Re: [NTLK] [OT Rambling] attention deficit

From: Ed Kummel (tech_ed_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Fri Aug 02 2002 - 17:51:50 EDT


Yeah, I was what they called "hyper active".
I was caught taking "my pills" one day in class (a
strict, abusive, Catholic school) when I was 6 years
old. The nun (because she was NO teacher, even though
she pretended to "teach" the class) saw me and took my
pills. Sure enough, they were Dexidrin or "dexi's", a
known street drug at the time (little orange triangle
pill with a line down the middle, labled on all
classroom charts as "speed") and confiscated them
until I got a signed note from my parents.
I took this drug for the next 10 years. It basically
destroyed all capabilities for me to learn...or even
care that I was even in school...it really doped me
up! Some teachers would mark me as absent because I
was unnoticable. When I was 16, I decided that I had
had enough and stopped. Coming down off of a 10 year
drug dependency is not fun. A week of cold chills and
vomitting...a really "bad trip man".
After that, I was a real terror to handle and learned
to control "my problem" with willpower and self
hypnosis. (this also solved my minor dyslexia and
tourettes. I still have problems to this day, 20 +
years later...especially if I am very tired...If I
talk too fast, I have a tendency to have mouth spasms
that makes what I say sound like a "bark")
Plus, I do get severe headaches if I neglect my daily
Coca-Cola (4 can a day habit)

I hate the fact that teacher's hands are tied in what
they are "allowed" to teach and how. I read the book
"Lies my teacher told me" and find myself in agreeance
with everything that the book said about the teaching
profession in the United States.

My own personal experience is probably not indicative
of the average. I was probably one of those students
that "just slipped through" and nobody noticed. Always
bright and inquisitive, I was never allowed the
oportunity to expand and observe in my own
style...which I have to admit is rather
unconventional. But my spacial perception and visual
accuteness (doctors have commented that my eyesight is
off the charts. My ability to visual perceive and
pattern recognize is, according to one doctor,
"astounding" Unfortunalty, that can be a problem
because my eyes will autofocus, making looking through
telescopes and binoculars very difficult...My eyes
will compensate for an out of focus image and I can't
tell if it's my eyes focusing or the telescope!)has
been honed by myself in the last 10 years. Now I rely
on my perceptions instead of my learning and training.

That's why I love troubleshooting. I can approach a
problem from a different perspective than normal
people and see a side of the problem that went
unnoticed. Kinda like stepping away from the problem
to see it clearly.

I think that a student's capabilities should be
realized early in life and then nurtured in a way that
will allow the child to achieve satisfaction in later
life with a profession that takes advantage of that
child's special abilities. A good example is, what
would Beethoven have done if there was no such thing
as music? Would he have been as famous?
Ed
web/gadget guru
http://newton.tek-ed.com (download Newton packages)
http://npds.tek-ed.com (my NPDS server and it's new
subdomain)

--- bmgu3 <bmgu3_at_chartermi.net> wrote:
>
> I agree Ed it did suck to have add, or is that still
> hyper activity???? Gave
> me ritalin till I finally said enough, or the fact I
> was throwing it away
> all the time and they finally caught me,, took two
> years for that trick

=====
"I believe that viewers who skip television commercials are Thieves who are guilty of Stealing network programming"
 - Jamie Keller CEO/Chairman Turner Broadcasting

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