Historical Autobiographical Documents - Report Cards from School

For years I wouldn't look at my report cards from early school and high school. They sat stacked, and gathering dust in an old box in the basement. When I fished some of them out prior to my first Adult ADHD Assessment session a couple of weeks ago to provide some third-party verification of academic performance, I was saddened yet forgiving of this fellow's report cards (that poor fellow being me).

They clearly indicate attentional and behavioural inconsistency problems throughout my early years. Here are snippets of teachers' comments from my report cards:

Elementary School
(ages 6 through 10)

• "Though his project was late, it was most imaginative and thorough, in preparation."
• "We find him lacking in organizational skills, evidenced by some difficulty in sorting out relevant material in the more advanced logical thinking exercises."
• "He is a delightful effervescent boy who is above all else, polite."
• "He enthusiastically joins in group discussions and contributes to class charts. His enthusiasm overrules his composure at times causing him to speak out before being asked."
• "He has a broad range of knowledge and offers intelligent opinions, but he has a disturbing habit of interrupting other children to state these opinions."
  
• "He asks questions when curious or in doubt"
• "He is easily distracted."

High School
(ages 14 through 18) - some of these teachers' comments were cruel and generalized - not particularly constructive in my opinion:

• "He was disappointing this year."
• "I was disappointed by him."
• "Get your attitude sorted out and refrain from silly behaviour."
• "What a shame... never gave himself the chance to achieve."
• "Failed to accept sufficient responsibility."
• "Your poor mark was the result of inconsistent sometimes unmotivated work."

And the classic, somewhat defeated sounding comment:

• "You did not care about this course, nor did you put in any kind of effort."

But several read as follows:

• "88% - Excellent Work!"
• "It was a pleasure teaching him this semester! Great mark!"

Note: These were from classes that I really enjoyed and found fascinating, like Biology and History.

Have a look at these comments also:

Figure 1: Exam mark of 80%, overall mark of 46% - a result of inconsistent attention.



Figure 2: Inconsistency, erratic (read 'impulsive'), and intense intelligence - so it wasn't that I could get great marks based on intelligence alone.


Figure 3: Apparent social difficulties due to impulsive behaviours (non sequitors, interrupting behaviour) trumps my keen interest, and submission of work that surpasses that of my peers.

Well, it was hard to read these, but they all fit disturbingly well into a diagnosis of ADHD. And now that I have a 'narrative' in the form of the criteria and symptoms of ADHD, I can attribute some consistent meaning to these inconsistent and poor report cards. And because of this I feel much better about these reports cards - maybe I won't have to hide them away anymore. Maybe I can post them on a blog for the world to view!

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Cheers,

Mungo