Many educators now agree that Thomas Edison, the great inventor, probably had A.D.H.D. Thomas Edison was a disaster in school and his teachers considered him to be slow or retarded. This assessment infuriated Thomas Edison's mother, Nancy Elliott Edison, and she set out to provide him with the resources and encouragement that he need to learn on his own. Thomas Edison's mother played a crucial role in the young inventors education. Edison was quoted as an adult as saying that his mother was the "making of me". Thomas Edison's mother set about to teach the 'wizard of Menlo Park' in a way that, she felt, he would best learn. She allowed him to solve mechanical and chemistry problems at home in a laboratory she helped him design and she made certain that what he was learning was relevant and interesting to him.
The learning style of children with ADHD is different but not necessarily inferior to the learning style of other children in the classroom. Many children with ADHD could benefit from a curriculum that they find relevant and interesting and from a problem solving approach to learning.
As we well know now, Thomas Edison was amazingly curious. He did poorly in school but his mother provided him with books about things that he found interesting such as mechanics and chemistry and the young Thomas devoured this reading material. School was difficult for Thomas because what his school was teaching was largely not relevant to him and when he was curious about something at school, his teachers reprimanded him for speaking out of turn or spending to much time thinking about something that was not in the lesson plan.
At home his mother Edison's mother allowed him to experiment and to create. Edison's mother could see her son's intellect and creativity and she expected great things from him. She gave the young inventor the permission to explore and the confidence to fail and try again.
The permission to explore and fail is essential to the education and growth of individuals like Thomas Edison who learn by problem solving. Many people with A.D.H.D. are tangential rather than linear thinkers. Tangential thinkers hold many possibilites to a problem in their head and approach problem solving in a divergent rather than convergent fashion. Most schools teach and expect children to learn in a linear and convergent manner. This was Thomas Edison's undoing at school and it is the undoing of many children with the diagnosis of A.D.H.D.
Tangential thinkers tend to be more creative when it comes to problem solving. Schools that encourage tangential thinking are, essentially, encouraging creativity. Newsweek, this summer, published an article devoted to the importance of teaching creativity in our schools. They cited reports of studies that indicated that overall life success depended far more on creativity than it did on IQ or school success. In other words, the most creative children were the children who turned out to be leaders in their fields.
The Newsweek report reported on a school in Ohio called The National Inventors Hall of Fame School that had recently achieved incredibly high test scores with a population of kids that might be considered 'at risk' by using a problem based learning approach. Problem based learning aims to teach by having the students solve a problem that is relevant to them. Tangential thinking and creativity is encouraged and the children learn by trial and error, by experimenting, by collaborating, and by doing. It is a more active way of learning and it is ideally suited for people who learn better when what they are learning is a problem that is relevant to their lives.
All schools should be striving to make the subject matter that they teach relevant but for children with A.D.H.D., a relevant curriculum is essential if they are to achieve success in school. If your child's school cannot or will not make your child's curriculum relevant, than you as a parent must do what Thomas Edison's mother did and that is to provide them with the tools and encouragement that they need to learn by solving problems at home.
For more information on ADHD please visit Tess Messer at http://www.primarilyinattentiveadd.com/2010/02/why-blog.html. There you will find information on ADHD symptoms, ADHD treatment and much more. Looking forward to meeting you there!!
The learning style of children with ADHD is different but not necessarily inferior to the learning style of other children in the classroom. Many children with ADHD could benefit from a curriculum that they find relevant and interesting and from a problem solving approach to learning.
As we well know now, Thomas Edison was amazingly curious. He did poorly in school but his mother provided him with books about things that he found interesting such as mechanics and chemistry and the young Thomas devoured this reading material. School was difficult for Thomas because what his school was teaching was largely not relevant to him and when he was curious about something at school, his teachers reprimanded him for speaking out of turn or spending to much time thinking about something that was not in the lesson plan.
At home his mother Edison's mother allowed him to experiment and to create. Edison's mother could see her son's intellect and creativity and she expected great things from him. She gave the young inventor the permission to explore and the confidence to fail and try again.
The permission to explore and fail is essential to the education and growth of individuals like Thomas Edison who learn by problem solving. Many people with A.D.H.D. are tangential rather than linear thinkers. Tangential thinkers hold many possibilites to a problem in their head and approach problem solving in a divergent rather than convergent fashion. Most schools teach and expect children to learn in a linear and convergent manner. This was Thomas Edison's undoing at school and it is the undoing of many children with the diagnosis of A.D.H.D.
Tangential thinkers tend to be more creative when it comes to problem solving. Schools that encourage tangential thinking are, essentially, encouraging creativity. Newsweek, this summer, published an article devoted to the importance of teaching creativity in our schools. They cited reports of studies that indicated that overall life success depended far more on creativity than it did on IQ or school success. In other words, the most creative children were the children who turned out to be leaders in their fields.
The Newsweek report reported on a school in Ohio called The National Inventors Hall of Fame School that had recently achieved incredibly high test scores with a population of kids that might be considered 'at risk' by using a problem based learning approach. Problem based learning aims to teach by having the students solve a problem that is relevant to them. Tangential thinking and creativity is encouraged and the children learn by trial and error, by experimenting, by collaborating, and by doing. It is a more active way of learning and it is ideally suited for people who learn better when what they are learning is a problem that is relevant to their lives.
All schools should be striving to make the subject matter that they teach relevant but for children with A.D.H.D., a relevant curriculum is essential if they are to achieve success in school. If your child's school cannot or will not make your child's curriculum relevant, than you as a parent must do what Thomas Edison's mother did and that is to provide them with the tools and encouragement that they need to learn by solving problems at home.
For more information on ADHD please visit Tess Messer at http://www.primarilyinattentiveadd.com/2010/02/why-blog.html. There you will find information on ADHD symptoms, ADHD treatment and much more. Looking forward to meeting you there!!
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