Re: School – Verbal Abuse by Teachers!

[Anonymous]

All I’m hearing here is a bunch of grumpy people who are not offering any meaningful ways to help out the situation for teachers and students with ADD. Perhaps volunteering in a classroom with some of these students would be helpful. Have any of you considered volunteering at a local school with some of the kids who are being maligned by these teachers?

Being an insider (yes, a teacher I am!), I know that all the schools with my board glady accept parent volunteers and even provide training!!! There are all kinds of places where you could help out, especially with these kids who tend to fall behind for all kinds of reasons.

Please don’t blame it on school being boring. I’ve got a class of kids who nearly drive me crazy every day but I persevere because they deserve it. I stay late to make sure I’ve got everything planned to a ‘T’ because that’s the only way I can be a productive teacher with my ADD brain.

And…..as much as I hate to say it….do you know how disruptive to the learning environment an ADDer can be? Everything we do has to be for the greater good of all. There is no way it is fair to let one or two kids disrupt the learning time of the rest of the class. Or, for that matter, ‘steal’ the 2.5 minutes I have to spend with all the other students in the class. So, soooo many days go by where I have almost no one-to-one contact with my ‘regular’ kids because my ‘special’ ones suck up my time. How fair is that? Their moms and dads all sent them to school each day expecting they will get more contact than a “hello” in the morning when I do attendance.

There is no extra help for the special kids. It just doesn’t happen. IEPs? Wheelchairs will get you one as will autism. Where I am, ADD is NOT considered ‘serious’ enough to warrant any special considerations other than not loading too many of them on a teacher who already has ‘real’ special needs students.

I’ve worked quite a few jobs over the years but teaching has been the only one that has been challenging. Everything else could be done with my eyes closed. Every parent screams to us that their child needs the MOST attention. The truth is that they ALL do. As I tell my kiddies, “just remember, I’m only one person and I don’t have octopus arms.” They all laugh and ‘try’ to patiently wait their turn.

Let’s try to be more helpful with comments here rather than just complain and point out deficiencies. If we want change, let’s be actively involved in making it happen. Words alone won’t make a difference. Our actions will!

Now, my math papers are all marked (with oodles of neatly printed helpful hints for next time) and my few minutes of free time on the computer are over. G’night!

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