[PLUG-TALK] Kids and risks

[Keith Lofstrom]

> > On Sun, 4 Dec 2011, Richard Powell wrote:
> >> Either way. The task of raising a child that is hyperactive, and with a
> >> short attention span is crazy difficult. He is a distraction to the other
> >> kids in his class that really want to listen/learn, and it is heart
> >> breaking to go through.

He may be "too old to read to", but I sometimes read to my 60+ wife,
because she likes it.  So perhaps you can read to him, and keep it
your little secret.  Two books by former ADHD kids:  "My Genome,
My Life" by Craig Venter (whose team invented the methods and
sequenced most of the human genome) and "Copy This" by Paul
Orfalea, founder of Kinkos.  Orfalea still has others read to him,
and needs others to help him write.  That did not stop him from
building a multibillion dollar company - and he claims it was
essential to his success.

You should be aware of the local Thomas Edison High School, a
separate private school embedded in Jesuit High School out here
in Beaverton.  For a while, we were considering having an ADHD
nephew from Maryland (where I am today) live at our house while
he went there.  The young fellow found his way without that,
and is now majoring in environmental science at U.Md.  I could
ask him to send an email to your son (after he finishes finals).

Read a little anthropology, and learn just how weird and unnatural
teacher/classroom learning is.  Perhaps your son is too big to fit
into a model that small.  While it takes a village to raise an idiot,
sometimes you need just a few friends to raise a future world-changer. 

I can imagine it is very painful to give birth to a giant.  Until
you have evidence otherwise (still failing at 50, perhaps), assume
this is what you and your wife are doing.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs