Questions for writing and discussion:
2. Personally, I loved the way that Julie Gilbert began writing her essay. Although the opening sentence was misleading to the rest of her essay, it really intrigued me and captured all of my attention. It forced me to ask questions about what she was referring to when she stated "I'll never forget sitting in the child psychology ward of floating Hospital in Boston. I was ten." I began to ponder on why a ten year old girl would have to be in a psychology ward. Was she crazy, did she murder another human, was she mentally challenged? all of these questions fluttered my mind as I continued to read the rest of her essay. Later on I would come to realize that she was neither crazy nor a murderer, but actually a unique individual who the world misunderstood.
In the essay, Julie Gilbert argues that students with ADHD are “overmedicated and misunderstood.” I could not agree with her anymore. While I was a summer camp teacher in the summer of 2015, I had a student named Marcus, within a few days of first meeting him I knew that he was different from the other students. Marcus was very disruptive, loud and he would not stay focus for more than two minutes. A week after camp began, his mother approached me and explained to me that Marcus had ADHD. I was not qualified to teach students with ADHD and Marcus being my first student that had ADHD, it was very difficult for me to deal with him, and understand him and I found myself getting frustrated with him very easily. As the summer went on, and I talked to his mother every day about him she would help me understand him better. She gave me tips on what to do when he would not pay attention, and tips on how to calm him down. Gilbert points out that most kids that have ADHD also have above genius intelligence, indeed this is very true. Marcus excelled in the classroom, on Fridays we would do multiplication tables and while the other students were still sharpening their pencils, Marcus would be done with his assignment and jumping around on his chair. By the end of the summer I understood Marcus a lot better and why he acted in the way that he did. Marcus had grown on me. I even developed an emotional attachment to him and I was sad to see that summer camp was coming to a conclusion. Marcus taught me that students with ADHD are very intelligent, unique individuals who the world misunderstands.
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