Famous People with ADHD Provide Hope

My hardworking grandfather worked the fields of the farm he owned from 5:30am to 1:30p. Then he jumped on a bus headed to Philadelphia to go to his job in a book bindery to work a shift there. I am not sure how he did it.

I was a city boy according to grandfather. But every summer, I would work on the farm for a week or two. The pay was terrible, the days were long and it was completely voluntary. I imposed this self torture to be with the grandparents I loved so very much. My parents and my friends thought I was crazy. I did it every summer from age 12 to age 17.

The days I worked the farm were the most exhausting days of my life. I would get up at 5:30a to cut, wash and pack squash. After a quick breakfast break, we would go out into the fields and pick peppers and tomatoes and cut eggplant and butternut squash. Then we would load the truck for market. We would typically end the day at 5:30p. Eat dinner. Play in the yard and be sleeping by 8:30p so we could do it again the next day.

I remember on brutally hot day. My cousin Tony and I were in a butternut squash field slaving away. We decided that we needed a quick break after working for 2 straight hours. Wouldn't you know that that is when my grandfather came to check on us. He yelled and called us good for nothing, lazy bastards before he drove off mad in a cloud of dust.

I was so mad, but not at him. I was mad at myself for letting the man I admired down. Not long after, at the farmers market, I was unloading the truck when I overheard my grandfather talking to his farming buddies. He was talking with pride about his hardworking city boy grandson. The next time he called me a lazy good for nothing. I just smiled to myself.

My son has ADD/ADHD. Many kids with ADD / ADHD are label as stupid and lazy. I tried every trick in the book to motivate him. Money. Stickers. Hugs. All with no results. I admittedly and repeatedly have tried my grandfathers method and called my son out as a lazy good for nothing. This does not work either. Nothing seems to motivate my son. I told to lower my expectations. I was told that you do not have to be a hard working rich man to be happy. I was told to just let him be what he is going to be. I was going to take this advice until I had a chance meeting with a man who is an expert in ADD/ADHD

This man has ADD/ADHD. This man had a mother who 30 years ago realized that her son needed different learning strategies to succeed. He is now a successful businessman on the verge of making it really big with an i-learning product develop for ADD/ADHD kids. This man is teaching my that my son is not stupid and lazy and to not give up on him.

He told me that my son has a gift, the gift to think differently. He then went on to tell me that many famous people in the world had ADD/ADHD. Winston Churchill failed 6th grade. Thomas Edison's teachers said he was too stupid to learn anything. Tolstoy failed out of college. Einstein did not talk until four and did not read until seven. Lincoln and Kennedy had ADD/ADHD. He also told me that 40% of people in jail have ADD / ADHD.

Kids with ADHD have low self-esteem and do not feel like they fit into the world. This list of people shows that kids with ADD/ADHD can not only fit in, but can also define the world. Parents just need to steer them in the right direction.

I admire so many people on the list. I would love to admire my son one day.

Conservative Kids Don't Need Dr. AimLow Ablow

In Texas kids are paid $100 for each AP exam passed.

A non-profit called Advanced Placement Strategies established the program. It was featured on the Today Show this morning. Two executives affiliated with Advanced Placement Strategies provided irrefutable data that clearly illustrated the power of the corporately funded project.

From 1991 to 1995 about 300 AP exams were taken in 10 DISD Schools in Math, Science and English about 150 passed.

In 2006, 3,965 tests were taken and 1,300 passed.

Wait for it.

Wait.

Yep I heard it. This program discriminates against African Americans and Hispanics.

Not true Jessee.

From 1991 to 1995 about 25 AP tests were passed by minorities in the test schools.

In 2006, 532 AP tests were passed by African Americans and Hispanics. WOW.

US Public Schools have about 25 minority kids pass an AP test per 1,000. In the Texas test program that number is 3X.

The scores in Math and Science for all students went from an average of 70 in the early 90's to 877 in 2006. The program is working.

There are more results on the website.

Are the tests easier? No. Are the teachers better? Yes.

Teachers are given extra training and cash incentives too. Add in professional management (not government oversight), measurement and accountability and you have a successful program.

Of course the Today Show had to parade out a liberal psychologist (Dr. Ablow). Dr. AimLow told a very unconvincing theory about how this program will hurt the self-esteem of the kids who do not take AP classes or happen to be artists. Dr. AimLow, we have programs to reward artists, especially those high achievers who smear elephant dung on the Virgin Mary.

Dr. Aimlow did not seem to care about the improved self-esteem of the considerable number of additional students who not only challenged themselves to take the AP classes but also passed and earned college credits. His great evidence was the he had great passionate teachers who motivated him without paying him. Focus group of one, doctor. Thanks for the shallow insight. I agree that everyone has one or two teachers who touched them, but let's face it the vast majority of teachers were dull and quite forgettable.

And Doctor, you are not considering the other side of the equation. Teachers are given incentives to get better and more schools are encouraged to offer AP classes. Plus the program provides incentives to kids in the form of food and door prizes to show up to review sessions on a Saturday. I know this hurts the self-esteem of kids who hate prizes and do not eat.

Dr. AimLow you called this program a shortcut to getting back on track in Math and Science. I am not sure if you noticed but America is getting passed up in Math and Science by the rest of the world while the Bush / Kennedy No Kid Gets To Far Ahead Else Little Johnny Might Feel Bad and Start to Wet his Bed Again Plan sputters along in bureaucratic red tape and while child psychologists try to protect the self-esteem of the lowest common denominator at the expense of the self-esteem of the kids who work hard to get ahead.

Dr. AimLow went to Brown and Johns Hopkins but he got schooled today on Today.

The Today Show had another liberal, Robert Scheaffer, who was also against the program. He stated that this kind of motivation generally does not work. (Did you see the data?). And this program will lead to a cynical attitude in student who will not study unless paid. The consequences for not studying are the same with or without the program. Mr Scheaffer, we would not want to teach kids that they get paid for pushing themselves to succeed. That never happens in the real world. Please think before you talk on TV.

You all know that my oldest son has ADHD. (Story here and here) At home, he watches his brother and sister excel academically, socially and athletically. At school, his schoolmates jokingly call him a retard for taking the remedial classes. My son's self-esteem would not be changed in the least if an AP student earned a Benjamin or three.

Conservative kids need radical new thinking to compete in this world.

Conservative Kids Want School Vouchers

DUMBING-DOWN OF AMERICA

Test scores for high school students have hit a new, 40-year low, says Pat Buchanan, a founding editor of American Conservative magazine.

A National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test of 12th-grade achievement was given to what the New York Times called a "representative sample of 21,000 high school seniors attending 900 public and private schools from January to March 2005."

What did the tests reveal?

* Since 1990, the share of students lacking even basic reading skills has risen by a third, from 20 percent to 27 percent.
* Only 35 percent of high school seniors have reached a "proficient" level in reading, down from 40 percent.
* Only 16 percent of black and 20 percent of Hispanic students had reached a proficient level in reading.
* Among high school seniors, only 29 percent of whites, 10 percent of Hispanic students and 6 percent of black students were proficient in math.

Factor the dropouts back in, and the NAEP test suggests:

* Of black kids starting in first grade, about one in eight will be able to read at the level of a high school senior after 12 years, and one in 33 will be able to do the math.
* Among Hispanic kids, one in 10 will be able to read at a high-school senior level, but only one in 20 will be able to do high-school math.

Under George W. Bush, U.S. Department of Education funding has risen 92 percent in six years, from $35.5 billion in 2001 to $68 billion in 2007. Sinking test scores are what we have to show for it. Taxpayers are being lied to and swindled by the education industry, which has failed them, failed America and flunked its assignment -- and should be expelled for cheating, says Buchanan.

Source: Patrick J. Buchanan, "Dumbing-Down of America," Townhall.com, March 6, 2007.

I will bet the the number of ritalin scrips written have gone up exponentially.

Time for a new approach. Time for School Vouchers and competition. Time to pay the good teachers what they are worth. And time to send the poor performing teachers to packing.

You Can't Teach Self-Reliance to a Lazy Learner

As a conservative dad, I believe very strongly in self-reliance. I demand it. I believe that the world is a cruel place and that you need to be prepared for it.

As a result, I wrongly diagnosed my son as a lazy liberal even after a pediatrician concluded that my son at a young age had ADD (without testing). I always thought that ADD was over diagnosed - still do. We resisted medicating our son and went with teaching and consequences.

Despite our best efforts, my son continued to struggle. Another expert thought ear infections, which led to speech delay, was the main problem. Tubes fixed the problem. Educational experts concluded after IQ type testing that my son would catch up and it should not be concerning.

Third grade discipline problems surfaced again. The experts said, "Oh that's just the boy in him no worries".

My son stumbled through school, but was moving ahead until he hit a wall in 7th grade. The educational experts said, "Oh he is just a teen he will be fine". I was not convinced, so I finally pushed for tests.

He was diagnosed with ADD at the end of the school year and was taking some strong medication. (He had been on and off of meds for 2 years) In eighth grade, we were on his teachers like white on rice to adhere to our son’s special needs. All of the sudden, mid year his grades were great. But I had my suspicions that something was not quite right because he was still not applying himself. He graduated middle school. We were hopeful even though we remained skeptical. In HS (9th), my son failed 4 of 7 classes the first semester and 5 of 7 with 2 D(s) the next semester. What I realized too late was his teachers in middle school gave him a free pass. These teachers did not want to be bothered by a kid with special needs and two persistent parents. . He was not prepared for the rigors of HS.

So my advice to all who will listen, if your kid is misbehaving and underperforming and basic parenting discipline and teaching are not working - make sure you get the right diagnosis as quickly as possible. And know the laws so you can get the maximum support available to help you help your kid.

Musings of a Distractible Mind has some good thoughts on this.

Electricity, Ice, Life, and Fear

An ice storm knocked out our electricity and cable (phone, internet and TV). I am in constant awe of nature. Perhaps more impressive is the power of electricity. Electricity has the power to keep families separated with distractions. On this cold, icy, stormy night, my wife, my three kids and I played the game of Life without distractions. I enjoyed this time tremendously.

As I reflect on the game. I realized that this board game quite accurately illustrated our real lives. My nine-year-old son won. Life comes so easy for him. My six-year-old daughter insisted on doing everything herself as she laughed her way through a very successful life. My older son, who struggles with real life as he battles ADD, struggled in this board game as well. His first spin was a 1. His second spin was a 1. His third spin was a 1. He started off slow and as a result struggled to catch up. He ended up with the least amount of money and then blamed his misfortune on everyone else. My older son did not speak a word until he was about three. He has been catching up in real life and blaming others for his misfortunes ever since.

Truth be told. My older son is the reason I started this Blog. I could not reconcile the vast differences in my kids. I also struggled to understand my son’s issues. He looks like a normal kid on the outside. I can only image the pain he has on the inside. I struggle to understand him because I am so different from him.

We are like night and day. I was a hardworking kid. I made money from the time I was 10 years old. I had so much money at age 12 that my dad and mom borrowed money from me when they needed help with a down payment on a new home. I brought that work ethic to school as a result I did better at school than I really should have.

Fear was my motivating factor. I never wanted to disappoint anyone including myself. I also feared looking stupid. This particular fear did not dissipate as I achieved more and more, in fact, the better I did in school the more fearful I became. Which makes sense because the expectations by me and others always seemed higher. This fear drove me to succeed from my days in elementary school until I graduated with my a Ivy League Masters Degree.

I remember the first fearful day of engineering college. It started with a speech from the dean. He said look to your right and look to your left, those people will not graduate with an engineering degree. There were 628 students in that auditorium non more fearful than me. True to the dean's word, about 210 graduated. I worked my ass off and graduated 26th in the College of Engineering and 5th in Mechanical Engineering. But it came with a price. I sacrificed fun and friends to succeed in college. As a result I made no good lasting fun friendships. But fear is no fun so I didn't really have a choice.

So you can understand why I struggle to understand my son's lack of motivation in school, in forging and maintaining friendships and in the real game of life.

In my quest to help my son, I met a man who is now a successful computer programmer. This man suffered or I should say suffers from ADD. Through telling me about his life experiences, he has opened my eyes that this is a real learning disability that requires real and unique strategies. I am in the camp that ADD and ADHD is over diagnosed. But I am now firmly in the camp that ADD and ADHD are real and they can be debilitating.

Fear may be my son's motivating factor too, except he is not motivated by it in a positive way. He is fearful that he will fail, so he does not try at all. Like I said, we are so different.

Now that I have finally announced this, I will share more on this subject in the future