ADHD Coaching: A New Exciting Frontier!

A few months ago I was meeting with a 12th grade student of mine about some work he had missed. I had sat in my chair (and his) many times before and knew the essence of what to say: What happened? Did you have any ideas? Have you had this issue before? Oh, you’re ADHD?

I myself am ADHD and have worked for years to develop the strategies and habits necessary for completing long term multi-faceted work and so I shared some of these strategies, as I had many times with many students before, with this young person.

His face lit up.

(I would later learn that this phenomenon is known as Recognition Responsive Euphoria.)

We had maybe three 15 minute meetings over the course of a few weeks during my several month long part time position, but in that time I witnessed a marked change in this young person. He did too, and remarked as such in his parting words to me (and he did end up writing a pretty killer graduation speech). I began thinking:

Why don’t I just do this? And: Haven’t I been doing this for a long time?

And so: I write now to announce my entry into the field of ADHD and Executive Function Coaching. A nuanced and intensive practice, Coaching involves working closely, often one on one, with individuals looking to further refine, improve, and understand their habits and their behaviors. It is a forward looking, proactive process that attempts to provide the structure and motivation needed for individuals to rediscover and own their own agency, something I have found myself doing in the classroom for years. It’s the kind of work that I wish I had looking back on my own time and struggles as a student and as a young adult (and to be completely honest an unqualified adult as well).

Interested? Check out my Coaching page and book an info session or a pre-screening today using https://calendly.com/adamcoaching !

Watch this space for lots of cool (I think it’s cool!) news and ideas about ADHD, Executive Function, and how we can all make our lives better through partnership!

The Curriculum of Methodology

As far as I can observe, the buzzwords in education right now are ‘Alignment’, ‘Outcomes’, and ‘Curriculum’. Everybody wants to make sure that you have a solid Curriculum, that it has clear Outcomes, and that your classroom instruction is Aligned with those Outcomes for that Curriculum. So, what exactly does all of that mean? Well, the irony is that as far as I can observe this all boils down to the fundamental question of, “Are schools actually doing what we think they’re supposed to be doing?” And it’s a fair question! A lot of money and time goes into these institutions that are presumably safeguarding the future generations of humanity, it makes sense to care about whether or not they’re actually doing what they’re supposed to be doing! The irony of asking this question, especially right now, is that it’s the same exact question we’ve been asking about mainstream education since the creation of mainstream education. Does the school have a plan, does it know what that plan looks like, and is it doing that plan. Is it not a little bit interesting that we’re still obsessing over this question? Isn’t it a little interesting that we’re dedicating a huge amount of time and effort to cleverly rephrasing this question and armoring it with the language of modernity? Does the fact that we’re still asking this question not suggest that maybe the question is a little bit misguided?

OK, that’s a hot take. Or at least it deserves some unpacking. I would argue that we’re in the middle of a not-so-much reactionary time in education as a tradition and fundamentals time in education. We were leaning this was ever since No Child Left Behind and with the COVID crisis we’ve fully fallen into it: the way to move schools forwards is to make sure they’re doing more of what they already do. Really, think about it for a second, Alignment Outcomes and Curriculum isn’t exactly a bold new take on how education should work. To me, another layer of ultimate irony is that the assumption behind needing more Alignment Outcomes and Curriculum is that we at any point didn’t have these things or didn’t have enough of them when any amount of time sifting through ANY federal, state, or prestige private curriculum will show IMMEDIATELY that these ideas and tenets haven’t receded a single inch since… well since ever, really!

Take math education in AP Courses (the vanguard of modern excellence in traditional education) for example. In modern AP Math courses you’re going to sit for lectures, complete pre-planned exercises on pre-planned worksheets on pre-planned problems, you’re going to take quizzes and tests and you’re going to get a grade at the end that symbolizes you being able to do math. 300 years ago in the old Prussian system, guess what, you’re going to sit for lectures, complete pre-planned exercises on pre-planned worksheets on pre-planned problems, you’re going to take quizzes and tests and you’re going to get a grade at the end that symbolizes you being able to do math. A reductive example? Yes, undoubtedly. A representative example of what I’m getting at here? Yes, I think so!

I stated earlier will argue here that the whole obsession with creating a curriculum, creating outcomes, and aligning those outcomes is misguided. I don’t think it’s bad, necessarily, don’t get me wrong, there are tonnes of amazing educators out there doing great work in these fields, I do think that in the face of how information, society, and modern economies work it just isn’t enough. Think about it this way, what’s the most dreaded question you can get in the classroom? I can all but guarantee we’ve all heard it and I’d wager significantly that the vast majority of us have actually asked it, in good faith, as well.

“Why do we need to learn this?”

It’s a staple of modern American education. Usually found in its natural habitat of math classrooms although it has been sighted in the humanities as well. It’s a big question! It strikes at the core of everything we do in the classroom and in school in general! And, really, it’s the same question that I’ve asked of Alignment Outcomes and Curriculum! Why do we need to learn this? Do we need to learn this? Do we need to learn? Well, yes, that last one is a big yes, but the how and the what are still open for questioning.

Curriculum design, any choices made whatsoever about what you intend on teaching young people, is a gamble. It always has been. It’s been a safer gamble in the past, teaching Prussian schoolboys Geometry and German Literature is a pretty safe bet for building a better military. In modernity, the stakes have never been higher and the odds never more unsure. Think about your high school experience. Was what you learned there useful? Was it immediately useful or did you have to work at it? Did you have to work at justifying for yourself just now whether or not is was useful? Was what you learned actually part of your curriculum and course work or was it a byproduct of your circumstances? Now think about young people today. Do we really think we’re able to accurately able to predict what will be useful for them in four years? In eight? In their lifetimes? Don’t take this for defeatism, the answer is actually a resounding yes! It’s just a different ‘yes’ than the one espoused by Alignment Outcomes and Curriculum.

I don’t think we can accurately and appropriately predict and bet on content outcomes at all, I just don’t. I don’t think that it’s reasonable to expect a young person to drill and memorize, or even holistically explore, any set and rigid discipline based content pool. We don’t know what next month is going to look like and require of us, can we really look years into the future and say, “Students will need to be able to complete multiplication tables and have read three Shakespeare plays”? (I actually really like using Shakespeare in the classroom, but it takes some work and it isn’t for everyone) If the ultimate intention of our education system is to prepare individuals for gainful participation in a Democratic society, we need to let go of our traditional ideas of Alignment Outcomes and Curriculum. Now that I’ve written that, I actually think that we need to let go of all of it except for one: Students need to be able to gainfully participate in Democratic Society. There’s your outcome. What is entailed in that? Well, a lot. You need some knowledge of history but really you need to be able to understand History as an idea and as an act. You need to know what the Constitution says but you really need to be able to interpret and decipher how your representatives act in your behest and what you can do if they don’t. You need a lot, and a lot more that we aren’t going to know until it happens, so really, really what you need is to be able to figure out what you need and how to go get it.

Modern education design is focused magnitudes more on the what than on the how or the why of learning. You need all three, don’t get me wrong, but a Curriculum of Methodology places the emphasis on why first, how in a close second, and trusts that my doing to the what not only will follow naturally but will do so with more authenticity and immediacy than any executive school planning committee could ever create. A Curriculum of Methodology starts with teachers, students, and communities and asks them what they need and what they want. It starts with relationships and values and never let’s them out of its sight. A Curriculum of Methodology by nature and necessity changes with every year, every event, every new student that joins. It grows, evolves, and adapts to what is happening RIGHT NOW and tries to understand why it’s happening, what we want to do about it, and how we can go out and do it.

The Curriculum of Methodology has the courage of conscience to admit that it doesn’t what what you’re going to need to know, or what you’re going to need to know how to do. It’s willing to make a few bets here and there (media literacy, web interface and design, organization communication and other executive function skills) but it’s relying on you to identify and fill in the gaps. The Curriculum of Methodology by nature belongs to its students and its teachers and acknowledges that those roles are useful as far as they are useful and that its hierarchies and power relationships can never be preserved for the sake of their own preservation lest it lose sight of its ultimate goal: gainful participation in a Democratic society.

I’ll be writing more on how this could work and how I’ve seen it attempted in my experiences, for now walk away thinking about the following: In what kind of society do we want to live? In what kind of society do we want our children to live? In what kind of society do our children want to live? And ultimately, what is more important: that our schools have answers to these questions, or that they start by asking them?

Philosophy in the Classroom: Education in the Face of Political Insurrection

For those of you reading in the future, check the date published and any news outlet from that day. The events of January 6, 2021 are the exact kind of events that demand exploration in the classroom. In September of 2001 I sat in my classes (I was in high school) as my teachers told us that what had happened was scary and important but anyways let’s get back to what we were working on before. We cannot repeat this same old line of curriculum and political ‘neutrality’ in education. Learning Moments and Teachable Moments must be gleaned from the protest, then riot, then political insurrection that took place in Washington DC just yesterday from the writing of this work. Even if those Learning and Teachable Moments call attention to the misdirection or total lack of direction in our modern schools.

How would we approach this? I think a simple ‘what happened?’ is the way to begin, there you will find an infinite selection of lessons on primary sources, journalism, social media and news, current events, and historical context. Maybe we can’t go farther than that, maybe the inevitable disagreements and arguments that arise out of simply attempting to agree on a contingent timeline of events is the primary lesson for the day or week or however long it takes to unpack. Yes, however long it takes for this one. Am I suggesting the total suspension of current classroom work in favor of exploring and reconciling what’s happening in the world today? Well, yes, I absolutely am, and even more forcefully than I usually do in these little essays.

The ultimate goal of teaching and using philosophy in the classroom is to cultivate a young person’s ability to observe, evaluate, and interact with their reality and circumstances. This usually falls under the buzzword umbrella term of ‘critical thinking’ and is portioned, assigned learning outcomes, slapped into a formal summative assessment until it is a mere simulacra of intention and purpose. I will argue once again that the failure to authentically and wholly teach and use philosophy in the classroom is a major contributing factor behind the dissolution young people find in their education (and maybe depending on how the next few days go that it’s also a major contributing factor in the events of January 6 happening in the first place). How are young people supposed to go to school and learn math facts or talk about The Great Gatsby today? Why would young people feel excited to struggle through the brutality of the college admissions gauntlet when what waits for them on the other side is at best unknown and uncertain. We owe it to our young people as individuals and as the vanguard of future generations to address what is happening in their world right now in the classroom, regardless of how uncomfortable it may be, regardless of how off track it takes us, in fact because of how uncomfortable it may be and because of how far off track it takes us.

I’ll give you one more for free (I’ll give you as many as you want for free, email me and we’ll talk!): ask your students to write the definitions of some words like politics, rebellion, insurrection, duty, justice, you get the idea. See how many different definitions you get (no dictionaries allowed!) and see how long it takes to reconcile the differences and to generate definitions on which everyone agrees. Just a simple semantic lesson, no more. Then have your students argue how what happened yesterday fits into those definitions and how they fit into it. I guarantee this discussion will generate enough material to keep your students working, thinking, and creating for the rest of the school year if you let it. And I guarantee that it will be more engaging, more valuable, and more authentic than anything currently going on in the classroom. And I guarantee that we need it, you need it, I need it, our young people especially need it, and without this lesson taken to its furthest extent we will only continue to suffer down our current path.

"Events Are the True Schoolmasters"

Dyer D. Lum is quoted as having said, on many occasions, “Events are the true schoolmasters.” I can remember in my high school every once in a while a class would touch on what was happening in the world, or even our backyard, as a basis for lesson or as a discussion point. Mostly we learned what had happened, sometimes how it had happened, and rarely if ever why it had happened. Certainly what was currently happening was never visited with this level of exploration, and while my class didn’t suffer from the kind of anti-politicization that we see in today’s schools, discussing current events rarely stretched further than, “Did you see?”

To be fair, I did have to take a test every quarter in my Russian language class on the current events through out the quarter of the Russian Federation and EVERY former Soviet Republic. At one point I far and away led the class in scores with a whopping 62%…

What did Lum mean by this undeniably great-at-parties quip? I’ve always interpreted his enigma as follows: what we teach / discuss / cover in the classroom needs to chase and pursue what is happening in the world FIRST and foremost. This is sort of the ultimate expression of Carts and Horses. You’re expected to work hard in school to work hard in college to work hard in a job and it’s just assumed that at some point, whenever, maybe after all that, you figure out what you care about in life and why. You’re expected to focus on your studies, on the High Culture High Pedagogy given to you, racing through millennia of knowledge and at some point, whenever, maybe after all that focus on what’s actually happening around you in the world. Why? Why not start now?

The oft-cited saying, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it,” is usually rolled out at this point, to which I have a few points. One, can we really claim that we haven’t just repeated history for pretty much all of history, including the times after which history curricula were invented? Two, I would argue that looking at what’s happening today and pushing yourself and your students to truly understand those Big Three questions (what’s happening, how is it happening, why is it happening) necessitates a deeper and more meticulous study of History than I’ve ever encountered in a predetermined curriculum.

Fortunately, one need only check out Twitter or TikTok (assuming it’s still active in the US at the time of this posting…) to see that kids are pretty engaged in what’s happening in their world already. Check out my post / series on Anti-Nihilist Teaching for more on that… Why not make it the focus of our work as educators? To say nothing of the prevalence of misinformation and aggressive bias masquerading as Facts and Statistics, students deserve and NEED to know what’s happening around them and how they’re a part of it. Someone has to help sorting out the collective mess of History, why not start with the kids in your classroom?

Education in the Time of COVID-19

How many other ‘“BLANK” in the Time of Cholera’ articles have been written? How many of us have read ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’? Should we be re-reading ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’? Maybe ‘The Plague’?

Over the past few months every crack in our education system and ideology seems to have been exposed. The rush to create a facsimile of the classroom in digital space has resulted in simulacra at best and exactly the kind of rigid, prison-like space that is stereotyped and lampooned in school themed media. The discussion I hear over and over again is about ‘learning loss’, how to mitigate the amount of Knowledge that won’t be covered in this time and then that will be lost over the summer months, and then that may be even compounded by another round of digital learning in the Fall. Let’s think about that concern for a second.

Is learning really so immediately dependent on physical location? Are the walls of our school buildings imbued with some sort of magic that creates learning within and cannot influence without? Learning in the modern era is often ubiquitous and dependent on student interest and availability of information. Often there isn’t enough of the former and too much of the latter. Education in digital space must adapt to the challenges and opportunities presented by these unique and difficult circumstances. Realistically, education needs to be constantly adapting to new technologies, new thoughts, new ideas, and new circumstances. Value is left on the table every time phones or computers are banned from a classroom, now it’s impossible to ban phones and computers from our “classrooms”, so why not lean into it!

A century ago, Spanish Flu halted all formal education and disrupted common society drastically. Individuals did not possess the tools to maintain the kind of connection and interaction that we do today. Education now, in the time of COVID, is as always an opportunity. It’s a different opportunity, that’s for sure, but opportunity nonetheless. If you teach math, now’s the time to explore statistical analysis. If you teach science, now’s the time to follow real time lab experiments and see science move and act. History, the modern reaction to crisis and the historical reaction, art, music, all of the “disciplines” have never been more immediate (if you want them to be). And if you don’t teach a discipline, listen to your students and let them learn what they want to learn. We have to help each other the best we can right now, education and learning must meet the challenges and needs of young people in crisis in ‘normal’ circumstances, and now more than ever.

Philosophy in the Classroom: The Necessity of Anti-Nihilism Education

I’ve long been an advocate of teaching philosophy in the classroom. In fact this may well become an entire series of blog posts / small essays about the idea. I think it isn’t just a fun class (that should be a universal graduation requirement), it’s a critical tool and idea that needs to be integrated into every class we teach, be it a hard content course or a fluid project based class. In the 21st century, this isn’t merely to enhance our critical thinking and knowledge of the past, it’s to help young people that human life has worth.

Think for a moment about the young people with whom you work. Think about the issues facing them: about climate change, global conflict, the current COVID-19 crisis, their increasing feeling of a lack of representation in politics and the world. Think about the fact that the average adolescent can learn about and view first hand evidence of the current genocide in Myanmar the exact same way they share funny memes with their friends. What is a young person supposed to do with this information? This constant assault of the worst humanity has to offer? The noise and chatter of panic and despair? Is it any surprise that adolescents are having a hard time taking a stake in their education when they feel like there isn’t any meaning or worth there and that there may not be any meaning or worth at all in the world?

I encounter this sentiment every day in the classroom and out. I encounter young people grappling with the most powerful of existential urges and forces, drinking deeply of the cup of nihilism, and responding with their desperate attempts at absurdism all without any of the language necessary to really understand and process these issue. On several occasions students have remarked something like, “This lesson is giving me an existential crisis,” and upon questioning have been completely unable to describe what an existential crisis is. This is not a problem here of introducing students to an idea and weighing the pros and cons, this is a real crisis happening right now, being fought in digital space and played out in reality by the most vulnerable and impressionable minds in our society.

So let’s just knock out the big questions real quick: Does life have inherent meaning? No, I don’t think so. Does that mean that life has no meaning? No, not in the slightest bit. Does this mean that the Meaning that we create and share with others is that much more important? Yes, absolutely. We cannot hope to hold our education system, in the classroom and at the policy level, to any sort of modern progressive standard before we address this very simple truth: Out students have no hope in the world and no means to articulate their despair. Their only tools are memes and pop-culture references (incidentally, and potentially to be discussed in a further post, these are their best tools for combating this crisis). Adolescents in the 21st century need Meaning first, they need to be reminded that they are the agents of creating their own Meaning, and they need to be empowered to pursue this to the fullest in every class in every subject.

Do not avert your eyes from the abyss, gaze deeply, our youngest do so every day. Remind them that they are not alone, and that no amount of the abyss gazing back can ever change that.

The Student Led Classroom

The other day a student in my morning class gave a presentation on the history of society and the effects technology have had on social groups and civilizations. The assignment I had given the class was essentially just that, “Prepare a presentation on the topic you have chosen relating to society and technology.” One student dove into technology, one into the more scientific aspect of humans and how we behave, this student chose to explore society as an idea.

At one point in their presentation they brought up an example from an anime that they loved. They giggled, as the rest of the class did, at bringing up something seemingly completely unrelated to class and, I think to a lot of people, to school as a whole. This one example then led to a 30 minute discussion on cryptocurrency, the relationship between society and economy, major differences in how humans interact with currency across different time periods, and the major processes that are effected by technology. They even independently ( I promise I didn’t coach them) brought up passages from Marshall McLuhan’s ‘The Medium if the Massage’.

Four students, two of whom has barely known each other before this term, exploring highly advanced media theory and its real world application all because one of those students felt comfortable enough to include an example of something they cared about. It was a better lesson than I could have planned, and it was an organic moment, powerful and empowering. This is the kind of work that students remember, that sticks, that proves true the maxim, “Every moment is a teachable moment.” It’s the kind of work that builds agency, confidence, and the ability to make connections and then act on those connections. Trust your instincts and teach students to trust theirs as well, and above all else remember that Lupin III is a great way to teach technology’s effect on societies.

PBL IN KZ

I had the amazing honor of teaching a seminar on Project Based Learning development and methodology for a group of teachers in Kazakhstan through the organization Teach & Share KZ (Instagram, YouTube). I had an amazing time with this group of incredible teachers. Check out some highlights here and let me know what you think!

WE SHOULD ALL BE ARSONISTS

We’ve all seen the inspirational quotes likening teachers to gardeners or shepherds or other semi-passive soft power authority figures. Watch children grow, ensure they fit into the plot or pen to which they’re assigned, nice and safe controlled development. But knowledge has shown itself to be not water nor food, but fire. Think: what has been more satisfying, the moment a student of yours completes the pre-set guided assignments or the moment you can see the recognition wash over a young person as they realize that the way they think has changed?

You have to remember those moments from your youth when you felt invincible, like a broad untraveled path lay ahead of you and called you to explore and discover. I can remember the first time reading ‘Equus’ by Peter Shaffer and as Martin Dysart struggles with the forces of passion and safety in opposition, I felt  like a hand had stretched out across time and grasped mine (to steal a phrase and idea from ‘The History Boys’ by Alan Bennett). I wanted to do more, I wanted to learn and create, and this moment was exhilarating. I’ve seen that same look in the eyes of my students (often in my Philosophy course, Plato has that effect on young minds when approached right). What are you supposed to do when students tell you they want to do the assigned work because they want to know more and do more? What are you supposed to do when a 15 minute warm-up activity you planned turns into a several-week-long project at student request? At a certain point you have to acknowledge that the success you find, the real true teaching and educating that we all got into this field to create, is not due to the seeds you plant or the fences you post, but instead the fires that you start and coax.

Really it’s just about finding some existing kindling and giving it a spark. Once you hit that mark, you enjoy the warmth and ensure the fire is sustained and fed. Young people want to learn, they want to grow and create, and they desperately want to feel like they belong and that they have purpose, or better yet to feel like the belonging and purpose they can feel inside of themselves is recognized and legitimized no matter its shape or color. We can work so hard in schools to stifle and hold back a young person’s natural drive and inertia, to laden their kindling with the damp leaves of “supposed tos” and “by Junior year you should haves” (I think we’re reaching the natural end point of this extended metaphor, don’t worry), when really our efforts should be focused on directing the existing efforts of our students and broadening their horizons beyond what they thought was possible.

Think of the number of students you’ve met who, when asked what their passions are or what they want to do with their lives, answer with, “I don’t know,” or, “Nothing.” Are we really satisfied with this? Do we really think that assuming these young people will just eventually figure out what their lives mean, maybe somewhere in the middle of a Graduate program they chose to attend because they couldn’t find anything else to do, is sustainable, worth it, or even functional in the first place? I think you can probably assume my answer to that semi-rhetorical question at this point: Light some fires.