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An interesting story with an important message

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Asp-Z
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10 Jun 2010, 1:07 pm

A TA at my school who's also become a friend of mine told me this today, and I found it interesting and thought it made a good point.

She said that in the 80's there was an 8 year old schoolgirl who fidgeted a lot, the school told the parents that she couldn't concentrate because of it and it was causing trouble, so they took the girl to the doctor. The doctor then done something strange; he turned the radio on and left the girl in the room on her own. She then proceeded to get up and dance. The doctor then told the parents that the child was a natural dancer and to take her to a dance school, they did so and today this person is a successful choreographer who's a multimillionaire.

However, if such a thing were to happen today, the child would be diagnosed with ADHD and put on ritalin, the argument being that this thinking is harmful to the natural creativity of people, and that today we're far too obsessed with just trying to fit everyone perfectly into academia.

I find this to be a sad truth myself.



auntblabby
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11 Jun 2010, 3:52 am

can we have more doctors like that one?



book_noodles
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11 Jun 2010, 11:44 am

I've never met a doctor like that, but I do know that when I was squirmy and constantly reading my books during lectures instead of listening, my teachers never recommended putting me in a higher level of reading coursework. I was punished for it. Granted, it distracted me from math and others subjects, but my linguistic abilities went unrecognized by everyone but my parents and school and private psychologists. If you misbehave, your skills do not mean anything. They want savant abilities without the deficiencies. SO I was diagnosed with PDD/ADD and medicated. I still don't fit into the academic cookie cutter, but I'm getting better at playing their games :twisted:


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CockneyRebel
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11 Jun 2010, 11:52 am

Let's go back to the day, when kids could be kids.


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Asp-Z
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14 Jun 2010, 2:40 am

book_noodles wrote:
I've never met a doctor like that, but I do know that when I was squirmy and constantly reading my books during lectures instead of listening, my teachers never recommended putting me in a higher level of reading coursework. I was punished for it. Granted, it distracted me from math and others subjects, but my linguistic abilities went unrecognized by everyone but my parents and school and private psychologists. If you misbehave, your skills do not mean anything. They want savant abilities without the deficiencies. SO I was diagnosed with PDD/ADD and medicated. I still don't fit into the academic cookie cutter, but I'm getting better at playing their games :twisted:


See, and that's the exact problem with the school system, isn't it? If you don't study what they tell you to study then it's worthless as far as they're concerned.