This summer, Darlington teachers PK-12 are reading Blake Taylor's book, "ADHD and Me: What I Learned from Lighting Fires at the Dinner Table." Read Upper School math teacher Dana Peek's insights below.
Kudos to the Teaching and Learning Center gang for bringing us such a fresh story on ADHD. I have just finished reading "ADHD & Me" by Blake Taylor. There are so many wonderful points to highlight as Taylor skips through his educational career (in no chronological order, of course) to bring us his reality with ADHD. I will spare you every highlighted sentence in my book and share with you some of my favorites.
As a math teacher in the Upper School, I found several of my students in the pages of Chapter 3. As Taylor is preparing to study for his Algebra 2/Pre-Calculus final, he is totally overwhelmed by the sheer amount of material to review. Taylor describes his teacher, Netta, as “exacting” and expecting the best from her students. He has always had an easy time with math…until Netta. Yikes! There is hope, however, as he learns to adjust to her style and methods!
The method he chooses is EXACTLY the method that Jean Bonnyman and Cindy McGehee helped one of my students find just before Christmas break this past year. It was a MOST dramatic turnaround. Taylor and my particular student found success in taking up as much space as needed to set up and calculate the problems. And believe me, at times, the space needed was literally one problem per page! But no matter! The work was done; it was correct and success was found!
Even as I found my students in Chapter 3, I hoped I had NOT found myself in Chapter 10. Taylor speaks of his first grade teacher in a way that makes me shudder. I have to quote these lines: “She seems to dismiss the condition as an excuse for my bad behavior. She is not going to change. She is determined that I will change. She will make me behave.” Over and over again, Mrs. Perril calls out Taylor’s poor behavior and seeks to punish without looking for any understanding behind the behavior. I confess I don’t always have the patience for the student who interrupts my sentence with a comment that has absolutely NO relevancy to the topic whatsoever, (insert your favorite offenders’ name here) but may I try to see beyond the behavior at least a time or two or three!
Finally, I loved the notion that there is a gift in ADHD. Along with becoming easily distracted also comes the ability to think outside the box and find innovation, according to Taylor. I am so type A, that I often wonder if I don’t get hyper focused on a route to the finish that I forget to look for other ways to approach a problem or come to a conclusion. The challenge may be then to appreciate the distracted thinker but learn ways to help he/she reign it in toward solutions. Notice I did say challenge!
All in all, a great book for seeing a different perspective and for offering helpful, real suggestions for those struggling with ADHD and the hurdles that it brings.
