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It’s really unfair to call this a “disorder.” What I lack in efficiency, I make up for with creativity and intellectualism.
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Contrary to popular belief, I can sit still; I just can’t sit still and think at the same time.
When I sit in one place, I get attacked with thoughts and feelings, and movement helps me to compartmentalize them so I can focus on one thing at a time. As a teacher, I deliver instructions and explanations most effectively when I’m walking back and forth, not when I’m sitting or standing in one place.
There are situations, however, where it’s either socially unacceptable or physically impossible for me to solve my attention deficiency by pacing. I can’t pace throughout a staff meeting or BTSA training. Yes, it is the way I minimize my own predisposition to distractions, but in doing so, I become a distraction to others trying to focus.
…and if anyone else in the room were pacing, I would probably be the first person to tell them to cut it out, because it was distracting.
Kids need visual reinforcement to keep them engaged in a lesson. That doesn’t just require a PowerPoint or writing on the board; it requires a teacher who is visually interesting to watch. People poke fun at the bright colors and socks I wear to work, along with the goofy dances I perform as I write on the board, but those things encourage students to look at me, and most kids can focus better when they are looking at the person whose words they’re meant to be focusing on.
If your job is to take care of kids, you need to make those kids feel like you care about your job. If they think you don’t care about your job, why should they believe you care about them?
The walls of my classroom are not well-decorated. Why should they be? Why should there be posters and decorations in my classroom that encourage scholars to look at the walls? The most well-decorated, visually interesting thing in my classroom is me, and I’m very proud of this.
For some teachers, though, decorating their classroom is a way of expressing themselves and building a personal connection with their students, the same way I do with my Pokémon & Albert Einstein socks. When those teachers oversleep and have to come to work with stubble, unkempt hair, and a polo shirt, their room still looks impeccable. When they are going through struggles in their personal life, their room still appears welcoming and supportive. When their professional conduct gets called into question, the careful attention they devote to maintaining their classroom will remind others of their professionalism.
Professionalism is a quality essential to any teacher. If your job is to take care of kids, you need to make those kids feel like you care about your job. If they think you don’t care about your job, why should they believe you care about them?
I have always cared and have always taken my career seriously, but my professionalism has been called into question many times, and most often because of problems with attention deficiency. I struggle to keep things neat and organized, struggle with dates & times of important meetings, struggle to stick to the agenda of my own lesson plans, and struggle to offer clear explanations while I’m being distracted by everything else happening in the classroom.
I don’t get lost in my own thoughts while I’m in front of a classroom. Maybe I did at the very beginning out of nervousness, but not anymore. Kids & teenagers are quite interesting to me. All the crazy things they say & do keep my attentiveness nice and sharp.
… but sometimes there are 32 of them, and they want to be paid attention to one at a time. So instead of following classroom procedures and waiting their turn to speak, they often compete to see which one can be the goofiest, knowing that’s what will earn them my attention.
Scholars who interrupt the teacher often do so because they need to process information out loud in order stay engaged in the lesson.
A teacher with ADD will constantly tell students to raise their hand, but will still (without realizing it) answer the outburst of a disruptive scholar and ignore the raised hand of a student who follows the rules. The so-called “disruptive scholar” communicates in a way that’s more familiar to the attention-deficient teacher. Their brain is filled with a sea of random thoughts that get addressed as they pop up, usually based on how loud & intense they are rather than their level of importance.
Scholars who interrupt the teacher often do so because they need to process information out loud in order stay engaged in the lesson. In other words, they distract others because they themselves are easily distracted. Ironic, no?
When my first boss observed my susceptibility to being distracted by student interruptions, she called me “quick-minded.” At the time, I interpreted this as a politically correct way of telling me she thought I had ADD, but now I instead see it as a more evolved outlook on so-called “ADD symptoms.” I have an attention deficiency, but it’s unfair to call it a “disorder.” What I lack in efficiency, I make up for with creativity and intellectualism.
I don’t know why we think “creativity” is a quality reserved for people who work in entertainment.
Some people, while observing me teach, have interpreted my “quick-mindedness” for aloofness, and they’ve told me they don’t think my heart is in it. They suggest I not give up on becoming a musician or an actor, since those professions are more suited to my personality. They’re wrong. People with ADD are just as likely to struggle in the entertainment industry as they are in education. Many of them don’t take direction well, overthink everything, socialize during rehearsal, or unconsciously hog the spotlight.
Every profession needs creative people to make interesting connections, introduce new ideas, and explain old ideas in new ways. I don’t know why we think “creativity” is a quality reserved for people who work in entertainment. Einstein was creative. Neils Bohr was creative. Stephen Hawking, Richard Feynman, and Bill Nye are creative.
And those are all the scientists I know, because I was too busy staring at posters on the wall (or at cute girls) for most of my high school science classes.
My students need my creativity, and I refuse to take stimulant drugs that will curb it on the off-chance that it might make me “more efficient.” There are other psychological ailments linked to ADD (depression, anxiety, narcissism) that I have worked through without drugs. I’m in a better place now, and I’m comfortable embracing my “disorder” instead of running from it.
Also by Giorgio Selvaggio
The Five Truths About Dating on the Rebound
The War on Sassiness
How I Stopped Getting Called ‘Creepy’ …
Did You Just Shallow-Shame Him? Really?
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