Jersey, who has been my friend since we were nubile freshman at Indiana University posted this on Facebook the other day.
https://bendlikeabranch.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/its-more-about-cupcakes-than-you-think-how-our-educational-system-is-failing-our-children/
I agree with about 95% of what this author is writing about and applaud it. I often look over my own public school experience and compare it to the things I am learning about education in the year 2015. There are so many things that this piece nails right on the head. I found myself saying "Yep! and you're RIGHT!" while shuffling my feet and muttering something about walking to school in the snow, 6 miles, uphill, both ways.
However, there was one paragraph that I have to comment on.
"While ADD and ADHD were unheard of in my time, they now seem prevalent. Or is it the fact that downtime for our kids has all but disappeared, leaving children who need to be active and moving locked to more and more desk time?"
From the outset, yes, I agree. Kids need more time to be kids. A lot more time. Kids need more time to that is not regulated with an outcome in mind. Kids need more time to make their own decision and figure it out.
Except for one thing...I WAS a kid in public school in the 80's with undiagnosed ADHD. and it sucked. and it was hard. really hard.
I've been thinking about writing about my dealings with ADHD for awhile now and I still have parts of the topic I will address elsewhere...but in regards to the schooling portion...I'm saying this and I want to be perfectly clear.
If I had been diagnosed properly as a kid, I can't imagine how different my life would have been.
To my parents credit and in their defense, they didn't get me tested because it was just too much of an unknown. While today, there are more resources to provide assistance in the course and manner it is needed, that just didn't exist when I was a kid. There just was not an option to have a little more time taking tests or a teacher who understood that you were not fidgeting at your desk and drawing elaborate bubble letter versions of your name because you weren't paying attention. It was because you needed to keep your hands occupied to have ANY HOPE of actually hearing what the teacher was saying.
In those days, if you couldn't cut it in the mainstream, you were labeled, regulated to "special" classes. I didn't need those. I needed to walk around while my teacher was up at the front of the room...I needed to be able to read my tests out loud to myself so I could both see them and hear them. I needed a little assistance...I needed a little help.
And the author is correct, no one worried that you were going to compromise your success in life if you neglected to bring your pencil to class. When I was in the 3rd grade, I kept forgetting to bring a potato to class for a science experiment. No one assumed I'd be a failure at life. My friends mom, who lived right by school, brought one over on recess. Problem solved.
I got diagnosed with ADHD in my early 20's. It took me a long time to accept it and to accept the fact that to be a productive adult, I needed pharmaceutical intervention. Everyone I knew who was my age told me, when we got to talking that my issues were "mind over matter" and that i just needed to "knuckle down" and "figure it out."
...and that is what I had been doing...most of my life. I'd been doing all that.
I'd been dealing with ADHD by playing games with myself and tricking myself into bouts of conversation. But my mind was a mess and my thoughts were a mess and I still wasn't all that much better at just "getting it done."
Even as an adult, with her own bills to pay, I'd spend an hour manically google searching some irrelevant detail, all the while knowing that I had a stack of invoices that needed to be loaded into our accounting software. I actually KNEW the conversation I'd have with my boss in the morning, but I wouldn't be able to start concentrating on the reality, I was too busy with the fantasy.
So often, when I think about my childhood. I'm reminded of the epic battles I had with my parents regarding my homework. I remember being required to do my homework at the kitchen table, where it was easier for my mother to monitor my progress...and still, I'd sit at the kitchen table and become fascinated with something, anything that had nothing to do with whatever I needed to be studying. The vast majority of my educational knowledge coming from whatever I could cram in an hour before the test and spit out in rapid succession.
My mom's nickname for me as a kid was "dreamy smurf." I was constantly distracted by the smallest things and unable to keep my mind on the task at hand, like learning multiplication tables or writing out notecards.
I wonder, what would have life been like if there was person in our tiny elementary school in New Jersey who realized that my issues were due to an actual problem with an actual solution. That adjustments, understanding and a few pills a day might have provided relief.
I spent so much time as a kid feeling like if I could just get myself to focus and take care of business, that my life would be easier, my fights with my parents would be fewer and my ratio of success would be astronomical.
So while I agree with the somewhat nostalgic notion that our educational practices helped us prepare for life and learn to deal with curveballs, because it certainly did...I can't help but be thankful for the increased focus there is on learning disabilities and be a little jealous...what might my educational experience had been like if that had been part of my reality?
But the cupcakes...I loved the cupcakes. More of those please.
And the author is correct, no one worried that you were going to compromise your success in life if you neglected to bring your pencil to class. When I was in the 3rd grade, I kept forgetting to bring a potato to class for a science experiment. No one assumed I'd be a failure at life. My friends mom, who lived right by school, brought one over on recess. Problem solved.
I got diagnosed with ADHD in my early 20's. It took me a long time to accept it and to accept the fact that to be a productive adult, I needed pharmaceutical intervention. Everyone I knew who was my age told me, when we got to talking that my issues were "mind over matter" and that i just needed to "knuckle down" and "figure it out."
...and that is what I had been doing...most of my life. I'd been doing all that.
I'd been dealing with ADHD by playing games with myself and tricking myself into bouts of conversation. But my mind was a mess and my thoughts were a mess and I still wasn't all that much better at just "getting it done."
Even as an adult, with her own bills to pay, I'd spend an hour manically google searching some irrelevant detail, all the while knowing that I had a stack of invoices that needed to be loaded into our accounting software. I actually KNEW the conversation I'd have with my boss in the morning, but I wouldn't be able to start concentrating on the reality, I was too busy with the fantasy.
So often, when I think about my childhood. I'm reminded of the epic battles I had with my parents regarding my homework. I remember being required to do my homework at the kitchen table, where it was easier for my mother to monitor my progress...and still, I'd sit at the kitchen table and become fascinated with something, anything that had nothing to do with whatever I needed to be studying. The vast majority of my educational knowledge coming from whatever I could cram in an hour before the test and spit out in rapid succession.
My mom's nickname for me as a kid was "dreamy smurf." I was constantly distracted by the smallest things and unable to keep my mind on the task at hand, like learning multiplication tables or writing out notecards.
I wonder, what would have life been like if there was person in our tiny elementary school in New Jersey who realized that my issues were due to an actual problem with an actual solution. That adjustments, understanding and a few pills a day might have provided relief.
I spent so much time as a kid feeling like if I could just get myself to focus and take care of business, that my life would be easier, my fights with my parents would be fewer and my ratio of success would be astronomical.
So while I agree with the somewhat nostalgic notion that our educational practices helped us prepare for life and learn to deal with curveballs, because it certainly did...I can't help but be thankful for the increased focus there is on learning disabilities and be a little jealous...what might my educational experience had been like if that had been part of my reality?
But the cupcakes...I loved the cupcakes. More of those please.
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