And Jia Lynn writes about that beautifully: By turning childhood into a thing that can be measured, adults have managed to impose their greatest fears of failure onto the youngest among us. Each child who strays from our standards becomes a potential medical mystery to be solved, with more tests to take, more metrics to assess. The only thing that seems to consistently evade the detectives is the world around that child — the one made by the grown-ups. Read more about schools and the rise of childhood mental health disorders here. Don’t miss the comments that accompany the article, especially from parents and teachers. Many boil down to something a recently retired teacher wrote: “A child’s school day is insane.” Now, let’s look at what else is happening in the world.
Ukraine Negotiations
Justice Department
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Other Big Stories
Democrats have no coherent agenda on artificial intelligence. If they don’t come up with one soon, Republicans will speak with a single voice on this issue while Democrats stutter, David Byler writes. Here’s a column by Michelle Goldberg on the conflict with Venezuela. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more.
Horses in the back: There’s a little make-believe, old-timey Texas town on the outskirts of Berlin, complete with sheriff’s office and saloon. Developers want to demolish it to build a data center. The village has been there for decades, but the German fascination with the American West goes back far longer, as Michael Kimmelman reminded me yesterday. The tall-tale, gun-twirling writing of Karl May (1842-1912) sparked the infatuation, he said. Virtually unknown in the United States, May is the most popular author in German history. Einstein was a fan.
The world’s hardest driving test: To drive a black cab in London, you first need to pass the Knowledge test — a comprehensive exam of some 25,000 streets in the city. Those who do have an unmatched understanding of the fastest routes through the winding, sometimes cobbled maze that is London. They can also make more money than Uber drivers. My colleague Isabella Kwai spent months following one father determined to make a better life for his kids as he studied for the test. “This is going to be my future,” Besart Bilalli said, adding, “It has to be done.” Read the full story. Your pick: The most-clicked story in The Morning yesterday was a list of the best electric toothbrushes.
$10 billion— That’s about how much money the Trump administration has committed so far to acquire ownership shares of private companies. The unusual practice shows no sign of slowing.
N.F.L.: The 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings threw two punches at the Panthers safety Tre’von Moehrig after San Francisco’s 20-9 win on Monday night. Jennings said he was responding to an earlier hit from Moehrig. N.B.A.: The Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups pleaded not guilty to involvement in rigged poker games, part of a wide-ranging federal investigation into gambling in professional sports. Business: Elle Duncan of ESPN is set to become the new face of Netflix’s sports coverage as the streaming service adds more live games to its platform.
Evan Gorelick, a writer for The Morning, crunched the numbers on your Thanksgiving dinner. Was your turkey more expensive this year? Blame bird flu. When the virus appears, whole flocks must be culled to contain the disease. The current outbreak has affected more than 180 million U.S. farmed birds — turkeys included — since 2022. As a result, America’s turkey inventory has fallen to its lowest level in four decades. Fewer birds make for higher prices. Wholesale turkey prices have surged around 75 percent since October 2024. But retailers are trying to keep costs low by getting customers to buy lots of other things, too — potatoes, green beans, stuffing, pumpkin pie. So you may still be able to get a deal: Thousands of stores are offering free turkeys when customers make an additional purchase. Related: Trump’s steel tariffs have made canned goods, including cranberry sauce, more expensive.
I’m bound for South Florida and a Thanksgiving at the in-laws’. That means fresh Gulf shrimp for dinner in the run-up to Thursday’s bi |
