With Turnover High, Schools Fight for Teachers

[Bullitt]

Originally Posted by Razzmatazz13

I did manage to be born before 1990, but in my Private school (k - 3rd grade) the teaching staff called my parents in one day to tell them they felt I had ADD and gave different names of doctors who were in our area that would give me the "help" I needed. My parents were so angry that they had me tested. Turns out I had a high IQ and was bored in my classes, so I was slacking off.
Parents decided to move me into a public school at that point (schools in our area are very good) and I did much better there.

Scariest part of the school system that I see is kids getting passed along who don't know or understand the material. Should you really be in a college composition class if you don't understand the difference between adjectives and adverbs? I think that, at the VERY least, should be covered in a remedial class. (I could rant for hours on THAT...but I'll stop here.)

IQ really isn't a good indicator of whether or not you have symptoms of ADHD. I went through the same thing. I was bored in class, have an IQ of around 130 (not that IQ is a real accurate indicator of intelligence capabilities anyway.. that's a whole different subject for another time), but my ADHD was messing with my schooling. Do you experience any ADHD type symptoms? Zone out, fidget with pencils/gum/whatever, have a song constantly running through your head like you're living a movie with the soundtrack playing, can't tune out background noise, etc.?

I know what you mean, sometimes it astonishes me how little some people understand is some of my classes. Then again, this is the learnin time of life, I can't say I know everything.

[Ibby]

Originally Posted by Bullitt

Zone out, fidget with pencils/gum/whatever, have a song constantly running through your head like you're living a movie with the soundtrack playing, can't tune out background noise, etc.?

And so what if I do? That's a good reason to drug me up with ritalin? No thanks. I don't care if I have ADHD, it's no excuse for anything. If I'm not paying attention, then I already know it, or, well, my loss. I'm not gonna whine and cry about some 'disease' that way, way too many people are s'posed to have.
Besides, if you ask me, anyone who CAN sit and concentrate and not fidget and DOESNT have a song going through their head... is the crazy one.

[Bullitt]

Originally Posted by Ibram

And so what if I do? That's a good reason to drug me up with ritalin? No thanks. I don't care if I have ADHD, it's no excuse for anything. If I'm not paying attention, then I already know it, or, well, my loss. I'm not gonna whine and cry about some 'disease' that way, way too many people are s'posed to have.
Besides, if you ask me, anyone who CAN sit and concentrate and not fidget and DOESNT have a song going through their head... is the crazy one.

I'm not saying get all pumped full of amphetamines. There are organizational and study techniques that my psychologist has given me that have been of great help so far. If you have ADHD there are a wide variety of things that a person can do to minimize the effects that person's unique symptoms have on his or her life.

And don't even try to tell me that ADHD is all some fairy tale. True it is overdiagnosed in kids these days, but that does not take away from thos eof us who seriously suffer from this shit. You don't know what it is like to literally not be able to pay attention to anything being said to you in class because of the smallest distractions going on in your head (replaying conversations, tv shows/movies, songs, other stuff going on in your life) and the surrounding environment. The buzzing of an overhead light, the sound of a person writing notes next to you, etc. I'm talking unable to pay constant attention at all, to the point where I have to ask people for their notes after class because I just couldn't focus on what the prof. or teacher was saying. All day, everyday, for your entire life. You go from task to task at home not fully completing anything because you are so impulsive that you are just bouncing from one thing to the next. Welcome to my world dude.

I apologize if that was a bit testy. With some of the profs I've had these past years, I wouldn't blame anyone for being fidgety and not paying attention. Some of these folks need to seek a different profession.

[Ibby]

Originally Posted by Bullitt

I'm not saying get all pumped full of amphetamines. There are organizational and study techniques that my psychologist has given me that have been of great help so far. If you have ADHD there are a wide variety of things that a person can do to minimize the effects that person's unique symptoms have on his or her life.

And don't even try to tell me that ADHD is all some fairy tale. True it is overdiagnosed in kids these days, but that does not take away from thos eof us who seriously suffer from this shit. You don't know what it is like to literally not be able to pay attention to anything being said to you in class because of the smallest distractions going on in your head (replaying conversations, tv shows/movies, songs, other stuff going on in your life) and the surrounding environment. The buzzing of an overhead light, the sound of a person writing notes next to you, etc. I'm talking unable to pay constant attention at all, to the point where I have to ask people for their notes after class because I just couldn't focus on what the prof. or teacher was saying. All day, everyday, for your entire life. You go from task to task at home not fully completing anything because you are so impulsive that you are just bouncing from one thing to the next. Welcome to my world dude.

I apologize if that was a bit testy. With some of the profs I've had these past years, I wouldn't blame anyone for being fidgety and not paying attention. Some of these folks need to seek a different profession.

dont tell me I don't know what it's like. I've been diagnosed with ADHD, whether I believe it's a serious concern or not. I have the exact same attention problem that you do, possibly to a slightly lesser degree. I get in trouble regularly for fiddling, for fidgeting, for not looking at the teacher, for messing around altogether too much. But everything I said holds true. I've got fifty stories I haven't finished, fifty songs I've learned or written half of, fifty thousand things to do I started but never got around to finishing. Don't preach to the choir here.

[Bullitt]

Didn't know you were in the choir.. welcome to the club, wanna make t-shirts?


And just fyi I think you're a cool guy Ibram. Didn't mean to come off rude to you.