ADD is Quite The Overused Excuse, it Would Seem...
- Thread starter Eggsnham
- Start date
Recommended Videos
I don't have it, or any similar condition (other than an occasionally chronic lack of patience with idiots... 
), and I do feel sorry for those that have REAL problems.
But I'm (personally) getting absolutely sick of people blaming ANYTHING but themselves whenever they screw up.
Don't study for test = i haz adhd lol
Steal stuff = I was starving (or at least my drugs habit was).
Kill people = my toaster made me do it.
And don't give me any of that "human rights" BS. There's no such thing as 'human rights'. What there IS is human responsibilities. If you fulfil those responsibilities, you get the human priviledges... But that's a complete other rant. I'm not going to get started on that now!
I think it's past time that people stood up and started taking responsibility for their own actions.
), and I do feel sorry for those that have REAL problems.But I'm (personally) getting absolutely sick of people blaming ANYTHING but themselves whenever they screw up.
Don't study for test = i haz adhd lol
Steal stuff = I was starving (or at least my drugs habit was).
Kill people = my toaster made me do it.
And don't give me any of that "human rights" BS. There's no such thing as 'human rights'. What there IS is human responsibilities. If you fulfil those responsibilities, you get the human priviledges... But that's a complete other rant. I'm not going to get started on that now!
I think it's past time that people stood up and started taking responsibility for their own actions.
Yeah I have to agree. I remember when I was a kid my head teacher told my parents that I may have it would have to undergo some tests - why did she think I had it? Because I didn't do up my shoe laces, yeah suffice to say my parents weren't exactly happy with her after that point for jumping to a ridiculous conclusion when ignoring the fact that I was a kid and i really couldn't give a damn about doing up a pair of shoes.
My parent thought I had it til 5th grade when they had me tested and found out I was gifted. Then they found out I did have it when I was in 12th grade and got tested by the school. Fun times,
ADD isn't a lie, it is difficult to deal with, and at a younger age, it can be disruptive to the learning, and thus, the developmental process, but the scope at which people are diagnosed, both medically and by self, is much larger than the reality of the situation. Again, it is just like OCD, where more people think they have it than actually do. As I said before, I don't understand why in the world someone thinking that others think they are somehow cooler or more "exotic" by saying "oh, I'm ADD" or "I'm so OCD about this", but then again, people are just plain stupid sometimes.AWAR said:
Even if it's true, it is not an psychological "abnormality" that needs to be dealt with drugs, rather than a difference in behaviour in relation to average kids. Have you seen how many kids "doctors" (they are not even worth being addressed as such) falsely diagnose as in need of drugs for just being a little bit more energetic than usual? Ritalin is a drug, not vitamins.Bourne said:
I'll agree it's an over used excuse. Those are the people who just use it when they can't make good grades.
I, however, struggle in school because my classes are each 2 hours and I have trouble focusing and paying attention. I also fidget too much and it is sometimes distracting. *sigh*
It's one of the reasons I'm bad at tests, I'll start the test, get bored with it and start to doodle on the paper.
It annoys my profs and makes me feel stupid.
I, however, struggle in school because my classes are each 2 hours and I have trouble focusing and paying attention. I also fidget too much and it is sometimes distracting. *sigh*
It's one of the reasons I'm bad at tests, I'll start the test, get bored with it and start to doodle on the paper.
It annoys my profs and makes me feel stupid.
definitely a north of england thing. I rarely buy into it, because i have days where i can read things and not absorb anything, or were ill be paying atention to something and just switch off and start talking to someone about something completely irrelevant. Or as i have been lately getting mid conversation and changing topic halfway through an answer. I don't have ADD or ADHD. im not saying it doesn't exist, but i look at some of the people who have been diagnosed with it and i just think "nah, dont buy thatfor a second"Lord Mountbatten Reborn said:
It reminds me of dyslexia, there was a point were everyone had, in some form or other. Again, everyone has their days, but the sheer amount of people with it (supposedly with it) just makes me think that for the most part its a load of tosh. I knew a few people who actually had it, and it was noticeable, everyone else just seemed to be looking for an excuse as to why they wheren't getting what they thought they should be grade wise.
There is no "even if"; there are children and adults out there who cannot actively concentrate and perhaps medication is the best thing for them, just like manic depressives, schizophrenics, and so on. The problem is, it is a VAST MINORITY of those actually diagnosed. I don't think the doctors have ill-intentions, I just think they are overprescribing because it is a pattern of diagnosis they have simply fallen into. I think it is short-sighted to rule out Ritalin and Adderall completely as a means of coping with a mental disability, which true cases of ADD are.AWAR said:
ADHD and ADD are both made up terms for psychologist to give out more meds and make money.
When I was young they labeled me as this, Ritalin=satan all it did was make me depressed, mopey and eat alot yet never eat at school right after I took it.
It was all so made up so teachers has a reason not to teach the hard cases.
When I was young they labeled me as this, Ritalin=satan all it did was make me depressed, mopey and eat alot yet never eat at school right after I took it.
It was all so made up so teachers has a reason not to teach the hard cases.
Kids get antsy when they've had to sit behind a desk all day, rather than being allowed to run around outside like they want to. They get slapped with ADD when they fail to pay attention to their *coughBoringcough* Pre-Algebra. They then get slapped with Anger Management problems when they raise their voices in objection to that assessment.
It seems to me like the Medical and Education industries in America are bed-mates behind the scenes. Not like I'm surprised anymore, though...of course, maybe I'm just still sore because they got me with that one in the fourth grade...
It seems to me like the Medical and Education industries in America are bed-mates behind the scenes. Not like I'm surprised anymore, though...of course, maybe I'm just still sore because they got me with that one in the fourth grade...
My brother really has it quite badly, it is a pain in the arse to get through to him. Even things he enjoys don't stay on his radar for long...
He is also a kleptomaniac, the Psychiatrist said it was a kind of "package deal" with him. NOT his actual words.
He is also a kleptomaniac, the Psychiatrist said it was a kind of "package deal" with him. NOT his actual words.
And on this, I would consider any injuries, and the clean-up, to be lesson enough. Case closed, there.Sgt. Sykes said:
But what about areas of life where there IS no alternative? It is certainly EASIER to just give Bobby the velcro and be done with it, but is that better for Bobby? More specifically, does that road lead Bobby to somewhere BETTER than he is now? No.
A learning disability, like nearly ANYTHING else, doesn't mean you "can't learn" the thing. It means you learn it more slowly. It's not mental retardation, which actually lowers a person's CAPACITY to learn certain things (depending on the severity of the retardation).
A child with a learning disability in math who is treated this way may think "I can't do math," so now he doesn't try in math class. And what happens? He fails math. Which makes him go "See? I told you. I can't do math." It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, and WE were the prophets. Instead, this child should get EXTRA help and be expected to do EXTRA work in math.
Think of it this way: You and I work at the same place, and you live farther from work than me, let's say. Work starts at 8 am. If you want to get there at the same time as me, you have to either leave sooner, or drive faster. Alternately, you can arrange something with the boss that allows you to show up 15 minutes later than me, but you have to stay 15 minutes longer, too. You don't get to say, "I live further away, it's harder for me to get here, so I don't have to come." or even "I get to show up late, but still leave at the same time and collect the same wage as everyone else."
Your disadvantage means you either work harder on it, or you get less. Same goes for ANY disadvantage. We cannot and should not strive to make the world "fair." It's just not how things work. In fact, the only way to make the world fair is to handicap EVERYONE--there, now NO ONE has any legs, so that's fair to the paraplegic, right?
So, regarding Bobby, I say work with him extra on the shoe-tying thing. That way, when he eventually learns it, he's got it. And he won't in any way learn to use his disadvantage as a "free pass."
Agreed completely. That is, as long as Bobby has LEGITIMATELY not been taught. That's different from Bobby being genuinely taught, but not working to learn it. And that's a harder thing to pin down, which is why so many kids get labeled with ADHD, because we are afraid to just call them on certain bad habits (which they might not even know they have). You can assign RESPONSIBILITY without assigning BLAME.
For instance, you're hit in the leg by a meteorite. Whose fault is that? No one's. But now, whose RESPONSIBILITY is it to do whatever needs done to fix it or get by without it? Yours. You didn't do it or cause it, but it's still on YOU if you want things to change. Such is life. Accepting responsibility for what happens next isn't the same as taking the blame for what happened before.
In short, because we each have THIRTY kids to teach and 45 MINUTES to do it. That's 1.5 minutes per kid. And that kid is expected to learn a LOT of stuff in that time, or we're fired. Add to this that we have to make up for all the manners and ethics and good habits they're not being taught at home, and you start to see the truth: We're understaffed and overtaskes, and there's just not time to construct ideal learning conditions for each individual AND teach them all of the information and skills they need to graduate.
But beyond that, it's also about assimilation into modern society. Fact is, more and more jobs require a person to sit still and concentrate for long periods of time. That's reality, and that's the landscape. Now, people are working out all manner of ways to adapt themselves to that, and THAT is what we're after. It's up to the individual to find ways to adapt the task to suit his/her strengths.
It's like all of the research that tells us that only 20% of people prefer to learn just by listening. The rest learn better with some combination of visual or tactile stimuli. Okay. So what do we DO with that information? Do we just never, ever teach by just listening? Ridiculous! Instead, we teach the students strategies that THEY can use to take information in one form (written, drawn, spoken, etc) and TURN IT INTO the one they prefer.
Now, the child can learn ANYTHING from ANYWHERE. Because we didn't just teach them where they are strong. We taught them where they were WEAK, which is the only way that gets stronger. If you never use a weakness, it STAYS a weakness. While that approach is easier, it doesn't HELP anyone.
You've taken a job, and you've ADAPTED it to suit your particular preferences. You didn't sit around and wait for everyone else to change the workplace to suit you. Unfortunately, kids aren't learning that same work ethic from parents anymore, and we (schools) aren't given the authority or resources (or time) to teach it instead.
(Did you know that in the US education system, by the time a child is 18 years old, assuming a year of preschool included, they spend approximately 12% of their lives in school? And that's with a few after-school activities, even. That's it. They spend more time SLEEPING.)
But like I said, what this does is it concretely sorts kids early on--you're weak in this, so we abandon it and focus on what you're good at. We're letting genetics and (mostly) BLIND LUCK determine what a child learns, and then we're just capitulating to it. Instead, give kids the equipment to ACHIEVE in the face of their shortfalls, instead of avoiding them or covering them up.
We, as teachers and as parents (who should be the world's most critical teachers), should definitely "take them as they are" But God help us, we shouldn't "leave them as they were."
Which means that all the actual bisexuals, ADD people etc never get taken seriously.Woodsey said: