Back in school, ADD, and a cool web site
Daniel Joyce
fun for some ADD people )
Well, over the summer I found this great ADD site,
www.borntoexplore.org. I started reading, and finally confirmed what I
thought. ADD is not a disorder, but a genetic difference, that leads to
a different learning style, and social style. ( I.E. Hunter in a
Farmer's world ). The shattered Self Worth comes about by friction
between these factions.
The lady who runs the sites has a lot of well thought out articles, and
links to other pages. One article changed my life as much as "Driven to
Distraction". It's a set of E-mails from Bill Allsop, who runs a
mechanical/electrical shop in Ark. He started a interactive, hands-on
project lab at local schools, and talks about what he sees in the
students who succede at that class. He found out that all them could be
classed as ADD. Well, that is just silly, he reasoned, if they are good
at engineering tasks, why is it a deficit.
A very well written st of e-mails, with a lot o good info.
My take on this.
1)2-5% of tghe pop may have what is termed 'ADD'
2)A smaller percentage of the pop has Cystic Fibrosis, but CF does have
one pos effect. The gene makes you immune to Cholera. In areas of
repeating cholera epidemics, the gene is very common.
3)Sickle anemia is rarer than ADD, and having 1 copy of the gene makes
you immune to Malaria, without any serious side-effects. Incidence of
the Sickle Cell gene is highest in areas of africa with a high-level of
Malaria cases.
4)These 2 genetic 'diseases' (and they are only diseases when you
possess 2 copies of the gene) confer immunity to those living in areas
where 'defect'-free peope would get sick.
5)So what advantages does ADD give us, or what did ADD serve in the
past? I feel that yes, ADD is a holdover from hunter-gather days.
Eskimos perform poorly in western style schools, as do many
native-americans. Also, the same probably for many societies that were
recently HG's. There are many things about ADD that would likely be
useful to an HG individual
NB) I love fighting games, and shooters. Soccer was okay, but it was
never a 'team' sport for me. It was never about getting the ball, but
'hunting' the individual who possesses it. I've noticed that anything I
like always involves 'hunting' for something, in one form or the other.
Flag Tag mode on Goldeneye is one of my favs!
6)Many of my friends are into Sience Fiction, Computer Science, and
many other visual, freethinking, hands-on fields. I would classify
nearly all of them as Hunters. They act, talk, and behave like me. And a
large number have been diagnosed as ADD. What saddens me is to see how
many of them have become burned out of their potential, this is
something mentioned in Bill's E-mails.
Last..
I have always noticed I percieve the world differently than others. I
can view the Gestalt of an entire scene (global awareness, handy when
driving), and hyperfocus, like a laser. I notice things other people
miss. I've pointed things out to other people quite often, especially in
artwork, movies, games, and walking outside. I love being able to say
"You need to pay better attention!" when on nature walks, playing games,
or in other areas Muhahahaha ;). I've realized that exercise I found soo
boring can now be spiced up. I just need to find something I can put
into the form of a 'hunt' (maybe bike riding a random route to a random
interesting location, need to think, but I could never bike just for the
hell of it).
Please, find these at-risk ADD kids, tell them they are okay. Show them
how to keep the farmers happy, but let them be hunters.
POSTLOGUE
If I had the History channel as a child, Histoy would have been
interesting! There, they cover the epic battles, the picotal moments,
the important crises, and cruxes of history. Who gives a hork about
exact dates? What is important is what happened, why and how it affected
future actions (which I rocked on in History class, damn the dates
though)
yan...@prodigy.net
> can view the Gestalt of an entire scene (global awareness, handy when
> driving), and hyperfocus, like a laser. I notice things other people
> miss. I've pointed things out to other people quite often, especially in
> artwork, movies, games, and walking outside. I love being able to say
> "You need to pay better attention!" when on nature walks, playing games,
> or in other areas Muhahahaha ;). I've realized that exercise I found soo
> boring can now be spiced up. I just need to find something I can put
> into the form of a 'hunt' (maybe bike riding a random route to a random
> interesting location, need to think, but I could never bike just for the
> hell of it).
I feel the same way about exercise and biking - gotta make it
interesting, keep my mind on something interesting or I don't want to do
it at all.
But, the rest isn't really the same for me. I don't notice little
details and am fairly unobservant of small things. People will say did
you see the beautiful eyes on that dog? I'll say, what dog? I am
overwhelmed by the whole picture usually to the point that I don't
notice a whole lot of little things. I can actually feel physically
assaulted by a fast paced suspenseful movie that has lots of noise and
action in it...but I couldn't tell you much detail about it. I am
overwhelmed by the feelings that situations and sites bring out in me.
I react constantly and in a hyper-emotive way to stuff, I guess.
If I see a detail, it is cause there isn't anything else to notice. I
see life more like an impressionistic painting, lots of fuzzy little
details that make HUGE impressions on me.
Makes ya wonder what is this ADD thing? Where did these traits come in
handy in the past? Can't figure that out. Maybe philosophy,
spiritualism? Dunno. Just know I can't seem to find a place for it
today. Where it would help. Confused, emotional, talkative, bored,
disorganized, forgetful, yet thoughtful, seeking, questioning,
debating...yet easily frightened...yadayadayada.
Yana
Ann
>But, the rest isn't really the same for me. I don't notice little
>details and am fairly unobservant of small things. People will say did
>you see the beautiful eyes on that dog? I'll say, what dog? I am
>overwhelmed by the whole picture usually to the point that I don't
>notice a whole lot of little things. I can actually feel physically
>assaulted by a fast paced suspenseful movie that has lots of noise and
>action in it...but I couldn't tell you much detail about it. I am
>overwhelmed by the feelings that situations and sites bring out in me.
>I react constantly and in a hyper-emotive way to stuff, I guess.
>
>If I see a detail, it is cause there isn't anything else to notice. I
>see life more like an impressionistic painting, lots of fuzzy little
>details that make HUGE impressions on me.
>
Now, with me, I see everything. I notice every little detail of
outdoors when I'm out there. We walk in the woods alot with the dog,
and I'm constantly scanning....see the chickadee in the leaves, listen
to the wood thrush off in the distance (and wish I could finally see
one, instead of always just hearing them), look down amongst the
mosses and find partridgeberry and pipsissewa, admire the different
forms of lichen and moss growing on the rocks (do you ever look at
that? It's beautiful!), notice the understory leaves are starting to
turn a bit to yellow...I see everything in the woods. Because I want
to. There really isn't much I *don't* want to see, actually! I've
always been hyper aware of my surroundings, and that doesn't just
apply when I'm outdoors.
Once I was at a retirement party for a lady I worked with for years.
We were at Hugo's Lighthouse in Cohasset Harbor. We had a private
room that overlooked the harbor and a small inlet. There were shore
birds hunting in the exposed flats, fishing boats coming in for the
night, and lots of conversation flowing all around the tables. I was
listening to one conversation while watching an egret out on the
flats, and commented on another conversation going on to my other
side. One of the guys I worked with said "You're really keeping all
this going at once, aren't you?" And I was.
I am slowly regaining this ability. Having kids, especially kids with
ADHD problems like mine have, really knocked me for a loop. They're
getting older now, though, hopefully the problems they've been having
in school are a little more under control (they seem to be now), I can
get back to some sense of normalcy! <G>
>Makes ya wonder what is this ADD thing? Where did these traits come in
>handy in the past? Can't figure that out. Maybe philosophy,
>spiritualism? Dunno. Just know I can't seem to find a place for it
>today. Where it would help. Confused, emotional, talkative, bored,
>disorganized, forgetful, yet thoughtful, seeking, questioning,
>debating...yet easily frightened...yadayadayada.
I don't know about ADHD coming in handy in our society. There are
certain advantages to me to being wired this way, when I am able to
just be me and not be responsible for others. But keeping all my
threads going and also tending to others breaks me. Too much input.
Too many pulls. I guess my form of ADHD was not meant for a nuturer,
I would be better off as a scout, an explorer, a searcher. Not
exactly skills needed for a mother today! ;-(
--
Ann
annbal*at*thecia.net
Fix the from:
9 is the spam trap!
Jack M.
yan...@prodigy.net wrote in message <35E5AA...@prodigy.net>...
>Daniel Joyce wrote in message...
>> I have always noticed I percieve the world differently than others
<skip>
>Makes ya wonder what is this ADD thing?
<skip>
>Dunno. Just know I can't seem to find a place for it
>today. Where it would help. Confused, emotional, talkative, bored,
>disorganized, forgetful, yet thoughtful, seeking, questioning,
>debating...yet easily frightened...yadayadayada.
>
You mean "YanaYanaYana", don't you?
(As in "helpful, supportive, insightful, intelligent, able to leap tall
buildings in a single bound...YanaYanaYana".)
Jack ;- )
LAURIE1591
Daniel,
I have 3 kids with ADHD and I have heard of the hunter in a farmers world
phrase.....Thank you for reminding me that my kids are not "abnormal" with how
they need to learn. It's a shame that our school systems only teach ONE WAY
and that is to make the kids sit still, quiet and learn the way the teacher
thinks. Wouldn't it be nice if there were "farmer schools" and "hunter
schools"? I also wish the schools would teach more important issues like how
to prepare for the future, i.e., paying bills, saving money, budgeting,
communication skills for relationships, etc., not that history, math and
english aren't important, but like you said, who cares about exact dates?
Thanks again,
Laurie