Labeled

Full of life and fun, horsing around at a family gathering.

She's fun-loving and outgoing.  She is one of those girls that is full of life.  She is beautiful and full of dreams.  Unfortunately for this girl, those dreams are often daydreams.  Diagnosed in the third grade with ADD, it has been an uphill battle for her to perform well in school.  Even today, it was suggested by a "professional" that maybe the answer was medication.

Luckily, my husband doesn't agree.  This girl should not be medicated because she doesn't learn the way other children learn.  She has never been considered to have the "H" part, Hyper, of ADHD.  Instead, it's just plain ole Attention Deficit Disorder.  Throw in a Reading Comprehension disorder, and we have a child that has been labeled and made to feel that she isn't intelligent.

It saddens me.  Recently my nephew was labeled ADHD.  He was medicated.  For him, it has helped in the short term.  He went from receiving Ds and Fs in school to As and Bs in an advanced class.  And yet, He was just as smart before he was medicated.  I wonder, if he had a different learning environment, if the medication would have been unnecessary. 

I look at that beautiful young teen in the picture above, laughing at her silliness, and I think that there has to be a better way.  I have read the books, researched the suspected causes, and I honestly think we are making some grave mistakes with our youngsters.  We force them into classes where everyone is expected to learn the same thing at the same age in the same way.  In any other area of life, expecting that kind of conformity of American citizens would be called a violation of our rights as individuals.  Sadly, when children learn differently than how they are expected, or when things take a little longer to sink in, or when a child is bored with the lesson and gets antsy, we label them with a variety of disorders. 

For a country that prides itself on individuality, this seems like a large contradiction. 

I am thankful for my right to homeschool.  I hope that I can give my children and wonderful education, a solid grounding in Christ, and the ability to learn they way they learn best.  I realize that they need to be challenged and learn how to work hard.  Not everything may come easily.  However, I see some children that are stressed to the point of breaking because they are struggling... and no one reaches out to help them.  They are, instead, made to feel less than others that may have better test taking ability or a stronger short-term memory.

I want this child to feel that she has potential and possibilities.  I want her to feel that she can accomplish what God has for her in life, without anything to hold her back.  I want her to know that she is intelligent.  I want her to feel that she can learn.  I want her to not look at learning as something to dread, but something to be excited about.  I want more for her than her teachers.  I want more for her than she even wants for herself right now. 

I am praying I am allowed to give it to her.