Here in Dallas we have a great locally produced show on NPR from noon to two Monday thru Thursday. The host Krys Boyd, a her, is always well prepared and invariably gets around to asking those questions you’d ask if given the opportunity. She’s awesome and the guests are almost always exceptional.
Last week they had a couple of social scientists on discussing ADHD and other learning disorders. Their position is the popular one these days. We need to work to get these kids afflicted with learning disorders normalized or as close to it as possible.
Needless to say I almost wore out the send button on the cell trying to get in on the conversation. I’m against all this normalizing crap. And all the evidence I see around me suggests I’m not alone.
First thing in my book is normal isn’t what we want as human beings. Invariably we worship people who aren’t. All of our heroes aren’t normal. Not just this generation mind you, every generation has put those not normal on pedestals.
The second thing is making them normal isn’t about them but us. We want them to be normal to make it easier on us. Normal is easier to teach, to raise, to love sometimes.
Third thing for me happened sometime ago. I accepted that I was ADHD and it was what had made me, well, me. I l ike me like I am because, well, it isn’t normal.
A long time ago I noticed that what made us love someone invariably was the same thing that made us dislike them. The same trait that made someone strong always was the same trait that made them weak.
This is especially true of learning disorders even though we tend not to see it that way. They have a lot more to teach us because their way of learning is still a way of learning. And because it’s not what’s considered the normal way of learning means they provide us another avenue to knowledge.
I believe we need to mine learning disorders. Not to learn how to circumvent them, but to learn how to use them to help those considered normal to overcome their handicap.
I’d like to add a little something to this statement.
For many years I knew that I could focus in a special way when it came to doing some things. I could do it at work. I could do it racing cars and motorcycles. It also happened in moments of crisis. I could focus and react instinctively when it was required. Then one day somewhere, I’m not sure where or how it came about, I learned about the sports term “zone” as in “being in the zone”.
I realized that for some reason or another I could get into the zone much easier than just about anyone around me.
I irony of my talent to get into the zone, ultimate focus, focus to the point beyond all but instinct, is ADHD is all about the inability to focus. Yet for some reason I believe that’s what enables me to find the zone.
Harvey, I’m guessing you already know this, but I’ll post it anyway: research is underway examining the possible link between ADD* diagnoses and the decline of “free play” in younger children over the last 30 years or so. The key premise is that during those years when a child learns “executive function control”, free or imaginative play is key in setting that skill and developing it.
BTW, welcome to the library. It’s good to see you here.
* It boggles my mind that hyperactive behaviors are being lumped into the rest, an aspect of normalizing I am particularly unhappy with.