I believe our western culture concentrates itself on academic success and excellence. Many schools will display the phrase, “Knowledge is Power” on their hallways and in their classrooms. They love the student who is compliant, sits still in class and scores high on exams and papers. The individual with ADHD typically does not excel academically. Some with ADHD have high IQ scores. I have heard parents say, “I just don’t understand. He took an IQ test and he scored extremely high, but he just doesn’t apply himself at school.”
I heard Dr. Tony Atwood describe life at school for a teenager with Asperger’s Syndrome. He said, “When they are at school, they are performing. They are not made to sit still, be quiet and listen for 7 hours.” I believe the same is true for those with ADHD. Our school classrooms are set up for the “gifted” student. (By gifted I mean those students who easily excel the academic system set up in our western culture schools. As I said, people with ADHD are also gifted, just differently.)
One important fact we need to remember is students with ADHD excel in more non-traditional settings. They often like noise in their studying environment rather than silence. It is not uncommon for them to prefer a chaotic mess in contrast to an overly clean and calm homework setting. Yet, they do need some structure and routines. They also learn more quickly when they experience learning. For example, my junior year of high school our class took a trip from Lansing, Michigan to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Being on the spot where the battlefield took place helped us to grasp what it looked like and how it all happened at the actual battle. Standing at the place where President Abraham Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address brings more meaning to his speech than reading it in a textbook. As a teenager with ADHD would say, “Civil War textbooks got nothing on being at Gettysburg.”
When I have a client with ADHD who is failing school, I listen to their frustrations, and empathize with them. I tell them I understand how frustrating it is to have a teacher who expects you to think, behave and perform exactly as they do when they learn. I understand how frustrating it is to have to learn about different sciences or math problems you will never again in your life practice. However, I also explain it is necessary for them to go along with it for the time being. For those of us with ADHD, sometimes we have bigger mountains to climb than others. Is it fair? No! Yet, the consequences of blaming society, teachers and our school systems will not help us graduate and cut corners in life. We must sustain and learn the way others learn for now.
