I was diagnosed a year in a half a ago with ADD. I was 22 years old. I am now 24. I never had it easy in elementary school or high school I new I had a problem but I was put with more of a disability. I was known to be one of the people that belong in a category. They just said I had a learning disability. I was never given much of a chance. I was to learn at the same level as the other students even though I new I was way much smarter then that. But that wasn’t teachers case for the teachers they were their to teach not to teach each person differently. So I always said I wanted to be in regular classes and I got to be in a couple junior high school and by the time I was in high school my senior year I was put in all regular classes but I didn’t get to take my test in class I always had to leave the room and take it with my special Ed teacher I never even got to cchallengemy knowledge I got to use the book so I never studied.
None of my friends knew that I was in special Ed, and I had a lot of friends, I dated my boyfriend for two years in high school and he never knew, we don’t date anymore but he still doesn’t know I just told my friend last year what happened to me she never would have guess because I seem so normal. She asked me why they put me with people with disabilities like that I din’t even compare to them, Im not saying theirs anything wrong with people in those classes Im just saying I know I didn’t belong their. The part where the school messed up my life is that when I finally got into college I didn’t know nothing because the high schools that I went to didn’t teach me that. I never knew how to do math. The only thing I knew was how to add subtract and count by 2,5,10 thats it. I took foundations of math in college and that was the hardest thing I have ever done I never leaned that in high school, where most kids learn that in the fourth grade.
Now I know I could have learned that if they would have taught me I now have taken in college “foundations of math, Intermediate Algerbra, Basic Algerbra, and I am in College Algerbra right now so those teachers can kiss my rear I shlould have been given the chance, but I wasn’t given that. They never tested me to see if I had ADD they just assumed that I belonged their I never got the chance I missed out on a lot of things and I blame the schools here in Grand Forks, ND. Like I said now I am 24 in college, I may have some difficultys but I will never let anyone ever again tell me I can’t do that. Who cares what everyone thinks I have my own mind I won’t let teachers or anybody say I should not do that because I might fail, so what at least I tried. I am going to finish college just to prove that I am smart and I didn’t need to be in special Ed. I am somebody not a knowbody. I will graduate spring of 2002.