Emerging Unscathed


Sorry I haven’t written in a while. I’ve been distracted by another project, and also been working long hours on a proposal at work. But, I saw this answer and had to share it.

MSNBC has posted an interested article surprisingly called, The Gift of ADHD. Intrigued by the title, I started reading the article and was amazed. Finally, someone is starting to realize that docile, passive children aren’t necessarily ideal.

Just as teaching a child to walk takes a lot of attention, allowing children to have the freedom to explore takes similar resources, since you need to constantly be making sure they are being guided, and helping them up when they fall down. A teacher who needs to keep track of thirty students can’t give the children freedom, so they confine them to a desk. If they won’t willingly stay confined to a desk, they they are drugged until they sit still.

As the article notes, this torture that we ironically call “education” is actually counterproductive to raising intelligent, creative children.

The good news is that if your child can emerge unscathed from his education, he can find his niche in the real world that will reward him highly for his ardent curiosity, creativity, and ability to solve problems in innovative ways.

I love it! I love it!!! The article continues to break down the “wisdom” of modern education by praising such taboo activities as “goofing off”, and “impulsive behavior”:

Confusion is an admission that one does not fully understand the material being covered. Creativity requires that a person acknowledge that there is more to what is being taught than is covered in the simplifications being presented. Therefore, confusion can also be thought to be a necessary component of creativity. Confusion can represent an experience of the mystery of what is being taught. For example, in reflecting on photosynthesis, a child with ADHD might be awed by the order and harmony in the universe that allows for the sun to nurture plant growth, which in turn nurtures the human environment. A child with ADHD might get derailed in the experience of awe and get confused about the detailed aspects of the biology of photosynthesis. Confusion is essential to creativity but gets a bad rap in our culture, which makes a virtue of being sharp and quick at all times.

I hope this is a sign that people are actually starting to get it. I have to work daily with people who have been forced into the box of our public education compliance system. Sadly, all those who experience it are either recovering, or still victims. Neither situation is one in which I’m going to force my children.