Thank you Mishra, for pointing this out.
As an unschooler of fifteen years, I have seen labels of many kinds in the
community, but especially ADHD, applied to very active young boys. These
were often anxious boys, due to unstable home environments and rigid
schooling environments, inflexible and unforgiving of differences in
children. The preferred remedy was Ritalin, often recommended to doctors and
psychologists by teachers, school counselors and principals.
Systemic implications may very well account for a lot of the behaviours, but
for me, it's important to recognize the simple here-and-now reasons for such
behaviour. In my experience, these labeled children often did exceedingly
well, often brilliantly, in a nurturing environment away form the factory of
school, where they were allowed to read, write and play following their own
rhythms of schedule and content. Mothers sighed with relief as they did not
have to administer Ritalin or use labels, and their children proved to be
literate, brimming with self-esteem. They found themselves labeling them
"genius" and "brilliant". For dyslexia, often the cure is simply a different
approach to reading than what a particular teacher used.... whole language,
phonetics, or some combo of the two that works for the unique way that
particular child sees letters and words and sentences. Schools are a very
big part of our growing up years, and can set negative patterns well into
the adult years, exacerbating family dysfunction. For more on this, there
are many unschooling sites findable via Google.
Despite all this, there are of course many anxious and hyperactive
unschoolers. Families and family systems remain the single largest influence
on anyone's behaviour and there systemic implications are very useful.
Dr. Gordon Neufeld has written some wonderful material on attachment-based
learning as well, where healthy attachments to parents and teachers resulted
in better learning at all levels. His last book was Hold On To Your Kids, a
good primer on attachment based learning.
Anita
2008/11/19 S Mishra Suloway <mishra@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Please beware of accepting labels such as "dyslexic" or "deficit."
I think they are wrongful, wrong-making categories for minorities --
persons whose neurological pattern or style or viewpoint differs from
the majority, or from the past.
I also think the labels are not precise:
I have heard that several distinct patterns are placed in the category
"dyslexia".
"Attention deficit" and "hyperactivity" strike me as an emerging set
of patterns for coping with environments of rapid motion and
stroboscopic media, an issue within a larger system than individuals
or families.
(Note: I lack formal training in these matters.)
People who don't accept the dominant monoculture (e.g. standardized
education) in the official way are labeled as problems.
How much better to simply notice and embrace the differences, in the
spirit of Margreet's post.
S Mishra Suloway
