Guest guest Posted January 18, 2004 Report Share Posted January 18, 2004 That's Awesome! I love that you and your mate can be that together.... That IS what it's all about. I spend an awful lot of time at school with my children, And what I have noticed with regards to the ones that are " different " is that they just have more energy than others. Some of them have more mental energy and some have more physical energy. And educators have not yet found a way to effectively channel it. We have a child. We bring it home. We love it unconditionally. It lives with us in an environment that is nurturing, safe and stimulating. But, allows for things like... eating when we are hungry... sleeping when we are tired.... and playing when we are wound up... Then the child turns five....(some even younger) and we stick them in an institution.... they must live by the clock....they may not rest... they play very little... they must sit still and be quiet for up to five hours a day. And they wait. They wait for the right time to go to the bathroom... they wait for lunch... (and we know what school lunches are like!) They wait for instruction... they wait for the other children to cooperate. They wait for their teacher to settle down. The waiting is endless... Humans are not designed to wait... we are designed to DO. I truly believe that all of the attention deficit nonsense, and the hyper child nonsense is really just a childs (or adults) frustration manifested. On top of all of the endless waiting, we take away their voice. They are expected to do what they are asked, without question. So, be a child for a day.... sit in their room. Do what they are expected to do. And wait...and wait... and wait.... See how you behave. Now, enter the teachers into the mix. What are they to do with 25 or thirty frustrated, agitated children? As a parent, you may have one to three on your hands at any given time. But, teachers! ouch. What are they to do? It is my opinion, that the surroundings need to change within the school system. And there has to be more adults involved. More help for the teachers. It is incredibly difficult to get people involved in the school system because there is very little pay for those who do not have a degree of somekind. (and even for the ones who do) Lets not take the " child " out of the child by slapping a label on him and feeding him drugs. Thus making him better able to function in the institution. But rather put the children back into a nurturing, normal environment so they can learn and grow. We can create it within our homes... so why is it so hard to create it within the school? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 18, 2004 Report Share Posted January 18, 2004 BINGO! You are so perceptive!!! Thank you for saying all these things that I never in my life heard anyone say before! Finally...someone who understand what it's like to be so alive inside! That's NOT abnormal!!! and what you said about putting ourselves in a child's shoes is something I believe everyone should do. they're so filled with beautiful energy that just wants more than nothing else than to be expressed. kids just want to explore their environment, and school and VERY confining. are YOU a teacher? if not, you would be a great one!!! and that part about waiting, well i've had teachers forbid me to go to the bathroom when I had to go because I " should " have gone during restroom break. I remember crying, saying, " please, I really have to go, " and she wouldn't let me. and i peed my pants in class. it happened another time. kids made fun of me. what's up with not being able to eat, drink, and relieve yourself when your body says it's time??? I'm 40 years old, and I still feel that inner drive to explore my environment. when my husband and I went to see another endo for a second opinion, we had to wait one hour for the doctor to come into the room. Kemal and I BOTH had a lot of energy that day, and it was so hard. Kemal finally just got up and said he couldn't stand just sitting...he had to go out and get move around. Usually, if he has to wait with me for a doctor, he's exploring all the things in the doctor's office...checking them out, asking me what they are, how they work, etc. well, i'm like that, too. This doctor told me I was hyper-kinetic after meeting with me only 45 minutes (from his observation and me telling him my history). I'm the kind of person who learns better when i'm moving. i've been successful academically at college because I've learned how to adapt. If I'm in a small class and can sit on TOP of my desk and dangle my legs, I absorb more because I'm not feeling so crazy inside, thinking about how I just want to move. I look just like a kid, swinging my legs back and forth. and i'm very active in class. anytime I can, i will try to go to the blackboard to illustrate my point, especially in philosophy classes. many of my psychology professors have been awesome teachers. they would have us sit non-traditionally in class--sit in a circle or tell us to move our desks and sit anywhere we want. i even had a college Spanish professor for Spanish two semesters of Spanish who let us buddy up with someone after her brief lecture. we were allowed to go outside the classroom in the hallway, sit on the floor in the classroom, walk outside...all the while we were doing our assignment for the class (like writing a TV commercial together in Spanish, practicing it, and then putting it on in front of the class). this was a 2 1/2 to 3 hour long class (I think I took it in the summer or something), and there would have been NO WAY I could have gotten through this class in a traditional classroom. I had one teacher in 6th grade who was excellent. he helped us by letting us play a game in the middle of the day. we used Monopoly money and had an " auction. " we earned this money from our grades and behavior. We would all get loud and crazy and had a blast during this auction. After that, he would try to teach us history. i think this helped us all release a lot of pent up energy and helped us focus better. Another teacher I had in elementary school was great. when teaching history, he would tell us stuff in such a way that was very animated. then he would ask for volunteers to come to front of the class and " pretend " they were a certain historical figure and we'd basically ab-lib our characters. He even had all kinds of props. Sometimes he would come to school dressed like Washington, wearing even those silly white wigs. anyway, sorry I'm going on and on, but your post just really excited me because you are so right about what you said. i applaud you for giving your child freedom to explore the way you do. Yes, school can be SO hard on a child who has a lot of energy. We need more teachers who want to encourage the kids to use that energy constructively. Labelling them ADD or ADHD and giving them drugs may or may not help. Working in the mental health system for most of my life, I've seen the medication help a lot of kids, but I think a lot of children might be able to be helped without medication. I have never been diagnosed and so have never taken anything. Even if I am diagnosed with it, I will not take meds for it. I don't need them. Reading enormous amounts of material for college is easier if I take breaks and walk...sometimes I'll walk around with the book in my hand and read (if the book isn't too heavy or cumbersome). everyone has to have coping strategies. sometimes my mind wanders a lot because i get excited about life. i'll be in class and notice how beautiful the clouds are...or sometimes I'll just have an idea or thought pop into my head when I'm in class, and if I don't write it down or raise the issue with my teacher...it's gone. so sometimes i miss stuff during the lecture because i'm having these ah-ha moments and am busy writing down my own inspirations and inner thoughts instead of what the teacher is trying to convey. college is all about learning to think for yourself, and you know when you have those moments you gotta go with it. That's what learning is all about (to me anyway)...not necessarily being able to remember everything the teacher said in class. Teachers teach us a lot of wrong stuff anyway...A LOT. They don't mean to. they just teach us what they're taught to teach us instead of thinking for themselves. like when my developmental psych course was teaching us that kids can't think abstractly until they're like 12 years old...that the brain is not capable of doing so until that time. well that's a bunch of bull and I told my teacher and I told him why. In parts of Europe they start teaching kids algebra in 2nd grade. in the states, they wait until about age 12 or older. so what's up with that? if the brain is not capable then why are all these European kids learning algebra? anyway, i'm SO sorry for going on and on...i'm gonna stop. you see what's happening. I'm just like going crazy inside. this is NOT a subject i talk about and I'm just having diarrhea of the mouth!!! thank you for saying everything you did because it makes me feel like i'm not so crazy. and how has this thyroid stuff affected me? well, it's slowed me down a lot, and that's NOT a good thing. I was just so much into life. someone i used to work with said when he thinks of me he thinks of & . this illness has made it hard for me to have energy to explore the world around me and see things with with the eyes of a child. thyroid meds have helped, for sure. anyway, thanks again. you have NO idea what it means for someone to understand what i feel inside. And I still don't think I'm ADD or ADHD. I just think life is exciting and wonderful and sometimes when you see all these beautiful colors and images around you, well you could just explode from happiness and joy. i'm sorry, sorry, sorry for going on....i just couldn't help it...Hugs, Sheila Aprilcupcake@... wrote: That's Awesome! I love that you and your mate can be that together.... That IS what it's all about. I spend an awful lot of time at school with my children, And what I have noticed with regards to the ones that are " different " is that they just have more energy than others. Some of them have more mental energy and some have more physical energy. And educators have not yet found a way to effectively channel it. We have a child. We bring it home. We love it unconditionally. It lives with us in an environment that is nurturing, safe and stimulating. But, allows for things like... eating when we are hungry... sleeping when we are tired.... and playing when we are wound up... Then the child turns five....(some even younger) and we stick them in an institution.... they must live by the clock....they may not rest... they play very little... they must sit still and be quiet for up to five hours a day. And they wait. They wait for the right time to go to the bathroom... they wait for lunch... (and we know what school lunches are like!) They wait for instruction... they wait for the other children to cooperate. They wait for their teacher to settle down. The waiting is endless... Humans are not designed to wait... we are designed to DO. I truly believe that all of the attention deficit nonsense, and the hyper child nonsense is really just a childs (or adults) frustration manifested. On top of all of the endless waiting, we take away their voice. They are expected to do what they are asked, without question. So, be a child for a day.... sit in their room. Do what they are expected to do. And wait...and wait... and wait.... See how you behave. Now, enter the teachers into the mix. What are they to do with 25 or thirty frustrated, agitated children? As a parent, you may have one to three on your hands at any given time. But, teachers! ouch. What are they to do? It is my opinion, that the surroundings need to change within the school system. And there has to be more adults involved. More help for the teachers. It is incredibly difficult to get people involved in the school system because there is very little pay for those who do not have a degree of somekind. (and even for the ones who do) Lets not take the " child " out of the child by slapping a label on him and feeding him drugs. Thus making him better able to function in the institution. But rather put the children back into a nurturing, normal environment so they can learn and grow. We can create it within our homes... so why is it so hard to create it within the school? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 19, 2004 Report Share Posted January 19, 2004 The school my children go to now have a teacher who just started a new class called walk and talk. On warm days she conducts her class outside while the children walk along with her. It has not been well received by some of the other teachers, but I think it's terrific! We need more like her.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 19, 2004 Report Share Posted January 19, 2004 Don't be sorry for going on, I love to hear other people get just as excited about life as I do! We sound very much alike... it's not ADHD, it's called " Passion! " . Don't ever lose it.... Chriss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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