When you apply to a college graduate classes or school I was told not to announce that you have a Learning Disability or Attention Deficit Disorder. I would just go register. If you feel it is to hard try and just be a teacher;s aide or paraprofessional and work with the kids.

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I am a teacher with ADD, and (in some ways) I feel that it is a blessing. While it is true that I often want to rip my eyeballs out rather than grade papers, update curriculum maps, write lesson plans, etc., I agree that my disability helps me relate to my students with disabilities. I am able to empathize with them, offer a realm of useful and practical accommodations, set goals and communicate with parents more effectively. I never shared the fact that I have ADD with my boss, but I did share it with my department/grade level team. I also have shared it with certain parents of ADD-afflicted students. When I share my stories and relate them to how I can help their children, parents respond very positively and are extremely grateful. Usually these children have a history of exasperated teachers, and parents and students alike are so relieved that junior will finally be understood rather than punished for this challenge.

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I am a student teacher in a master's degree program. My advisor is the same advisor I had for undergrad, and obviously knows about my ADD. I did let my supervisor know that she had to pester me about deadlines, but didn't say look, I have ADD.

I think that there are many ways to help kids with learning disabilities without announcing to the world/school/your employer, hey, I have ADD. Already you come from a background that will help you to better understand those students.

I think it would be irresponsible and discriminatory for a school system to advertise that they are looking for teachers with ADD or other high IQ learning disabilities. Wouldn't you be horrified if you read an ad from a school looking specifically for people with physical disabilities, since they would better understand students with those disabilities?

All teachers can reach all children. It is demeaning to say to a teacher that they have never struggled to learn since they don't have any LDs. Do I think having ADD strengthens my reaction to those kids? Yes. But I am sure it will have downsides, too.

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I think it would be irresponsible and discriminatory for a school system to advertise that they are looking for teachers with ADD or other high IQ learning disabilities. Wouldn't you be horrified if you read an ad from a school looking specifically for people with physical disabilities, since they would better understand students with those disabilities?

That is the opposite of the issue that I raised. The question is, are the schools culturally blocking, even subconsciously, opportunities for people with high IQ disabilities to teach? My experience says that is occurring. I have even had teachers tell me that there is know such thing as a high IQ disability. Nobody has suggested that they should resolve this by going to the extreme of “advertising”.

All teachers can reach all children. Go to your Anthropology and ask them about the fallacy of that statement. They would say you can never use “all” when talking about humanity. That is probably printed in the text book, but reality has something else to say. Just look at the number of kids that are quitting school. That is a rejection of the concept of diversity. Teachers should not be afraid to learn from each other.

It is demeaning to say to a teacher that they have never struggled to learn since they don't have any LDs My definition of politically correct is “The easiest way for one person to prove that they are not prejudiced is to accuse somebody else”. That is why I talk about the institution of prejudice. Here, as is the case with most characteristics of ADD, the truth is in the degree. To this day we still have teachers telling these students “Your problem is that you are lazy” and an education culture that justifies it.

Have you looked at critical pedagogy.

I hope you are able to complete your program; but the final test is not the the job. The final test is the schools tolerance when the teacher begins acting as an advocate. If they support you in this role I would like to here the details.

In many arenas of discrimination the deniers try to use one isolate event of success to prove that the prejudice does not exist. This denial is even easier in the case of what is inaccurately described as a hidden disability.

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I think that having a disability in your background could be quite useful, especially as a special ed teacher.

But I do have to say that the one experience we had with a teacher who confided learning disabilities was not good. He seemed to believe that the best path was just to be more determined and work harder. He believed that trying harder was what had worked for him. He couldn't see that my 6th grader was fried by the evening and could just do no more. It might be that his disability made him more rigid in his thinking? I don't know. I know he tried like the dickens and really cared, but my daughter still crashed & burned.

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I have struggled with attention deficit disorders all of my life. My late husband, our daughter and I were all diagnosed with ADHD. I spent several years working with Title 1 reading students in an elementary setting and eventually became an advocate for students with attention deficit problems during case conferences involving IEP's (individualized education plans) and the best course for making their educational experience more productive. I have always been very upfront about my ADHD. I returned to college several years ago and found that I needed to go on medication (prior to this I used only behavioral modification and a great deal of determination & hard work) when I realized there was no way to slow my brain enough to answer essay questions which always seem to appear at the end of a long series of short answer and multiple choice questions. I did not always discuss my ADHD with my professors because I saw no need. I did discuss it with fellow students, especially since I was a role model for many students who were nearly 20 years younger. I shared with them strategies that worked for me and some of my former students. I am now serving a Visiting Lectureship teaching beginning writing to struggling college students. I "come clean" with them the first day of class as to my own ADHD and some of the problems/benefits I have found as a student and teacher with it. I am noticing a series of patterns that many ADD/ADHD students exhibit which lead to difficulties in their writing. Many of these can often be easily corrected once they are identified and strategies put in place to deal with them. By sharing my own story early on, those students who share my "gift" are more at ease talking with me about their own specific challenges. My colleagues are aware of my ADHD, but also appreciate the insite I give them during faculty mtgs. when dealing with their own ADD students. I doubt, however, a school could/would publicize an opening for an ADD person only.

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We have a lot, everywhere.

However, I am very concerned about how you present yourself. 100% of the teachers that present themselves like you just did represent all of our nightmare employees.

You should want to go into teaching to educate teachers, not to share your experiences.

I actually blogged something similar. http://askdreric-schoolpsychologist.blogspot.com/

My ADHD Story – Part 1 Self-disclosure and Ethics. First and foremost, I am not a fan of professionals who self-disclose too much. However, this is my blog, and it is for educational purposes. I hope my story helps.

I am a school psychologist with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) - SEVERE ADHD. This is something that I very infrequently disclose to my parents or students. If/when I do, it is with much reservation and deliberation on whether the disclosure is to the student’s benefit or my own. Unfortunately, I disclose too freely to my co-workers. They disclose to whomever they want. For some reason, anyone that has met me off of my medication (methylphenidate) figures it out without being told.

Many parents and teachers think that it is great when a professional has a personal issue with the topic at hand, and they readily dismiss anyone that is not in the club. Ask any school psychologist without children how many times they have been told, “You may have the degree, but don’t tell me what it is like to raise a child.” Guess what? None of the research or my advice have changed since I became a parent.

To some folks, all of the credentials and experience mean nothing. They will listen to the folks at the beauty salon over the professional. Then, they find out that I have ADHD, and I get immediate Street Cred. This would seem a good motivator to disclose more often. Why not?

Too many people get attracted to a helping profession because of their own issues. Do an informal survey. Ask every drug counselor you meet about their personal experience with drugs/alcohol. Scary. I know a lot of crazy mental health professionals.

Do I, “know what it is like?” Yes, I do. I know what it is like for me, but that is my point. I know what it is like for me, but it is not about me. Other people don’t have my genetics, parents, support systems, upbringing, etc. In that regard, I am lucky. Most people with ADHD are not like me. When I was assessed and diagnosed, I had about a 5 standard deviation discrepancy between my baseline ability (measured un-medicated) and attention/impulsivity. That is 3-4 times more than necessary to be considered “significant” in the State of California. It is also very rare. In fact, I would love for someone to look up the statistical probability on a 5 standard deviation discrepancy.

It is my job to assess and help the unique individuals that I serve. There are trends, research, and best practices. It always goes back to the individual. My own personal emotions, history, and biases stand to do more harm than good.

I have seen this happen. I have seen a school psychologist (and parent of children with Autism) try to diagnose every kid with a flat affect or social problems with an Autism Spectrum Disorder – even if they were 17 and stoned. I have also seen a rape crisis counselor almost yelling at a client because she stated, “The Christian in me needs to forgive him so that I can move on with my life.” We never saw her again.

This does not mean that having a learning challenge in my profession is all bad. (My employees may disagree on this one.) I have a motivation to help students with learning challenges that few people could rival. I am also a believer, in part, of the “Gift of ADHD” in terms of thinking outside of the box. There are times when personal experience can help… more on that later. It just requires vigilance and checks/balances.

I think that we do a great job of addressing counter-transference and personal bias in most graduate programs and internships. However, once licensed and in the working world, I think we forget to re-visit those extremely important issues - which is why I spent all of my time talking about disclosure and ethics, and little on actually self-disclosing.

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Bruce said: Has anybody ever seen a school system that hires teachers with any of the high IQ learning disabilities? As an adult with ADD, I would like to go into teaching in order to share my experiences. We need more teachers who know what it is like to fight to learn. This should be what they call diversity. I have tried to communicate this idea with a variety of teaching programs, and schools. Either I get no response at all, or the more honest respond as if they are horrified. Once I went back to a university to get the certification. Although I was passing the course, I got the same reaction. It brought it to a stop.

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