I’m having trouble to varying degrees with 3 students, 1 of whom has a ADD/ADHD diagnosis, and 2 who don’t but quite possibly would qualify. The problem is that all three are struggling, but don’t seem willing to do the work necessary to be successful in college.
It bugs me that I think this because I know that with ADD this isn’t really the case…
My diagnosed student had a major meltdown around the time of the first exam, so I cut hu some slack and let hu retake it a few days after the class. Hu did better, but still barely passed. Now hu thinks that they can call me by my first name (‘Addled’ versus ‘Dr. Academic’), and has requested additional accommodations above and beyond hu’s official letter from the office for students with disabilities. I’m ok with obliging, provided the student does better and passes my course without my having to entirely gut my standards.
The two students who aren’t diagnosed have all the symptoms (“I can’t listen to you in class and take notes simultaneously!” and “I can’t read the book without falling asleep!”) but are very resistant to even considering an evaluation (Certainly I don’t push the issue, nor mention why their statements raise red flags for me personally…). They just want accommodations without a diagnosis or documentation. The “book sleepy” student showed up in my office the day a paper was due and I had to walk hu through it section by section before hu saw that hu had missed a major portion of the paper entirely. The “distracted note taker” spent a large chunk of time tonight telling me all about hu’s upbringing in gristly details (TMI to the extreme). Both have significant testing anxiety issues, and both are struggling in the course.
I just don’t get it…. from my perspective as a good student, if there was something out there that could help me do better, I’d want to learn about it and consider it. These students are clearly concerned about their performance, but just don’t seem open to taking the initiative and responsibility for their own learning.
But they’re really not unique in this respect. Nearly all of my students are whiny, lazy and irresponsible.
Maybe this feeds in to why so many “neurotypical normals” view ADD as an excuse for laziness… they’re really all lazy, but the fact that some people have a medical label for it somehow “confirms” that it’s somehow more true of some people than of others.
A paper was due in one of my classes today, and 1/3 of the class failed to turn it. One of my students turned it in despite being ragingly drunk. Interestingly my “add likely” students both turned theirs in on time. I am dreading listening to all the whiny excuses the remaining third will try to spin tomrrow…
