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Robert Toth
I stayed back in the fourth grade three times. I was a straight-F student. The school called my mother and told her to send me to a private school, which she couldn’t afford.
Then, at 14, I had an epiphany.
Two teachers put together a scientific demonstration in class one day. It was very visual. As soon as I saw it, it was as if I awoke from a long sleep. It excited and inspired me. My teachers discovered that I was a visual learner, which was something my mother, a painter, knew intuitively.
I enrolled in art school at 21, and started my own design firm when I was 26. I sculpted busts of famous people, many of whom were thought to have learning disabilities — Einstein, Mozart, Edison, da Vinci, Frank Lloyd Wright. Some of the busts are in the Smithsonian.
When I sculpt and paint — things I love to do — I don’t need medication. I don’t feel like I have ADHD.
There is hope for ADD children. My mom was the making of me. You can be the making of your child.
This article comes from the Summer 2009 issue of ADDitude.
To read this issue of ADDitude in full, buy the back issue.
