Cameron’s Witt’s ADHD Blog (Part 3) – My School Experience
Next in this third part of my blog (out of five), I will talk about how ADHD has impacted how I and many others with this disability learn at school. As long as I can remember, I have always been placed in small classes. This goes back to elementary school. Myself and many of my friends were put in Special Ed classes because the teachers and our parents believed we would learn better that way and not get distracted, therefore, allowing us to focus more efficiently. My performance in those small classes was very good, so my parents believed that they really were best for me. This pattern would continue into middle school, where my classes were smaller than most. I, however, believed that I was ready to be in big classes, but I stayed with the smaller ones and my performance stayed solid. Plus, I really could not complain since I had the same friends in most of my classes.
Then came high school, where I would finally get to be in bigger classes, but still had a couple smaller classes on my schedule as well. These next four years are where my ADHD really became prominent.
One class where I struggled immensely was my senior year math class. Math had usually been one of my strongest subjects and the fact that I did not do so great in that class was rather unusual for me. Additionally, I was required to take two years of a native language course in order to graduate. So, during my sophomore and senior years, I took a Spanish class. Sounds easy right? How hard could it be? Well, it turns out for me, it was the bane of my existence. My teachers for both were great. I loved them, but I found myself at a loss everyday I was in that class for both years because I simply had no idea what I was doing. It got so bad to where I refused to participate in the class despite knowing full well that not doing so would bring my grade down and thus ruin my chances of graduating. The only way for me to even make the slightest bit of progress in the classes were if my teachers watched me 24/7.
I struggled so badly that I was given accommodations to help me through the Spanish courses. I was allowed to use Google Translate and when given a project, my teachers changed what I would need to do in an attempt to make it easier for me. What I did was different from the rest of the class and my teachers assisted me the whole time. It was a long, frustrating and difficult process, but I eventually pulled through and got everything done. I do not think I would have succeeded if my teachers were not breathing down my throat, so I do owe them that.
Even though I was accommodated for my challenges, I was paranoid about what everyone in my class thought of me. What if they thought “Wow, Cameron is so dumb that he needs the teacher to tell him what to do” or “Why does Cameron get to do something different than the rest of us”? It is not like I wanted special treatment, it is just that my Spanish teachers knew I needed it. After I finally completed my senior year Spanish class, the rest of high school went well. My ADHD did not really get in the way of things as it was the end of the year. Any assignments we were given were relatively simple. I went on to graduate and move on to the next chapter of my life.