Hello everyone,
I am a college student with ADHD. I am working on my Masters Degree in Education and Technology.
I am doing a research project regarding: "Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may have a greater struggle in order to succeed in college."
My hypothesis is this: “Adults with ADHD can succeed in college with the right mixture of necessary elements and under modified conditions.”
I have some questions that I need people to answer to help me prove or disprove my theory.
If people could please reply to the message boards, or email me at tammy.carpenter@aol.com, I would greatly appreciate your assistance and insight. Here are my questions:
1) “What elements are necessary for the college-level ADHD student’s success?”
2) “Under what conditions is success most prevalent?”
3) “How much responsibility does the teacher bear?”
4) “How much responsibility does the student bear?”
5) “Does a diagnosis make a difference?”
6) “Do treatment methods make a difference?”
I am already compiling my research for my paper and could use as much help as possible as quickly as possible.
Thank you all for any input and opinion you can share!
Tammy
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE reply to this questionnaire. The final assignment is due on Friday April 23rd and I still need responses to compile my research. Thank you so much!
CORRECTED EMAIL ADDRESS FOR RESPONSES: tammycarpenter@aol.com
Tammy,
I am afraid with three days remaining on your work, my input will be of little help, but I wanted to respond to your query on the ADHD message board. In the interest of you getting as much as you can out of what little insight I can offer, I will be as brief and direct as possible. I’ll put in italics all the long-winded personal stuff that can’t have much direct use in your study. Skip all the italics stuff if you’d like, you have my full permission. For example:
Personal stuff: I’m a 33 year old grad student in economics finishing my PhD this year (if all goes well). My main area of research is in firm-level interaction, but education has been a dear sideline for me for quite a while. I wanted to help you if I could at all. My mother in law is a professor of education in curriculum and development, and I am interested in the theory and practice in your field.
I’ve been evaluated as having ADHD, first diagnosed in 1996. My academic background is one probably typical of someone similarly put together. I graduated high school with a GPA under 1, but as a National Merit semi-finalist from standardized test scores. In undergraduate school, my GPA in major was 4.0, while overall it was 2.23. As I matured, attitude toward school became less of a problem (and confounding factor) but many of the difficulties are still with me. I have been off medication since late in undergrad school as I discovered methods to manage my attention, and I entered subjects where a talent for learning (which I might claim for myself) could outweigh an inability to take notes, complete homework, etc. I have sailed through a reasonably tough graduate school (second-tier, but still reputable) up to the current point, though writing a dissertation has proven a significant challenge. My innate interest faded after a couple months (not surprisingly) before I was anywhere near done. Today, in fact, I sought out and received a prescription for a stimulant to try to refocus my efforts on the drudgery in front of me after many years without it. I found the message board with your survey today as well. I usually pay as little attention to ADHD as I can get away with, which I suppose makes its own sort of sense.
My opinions in the form of answers to your questions:
1) The key element necessary for the college-level ADHD student’s success is maturity. (Not very helpful, I know.) Functioning at a reasonable level in college is a dramatically different task for ADHD folks than regular folks. It requires a significant level of maturity and a strong dose of (ambition/motivation/drive, etc.) I think ADHD folks are already at a deficit in the maturity department (compared to cohort), and yet need it more. Many of them are perfectionists, and can be rather bright, but their continual failures and realizations that they have disappointed their loved ones keeps them stunted. No one gets diagnosed with ADHD having had a rosy educational experience all their lives, and it shows. Diagnosis can often allow an ADHD college kid to shake off the emotional burdens they have accumulated through their academic lives, and size up the situation in front of them anew. But the challenges remain, and it takes maturity and motivation to get through the frustrating, humiliating work of being an ADHD student in a regular folks-oriented educational system.
2) The conditions which best predict success primarily involve the match between the student and their subject. The problems associated with ADHD will show up most glaringly in required subjects out of the student’s major (presuming they picked a major they matched well with). The standard story is correct on all this, subjects which require rote learning decoupled from any conceptual framework will be a challenge, as will those which require practice. It is not reasonable to build an educational system which exempts ADHD folks from courses which require the standard manner of learning, but advisors, parents, and the students themselves must be prepared to accept limited proficiency in particular subjects. College curriculums are designed to provide students with information, methods and tools before they need them. Calculus is taken before physics, writing before literature. ADHD folks have a terrible time learning tools without useful applications. Many of them would learn the most advanced calculus existent with comparable ease if they needed it to accomplish a task they were interested in, but will fail out of the basic course at the easiest junior college. They simply cannot muster the interest they would have to have to learn the stuff. Success, then, must be evaluated differently for the ADHD student. Passing may be a huge success, even if their IQ’s would predict an A.
On a smaller scale, the conditions that lead to success involve a lot of understanding on the part of the teacher and the student. A goal-driven relationship between the interested parties is vital. In the competitive and harried world of university-level academics, such a relationship is hard to develop. Smaller classes, flexible schedules and grading metrics, and many other structural elements can positively influence the outcome, but bottom line an acceptance of the situation and a commitment to the goals are necessary conditions.
3) Teacher’s responsibility - the responsibility a teacher bears for the success or failure of an ADHD student depends on their relationship to the student, their mission, and the subject matter. The standard I hold for myself as an educator is that it is my job to give each student a working knowledge of my subject and the tools with which to apply that knowledge. My responsibility is not fulfilled until my opportunities to teach are depleted. Ninety-nine percent of the time, my opportunities to teach are constrained by a student’s willingness to learn, so often I have little to do but lecture and grade. But I have had several ADHD students who want to learn, and I have yet to turn one away. I have the luxury of enough discretionary time to be able to, and certainly understand the limits many educators face. Opportunities to teach can be constrained by the other demands on the educator. But given the chances we have, given all other factors, I feel we have a mission to use every resource affordable to teach.
Specifically, I think educators have a responsibility to identify the goal and intent of the course they are teaching and to be flexible with ADHD students in fulfilling that goal. Due dates and grading scales and homework sets are arrangements and tools to make learning and teaching efficient and standard for the average student. They are not the mission, they are the structure. ADHD students need to be expected to have the same level of mastery as all the other students in a class, but teachers must work harder to assess that mastery than they often do. Tests are tools of evaluation and homework is a tool of instruction, and they are indispensable in many subjects, but learning is what matters. Too often, educators put structure over mission and fail to fulfill their responsibility. I understand that an educator that moves away from structure leaves himself or herself vulnerable to criticisms about their fairness and even-handedness when seen treating different people differently. To my mind, however, if you are going to call yourself a professional educator, you had better be a professional - a term which entails responsibility and standing up to criticism in pursuit of your mission.
College level educators must be cautious of going too far, however. One of the functions of college, reasonable or not, is to sort people as productive or un-productive; useful to their fields of study, profession, etc or unfit. An A in chemistry 101 should mean the same thing ADHD or not. Attention is a component of a person’s ability to contribute on the job, just as is intelligence. We would not see it as an injustice if a person with dangerously low mental ability is not whisked through medical school and given a licence to practice medicine even if that person had incredible powers of concentration and attention-control; we should be careful about considering it unjust when a bright person has trouble getting through school and ends up with a transcript that puts them at a disadvantage because they lack the ability to focus their attention. ADHD students must accept that they have to play the game by the rules. Their intelligence and insight, to say nothing of their simple desire, do not directly warrant them a good degree and a good job. In my view, educators are responsible to their discipline as much as they are to their students. Students who demand accommodations that lower the standards do a disservice to themselves, their institutions of higher learning, and to ADHD students who follow them. (Note, I say this as a person with ADHD and a horrible transcript.) I’ll add a bit of a description of my approach - again, feel free to skip it.
I teach college-level economics, and for me personally, I feel that I have a responsibility to impart the knowledge and perspectives of my subject to the full extent of my ability with each student. It is the mission I have adopted, but I respect the decisions of academics who take a different position. My ability to teach is almost entirely controlled by the student’s willingness to learn, so for the vast majority of my students, I have very little direct involvement other than lecturing and grading. The sections I teach often have over two hundred students, and the exams I give are multiple-choice computer scanned affairs. ADHD students often do terribly on them. It takes them longer in the semester to gather the details, and they can be behind from the start. The subject matter is challenging enough for the brightest student to take a while before grasping the concepts from the details covered in lecture. ADHD students miss many of the details so their grasp of concepts does not develop normally. Almost every time, however, ADHD students have a moment of epiphany where the concepts click, wholly-formed, in their minds, and their mastery often exceeds that of regular students. Nothing is worse, or more directly points to our failures as educators, as when a student who knows the material better than another leaves with a worse grade. To avoid that, I offer an optional, hard, essay-based conceptual final exam which can stand in place of all of the students prior grades in the course. I have had a literal dozen ADHD students in the past few years change their grade (an honest, proper grade mind you) from a D to an A through the roughest test I give all semester. I write an extra test, and grade a few dozen essays (few people take the exam, it is optional), but I feel like I have done my job and fulfilled my mission.
4) The ADHD college student bears the final responsibility for his or her learning. There is certainly no law that says anyone must go to college. ADHD makes a fine excuse for dropping out of college (or high school, for that matter). There is significant social pressure and expectations placed on bright young people to go to college, and so many of them feel like they do not have a choice. They do. The trouble is that it takes significant maturity to succeed in college for an ADHD student, but probably just as much maturity in many cases to decide not to go, successfully or otherwise. Bottom line, though, is that college is voluntary. No one makes you go, so you cannot impose the responsibility of your success or failure on someone else.
It is the responsibility of the ADHD students to maturely accept the situation they are in, understand that they are the ones who are different from the norm, accept why educational structures are the way they are and why accommodations must have limits. They must then decide for themselves if they are up to the challenge of college-level work. Society is imperfect and the educational system is flawed in a way that can let valuable people slip through the cracks. The system is not going to change, because it is the way it is for some very good reasons. Right or wrong, fair or not, it is our problem. There are things ADHD students can do to promote their own success. Find a college who has a reputation for accommodating people in your situation. Manage yourself and your educational experience at a very high level, any less will result in failure. Take advantage of your skills and opportunities, and find an area of study where passion can make up for what you lack in attention. Ask for any accommodation that is proper and maintains the academic integrity of your institution, but accept that your participation in higher education is your choice, not your right. If ADHD ultimately keeps you from fulfilling you dreams despite your best efforts, your complaint is with God, not the registrar.
5) I am of mixed feelings about the diagnosis. It is a powerful conceptual object for organizing understanding and motivating active means of overcoming the challenges of ADHD. It allows one to make sense of the bundle of tendencies and troubles that ADHD represents, putting a name to the monster, as it were. I believe in general, much more good can come after diagnosis than would be possible (or at least probable) without it.
On the other hand, it is far too often used as an excuse for the negative consequences of our fear, our shame, and our failures to make the best of what we have. One can only accomplish what they believe they are capable of, and people with challenges as intangible as those associated with ADHD find it easy to give themselves a pass once they receive a diagnosis. People with ADHD are capable of some very impressive feats given the proper setting. Those who find the diagnosis as an excuse more than a challenge sell themselves short. It is arguable, and perhaps a bit self-serving to say, but ADHD is a much a set of tools as it is a set of problems. I find the comparison of ADHD folks to hunters/gatherers and regular folks to agrarians rather compelling, though I wouldn’t stand on it as evolutionary truth. We have abilities that other people do not have, even though they are often ones least in demand in modern society. Those who use the occasion of a diagnosis for ADHD to objectify and confront their set of challenges and find settings where their traits are least costly (or even advantageous) are the true success stories of ADHD.
6) Yes, treatment methods make a difference. They make certain tasks possible where they are not possible without them. I only have experience with stimulant medication, but can tell you they have had a significant effect in my case. That experience amounts to a personal story, so I’ll give you permission to skip it and add it on the end. I hope this has been useful if it is not too late in getting to you, and best of luck in your work.
My first spell with Ritalin several years ago taught me more about my condition and abilities than any reading I have done. I found college incredibly easy relative to my prior experience (to be fair, though, I was going to a really low-rent community college at the time). What I learned was that attention can be manipulated. I had never suspected that my attention was something I could conceivably have any control over. On Ritalin, I "found the handlebars" on my attention so to speak. I found that in the part of the day where Ritalin was wearing off (I took pills that lasted roughly four hours once a day), I could either voluntarily pay attention, or not. I could bring my attention to bear on subjects if needed, or let my mind wander in a typical ADHD way. I was able to tell when my attention was fading, what drew it away, and what conditions promoted focus. Eventually, I was able to do almost as well managing my attention when I was off Ritalin as when I was in the "fade-out" period. Ultimately, I was able to do the work I had in front of me without any Ritalin in me, sometimes poorly compared to Ritalin-fueled work, but good enough to get through college.
The motivation to get off Ritalin came from the side effects (and the main effect) of the drug. In terms of side effects, it made me very grumpy in the evenings. There is something about stimulants which charge up your neurotransmitters while your on them, that leave you depleted of the neurotransmitters when the drugs wear off. It made me really unpleasant to be around. Also, there was a problem of too much focus. I went from being seemingly unable to maintain focus on boring work to being unable to discriminate between the boring and the interesting. I got worried about my penmanship (not unreasonably, but quite uncharacteristically). I would go to grocery stores and read labels. It would take me many hours to get through a hardware store, as I had to see and study everything there. I would watch golf on tv. I also lost some of the mental abilities that are correlated with ADHD. I lost the ability to see concepts. I could drink in details like water, but lost the ability to abstract from them. I could tell you historical dates, but have no way of judging the relevance of what happened on them. It was too much.
Reflecting back, I am not sure I would have been capable of the same progress had I tried Ritalin as a teenager; it took all the maturity I could muster get what I did out of the experience. It takes discipline to abstract from yourself enough to notice and control your attention while avoiding a kind of mental paralysis. I was really immature for a long time - I don’t think I would have been up to it. I'm not providing this as a "yay for me" moment (intentionally, anyway), I just wanted to suggest a bit about the dimension of the problem and what ADHD college students are up against.
Anyway, it seems the new stimulant had the same effect as the old - can't tell what is worth saying from what should be left out. Again, best of luck, and email if I can be of any help. I'd be interested to hear your results.
Don House