Thank you for your insights. My husband, Dale Hammerschmidt, was one of the members of your early internet CompuServe community that discussed and promoted the ideas that became the neurodiversity movement. Our two children grew up in an accepting environment thanks to the ideas that came out of those discussions. My bookshelf attests to that influence.
I too, saw this in the late 90's, teaching third grade when all the deficit labels were being flung about: ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, Asperger's syndrome, and autism, stuck on kids seen as "troubled learners." And, what a price these individuals paid then and since, this negative singling out destroying any positive sense of self.
Coming across your descriptions as hunters and farmers at that time, definitely fit into the reality I saw in the ADHD kids, so thank you, Thom. I too saw their necessity to think and act outside the box, having the energy to do that, and needing a physical outlet of that energy to be able be in a classroom. One of my very smart and kind students, whose high energy tendencies had created stress for prior teachers, and thus himself and family, needed to stand up behind his chair during heightened times requiring listen and absorbing. This enabled him to focus his attention on the lesson at hand, his energy given an outlet.
ADHD has these ear marks of purposeful differences, of which Thom speaks, these gifted, necessary differences within our society. Additionally, I found all on the "autism spectrum" to have
the needed differences to see life in a connective way, with others and nature, they seeing deeper and larger paradigms and patterns in life, perceiving aspects of reality that fit life like pieces in a beautiful puzzle.
Since Descartes (I think, therefore I am) and Bacon, in the mid-1800's, the west and much of the world have been on a linear fishing line, pulled out of our broader connective view of life, into seeing only what linear thought sees of it. Thought, now Intensely heightened by tech, uses numbers and letters, delineating differences, very helpful for shaping some good ideas, but focused on primarily, unable to put the full puzzle of life together; that calling for our intuition, gut inspirations, and deeper knowings of what joins us together.
The structures created by our linear thinking, are now more rigid than ever as they divide us and are about to collapse. It's time to embrace our modes of connective perception, that of deep heart and right brain functioning, for our over-focus on the differentiating left brain, leaves us Deficit of our inner knowings, our receptive, connective abilities of intuitions, hands-on activities, our individual passions, and more, all this the balanced use of what we were given: two brain hemispheres, along with the heart's knowledge, to create: a humane and beautiful world.
A re-definition of ADD, applying to all on the autism spectrum is "Attention Differently Directed."
Thank you for your insights. My husband, Dale Hammerschmidt, was one of the members of your early internet CompuServe community that discussed and promoted the ideas that became the neurodiversity movement. Our two children grew up in an accepting environment thanks to the ideas that came out of those discussions. My bookshelf attests to that influence.
I too, saw this in the late 90's, teaching third grade when all the deficit labels were being flung about: ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, Asperger's syndrome, and autism, stuck on kids seen as "troubled learners." And, what a price these individuals paid then and since, this negative singling out destroying any positive sense of self.
Coming across your descriptions as hunters and farmers at that time, definitely fit into the reality I saw in the ADHD kids, so thank you, Thom. I too saw their necessity to think and act outside the box, having the energy to do that, and needing a physical outlet of that energy to be able be in a classroom. One of my very smart and kind students, whose high energy tendencies had created stress for prior teachers, and thus himself and family, needed to stand up behind his chair during heightened times requiring listen and absorbing. This enabled him to focus his attention on the lesson at hand, his energy given an outlet.
ADHD has these ear marks of purposeful differences, of which Thom speaks, these gifted, necessary differences within our society. Additionally, I found all on the "autism spectrum" to have
the needed differences to see life in a connective way, with others and nature, they seeing deeper and larger paradigms and patterns in life, perceiving aspects of reality that fit life like pieces in a beautiful puzzle.
Since Descartes (I think, therefore I am) and Bacon, in the mid-1800's, the west and much of the world have been on a linear fishing line, pulled out of our broader connective view of life, into seeing only what linear thought sees of it. Thought, now Intensely heightened by tech, uses numbers and letters, delineating differences, very helpful for shaping some good ideas, but focused on primarily, unable to put the full puzzle of life together; that calling for our intuition, gut inspirations, and deeper knowings of what joins us together.
The structures created by our linear thinking, are now more rigid than ever as they divide us and are about to collapse. It's time to embrace our modes of connective perception, that of deep heart and right brain functioning, for our over-focus on the differentiating left brain, leaves us Deficit of our inner knowings, our receptive, connective abilities of intuitions, hands-on activities, our individual passions, and more, all this the balanced use of what we were given: two brain hemispheres, along with the heart's knowledge, to create: a humane and beautiful world.
A re-definition of ADD, applying to all on the autism spectrum is "Attention Differently Directed."
My website: HeartCenteredMinds.com, papers written from my realizations, from the late 90's and since.