I'd say, the Louisiana Purchase, or whatever it was, and she would say, OK, give me four main facts about your topic that you want to say. "So," my mom told this teacher right back, "what are you doing about it?"Īt home, this was what she and I were doing about it: OK, my mom would say, what's your topic? Doing it until I learned to do it right was one of my mom's many important lessons.Īs I got into middle school, another teacher told mom that I would never be successful at anything I did because I couldn't concentrate. So many times, it seemed, I would do my homework and bring it to her for a review, and she'd say: "Michael, your handwriting is so small, I can't read this." She'd rip it up, then and there. For her part, my mother, raising three kids by herself, pursuing her own career goals, just worked harder to make sure I was, indeed, not only focusing in class but was doing my homework. In class, I noticed I did seem less jumpy. Mom did not tell me at first what Ritalin was or what it was supposed to do. For a kid who was already being picked on, this was another reason to stand out. If I didn't remember, the nurse would come call me out of my next class. At school, the lunchtime dose meant I had to go to the school nurse's office. Staying busy with sports, increasingly swimming, would burn off my energy. Initially, the Ritalin programme was three times a day during the school week: morning, lunchtime, dinner. The doctor prescribed the stimulant Ritalin. ADHD is a relatively common childhood disorder it can make it difficult for a child to do well in school or behave at home. When I was in sixth grade, our family physician, Dr Charles Wax, diagnosed me with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Swimmers like to say they can "feel" the water. In the water I felt, for the first time, in control. I could go fast in the pool, it turned out, in part because being in the pool slowed down my mind. A black stripe on the bottom for direction. What I discovered soon after starting to swim was that the pool was a safe haven. "Mrs Phelps, are you saying that Michael is gifted? Michael is not gifted," the teacher said.Īll everyone knew, in particular my mom, my sisters and my coaches, was that I had all this energy and that I could bleed off a lot of it by playing sports: baseball, soccer, lacrosse, swimming, you name it. "Well," Mom said, "maybe it's because Michael is bored with what he's being taught."
"Michael just can't focus," the teacher said. "Michael is agitating other children in the class."įinally, my mom and the teacher held a meeting. "Michael is not doing his work the way he needs to be doing his work." "Michael is having difficulty focusing in class." "Michael is not paying attention in class."
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