It isn’t a ‘deficit’ or a ‘disorder’ – it’s a different way of thinking for God’s sake!
If people with what is currently called ADD are consistently found on the cutting edge of human endeavor – inventing the lightbulb or the theory of relativity, starting Apple Computers, directing blockbuster movies, winning Olympic Gold medals – and they are – why on earth do we continue to accept the words ‘deficit’ and ‘disorder’ as part of the definition?
Shouldn’t we be nurturing the creativity and encouraging our out-of-the-box thinkers rather than telling them they have something wrong with them because they don’t respond with interest to a more conventional approach to education.
God did not say unto Moses “Thou shalt only think one thought at a time.” Neither did he say “Thou shalt bore thine children to tears in the classroom and if they do not conform to lateral learning thou shalt tell them there is something wrong with them until you’ve forced them to behave like everyone else.”
If Moses had asked, I like to think God might have said : “Thou shalt take extra care with the precious children who don’t fit the norm and find new ways to teach and engage them. For it’s the children who live and think out of the box who, if encouraged and valued, can and will change the world.”
I’m delighted to have been invited to write about this – and more – in an upcoming blog for www.additudemag.com.
For now, here is a link to Like Mother, Like Son, a guest blog I just wrote for www.ADDItudemagazine.com.