Asa, one of Kevin's former students, interview's Kevin for a college research paper.

You say that you've suffered with ADD. What have been the biggest obstacles you needed to overcome?

First of all, let me go back to my school years. In grade school I was bored out of my mind. My mother was frequently alerted to "serious" issues in my academic performance. I had no interest, for example, in coloring in objects on worksheets in first grade, and thus just scribbled quick lines on each object to "complete"” the assignment. My mother was "called-in" on that one. All through grade school and middle school, I was essentially unable to keep track of papers, assignments and deadlines and, consequently, my grades suffered. I became, by contrast, adept at the art of deception and excelled at lying, copying homework, making excuses, and cheating on tests. For me, grade school was a great training ground to propel me into a career of espionage, international intrigue or con schemes. There was precious little to turn-on my mind. I was called a clock watcher and was accused over and over again of "not applying myself." So, my biggest obstacle was that no one told me how my mind worked best. So, instead of figuring out ways to use my mind to fulfill the requirements of school in a positive, honest manner, I used the lion's share of my mental capacity to resist and circumvent those requirements. My academic self-esteem was in the toilet and by the time I got to high school, I was sick of all the negative labels that the teacher's had thrust upon me. I went to a tough Catholic high school which was very structured and which had teachers that saw through all of my tricks. I shudder to think what might have happened if I had not gone to that high school.

What qualities did your teachers in high school have that helped to change you?

It's not accurate to describe what happened to me as change. What happened to me in ninth grade was nothing short of a miraculous transformation. I had a great ally: fear!

You see, those priests at that school were somewhat cantankerous, if not a bit violent and from the second day of school, I deduced that being hit and/or humiliated by these priests was a very real possibility. I now had a reason to do my school work and the terror that I felt turned on my brain. I had never felt so alive. That terror was an emotional Ritalin! I now know that intense negative thoughts and interactions with other people have the impact of increasing activity in certain areas of the brain, which can result in increased ability to pay attention. There are studies that clearly demonstrate this fact. I don't condone some of the methods of those priests, but I do have to acknowledge how instrumental that school was in reshaping my relationship to academics. I became an all-A student. That first year I received the highest academic honors. I was so proud and at the same time dumbfounded at why it had taken so long for me achieve what deep inside I had always thought myself capable of.

What were some of the specific changes that you made?

I didn't know it then, but I was developing a highly individualized set of academic strategies, many of which, incidentally, I employ with my coaching clients. I realized, for example, that I couldn't read for very long while sitting in one place. I started to walk and read and then I started to make study tapes that I listened to while riding my bike. We now know that movement and aerobic activity are often beneficial study techniques for ADD folks. I started going into school early to meet one-on-one with teachers. Like any ADD individual, I tended to space out in class, but one-on-one with the teacher and I could learn an incredible amount. I also began a system of writing notes to myself and putting them in my sock so I would see them when I took off my shoes and putting notes in my mother's car. I also made use of friends, calling them frequently to make sure I had the correct homework assignment. I like to say that my high school was a pressure cooker for me that allowed the jewel of academic excellence that had always been in me to come forth. I needed that pressure. I needed that intensity and I thank God for it. Many ADD folks do not get the intensity they need and they often engage in destructive and annoying behaviors to artificially create it. If this interests you, I recommend Dr. Daniel Amen's book, Healing ADD. He has a marvelous chapter in there titled, "Games ADD People Play" which illustrates some of these behaviors. I recommend it as part of your research for this paper.

Would you recommend your high school, or a similar one, to parents of kids who have difficulties similar to the ones you went through?

That's a tough question and I think my first impulse is to say that each case must be handled on an individual basis. The lesson, however, is that ADD folks often thrive under pressure which is why you'll find them working in emergency rooms, crisis centers and a whole host of high stress, high intensity fields. There are many gifts to having the tendencies that we call ADD and as a society we need to honor these gifts and stop trying to pigeon-hole ADD folks into narrow paradigms. We might be able to force an ADD person to become an efficient office drone, but what deeper gifts from that person are we depriving ourselves of in that process. I like to cite the example of Oskar Schindler, whose life was memorialized in the movie Schindler's List. Schindler was an unsuccessful, womanizing, alcoholic loser who, I am certain from my research, was ADD. (My upcoming book gives more details if you're interested.) He had failed in every business he had ever started and was only successful during the war because of high level contacts within the Nazi party, and due to the fact that he obtained his seed-money from desperate Jewish investors in the Krakow ghetto. All the skills that made him a loser in the eyes of society, however, ultimately allowed him to single-handedly save more Jews than any other individual. The pressure cooker of World War II Europe brought out Schindler's true gift, compassion, and his adeptness at addictive self-indulgence allowed him to ingratiate himself with the Nazi party, of which he was a member. Schindler thrived on the danger and living on the edge, and that did something to turn his brain on and bring out his true genius. ADD folks are often at their best in the midst of crisis, but as well are often utterly lacking to perform the mundane repetition required for an ordinary stable life. As Thom Hartmann has frequently pointed out, many of those we label ADD are the rebels, challengers and dreamers of our society. Without them, society would stagnate in many fundamental ways. Do we want to mainstream everybody in our society and get rid of "anomalies" like Oskar Schindler and Thomas Edison?

So are you saying that ADD has advantages?

In the classroom, teachers talk about impulsivity, whereas in the hunter model, this trait is related to being able to follow the chase at a moment's notice and quickly change strategies. There are mThat's exactly what I am saying and there has been a great deal of research done on that topic. Thom Hartmann in his book, Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perception, lays out a sociological dichotomy related to how we process information, take in stimuli from the environment and relate to the world: Hunters vs. Farmers. Many of the traits that we list as being ADD traits are exactly the traits that we would look for in a successful hunter, according to Hartmann's groundbreaking work. In the classroom, teachers talk about distractibility. In the hunter model, we would call this "constantly scanning the environment," which is what a successful hunter needs to do.any different types of ADD, but they all, in my opinion, carry evolutionary advantages that could be brought "online" in the right sociological context. It just so happens that our society is a society, by and large, that selects economically for those skills that are related to performing repetitive tasks, staying in one place, focusing all day on just a few things, and thus many ADD folks feel out of place because those skill sets are very difficult for them