The joy of school…

[Anonymous]

It’s been a long time admittedly since I was in school, and though I was diagnosed at 14 with ADD without the Hyperactivity, I can remember each of my schools (In Canada, Britain and the US (Traveled a lot due to dad’s work)) was under the opinion that I was useless to society, even after going from D’s and E’s on my report cards to A’s and B’s in Grade 8. The social stigma was prudent even in the classroom where I remember my junior high school art teacher in Ottawa saying that because I could not do art the exact way he wanted it done, I may as well try and draw a toilet as folks like me with ADD can only make things good enough to be flushed down the toilet.

Not sure how students have it these days, but I know it was tough on me because the schools virtually approved of the social stigma other students had towards me.

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[Anonymous]

That is about the most cruel thing things I have ever heard a teacher say to a student

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[laddybug3]

InuKun My art teacher would grade us and I would cry. I hated art class, but loved music class.

I had a hard time in grade school, but high school was fun and then college.

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[Anonymous]

I remember having a favourite teacher and when he even got mad at me for looking out the window I was heartbroken. I didn’t seem to have the words to tell him I couldn’t hear him and even when I did it was difficult for me to concentrate. I was used to everyone being mad at me.

I was sad all the time and believed I was stupid. I dropped out of grade 9. I eventually went to post secondary school as an adult and was successful. I was hard of hearing as well as having ADHD. I wasn’t diagnosed with either until I was an adult.

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[Anonymous]

My 14 year old son has recently been diagnosed with ADHD, and has discovered that some teachers still do not understand the disorder and get cross with him for things that are beyond his control. Even though he has a very detailed medical file which has a couple of good articles about ADHD, and my list of what helps him the most (such as being offered a chance to work somewhere quiet for a while if he is struggling to focus). Medication has helped, but there are days when he forgets to take it, as well as days when things are too busy and the drugs are fighting a losing battle to keep up. Most teachers have been pretty understanding, even if they don’t quite have a handle on what it is really like to have ADHD, but there is always one that seems to believe that it’s just an excuse for stuffing around and being lazy.

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[Anonymous]

There are teachers who are still in the dark and there are ones that are in the know. Why is it still this way?

Probably because you only have to open up a newspaper or turn the TV or radio on and you’ll hear another ‘expert’ denouncing the ADD/ADHD diagnosis as just an invention of the drug companies. Hey, I’m a teacher with ADHD who even finds herself questioning the diagnosis some days.

If I start to question the validity of the disorder, what are the non-ADDer people out there in the real world going to be thinking (some of them being those rotten teachers that we all like to complain about). The non-believing teachers are all thinking to themselves- “Oh, this parent with the ADD kid is just another one of those parents who’s trying to excuse away their kid’s horrible behaviour.

You would not believe the lame excuses that some parents come up with these days just because most of them do not want any kind of consequence for their kids’ lack of work/lack of character/or lack of whatever.

So then the kids with the ADD (who are not AT all easy to manage in a large class of bouncy energetic kids) can end up being ignored. Last year I was in a regular classroom and I used to look forward with great anticipation for the new excuse that I would be presented with each day by one of my ‘students’. Some of the excuses he brought were ever so imaginative and each one of his excuses was carefully planned and orchestrated by his mom, the Enabler. Natural consequences aren’t allowed because that would mean the teacher was insinuating that a mom’s excuse were entirely made up- (in other words, a big fat lie!)

If I out and out declared a parent’s ‘excuse’ as a lie or rubbish, I’d be having a lot of unhappy moments. Heck, that kind of thinking would get me into really big troule!

Parent’s excuses are usually far-fetched and totally unbelievable. Creative yes, believable, no. Then, there are those nasty teachers that we are supposed to believe no matter what. I think most of the teachers just don’t have the resources to deal with ADHD. One student I had last year took 25% of my time. Sad thing was, I had 2 other books for the students to work on.

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