[OS:N:] Re: ADD

["ekunin" <ekunin snet net>]

My contact with ADD is limited to one neighbor's son who was friendly with
one of ours. It hardly makes me an expert. I guess they were in the second
or third grade. It's so long ago, I don't remember. He was different. His
mind raced from one thing to another. He had enough energy for three people.
He wrote wild science fiction stories, an act which requires a certain
amount of concentration. He was bright and I liked him, though I knew he
would have trouble in school. He could not sit quietly and he could not
tolerate boredom. Without those abilities you can't make it in school. I
don't remember how old he was when he started on Ritilan. It worked. It
slowed him down and turned out his light which never returned.

It was this experience, I think, which turned me against educators doing
their business as usual. No one asks why it is at this point in time ADD has
become such a problem. As I saw it, his brain worked much faster than mine,
but I see that as a good thing, not a bad thing. I attributed his speedy
perceptions to time spent with a joy stick polishing hand-eye coordination
or just his ability to absorb an onslaught of images in milliseconds. I see
ADD kids as harbingers of a future of faster thinkers and absorbers.
Drugging them, to me, is a sin.

So I am at a loss to explain your response to my post (I'd use your name
except I inadvertently deleted your message). I am so insensitive I am not
sure what it was I wrote that set you off. I'd suggest, and I mean this to
be helpful and nothing else, that you examine your reaction. I obviously
touched a nerve, an insecurity you should try to repair. If it was the
remark about kids going off medication in the summer, I passed the
information on because as I saw it, it demonstrated a connection between
school and ADD which I believe exists but for which I had no proof. As for
camp not requiring concentration, I don't see that as true. Games, arts and
crafts, drama and a host of other activities require concentration, the
difference being the subject matter is interesting and there is no one to
mark them lousy.

I am very interested in ADD and I'd like you to contact me off list. Perhaps
my loopy perception of reality might have some things you can use. You can
fill me in on many things such as the sleep deprived experiment which
strikes me as off the wall. Please consider it, but if not, I apologize for
causing pain. I assure you it was not my intent.

Ed Kunin
http://www.egalite.com