By Gabriela Villa | Observer Contributor
Image by amenclinicsphotos ac on flickr
Hyperfocus, hyperactivity, the ability to think multiple thoughts at once, and spontaneity are the markers of creative genius, so why do we treat ADHD children like a problem?
Children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) are challenging parents, teachers, and the entire educational system to rethink the way learning is conducted.
We currently have an educational system that forces children to focus on only what it wants them to focus on, stealing their focus away from what could make them passionate, happy, and creative.
Attention is so important that companies pay millions of dollars for 10 seconds of our attention. What we put our attention on defines our experience of life.
So, who are we to force children to focus on anything other than what makes them happy? Really, what gives us the right?
According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of children in the U.S. 4-17 years of age who had an ADHD diagnosis by a health care provider, as reported by parents, was 7.8% in 2003, 9.5% in 2007, and 11.0% in 2011.
As more and more kids start to show symptoms of ADHD, and parents and teachers work harder to get kids to focus on certain classes, these adults are being put in a position where they are forced to ask themselves the question, ‘Who are we to tell young people what they must learn?’
In some ways ADHD allows children to be true to themselves. They cannot do what they don’t want to do, and they cannot focus on anything other than what interests them. They are rebels who by nature do not conform to society’s rules, and therefore pressure society to bend for them.
ADHD children succeed with praise, encouragement, clear and simple instructions, few distractions, and an outlet for them to be able to express their hyperactivity.
To accommodate these needs, a school system could emphasize encouragement and positivity to its teachers, have them set clear and simple instructions for homework and classwork, have teachers post homework online so students don’t fall behind if they were absent or not paying attention when homework was announced, and allow for students to get up and move around in the classroom rather than be locked in their seats.
According to The National Bureau of Economic Research, ADHD students have lower math and reading scores and a higher likelihood to repeat grades. “We’ve always done it this way” is not an argument that will hold up with the growing number of ADHD children who will continue to suffer under the current model of schooling. The system will be challenged.
A child does not come into the world to be another shape in a cookie-cutter world; they come into the world with their own unique talents and ways of seeing things. They come into the world to shake things up, each generation different than the last. And that is exactly what ADHD children are doing; they are shaking up and revolutionizing the way education is conducted.
When people are allowed from childhood to learn as they want to learn, and their learning is self-initiated, they will flourish in ways society has never before seen, and the world will be a place where people are doing what they love doing because they will have known no other way. My hope is that we live long enough to see it.
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