Mar
23
2010
Do you have any special advice for Wayseer teachers?
Q: “Hi Garret, I have ordered your book online, my story in my time is beginning to unfold. I am a high school teacher, a Wayseer and bipolar. My story goes back to when a friend of mine committed suicide. Suicide forced me to look at myself and I came out as a gay man to my friends and family. I was diagnosed manic but fortunately the school of medicine that I took was one of talking therapy, homeopathy, spiritual healers. I see the world in an artistic way. My condition is called Manic Depression sometimes with bouts of elation followed by depression. I have worked hard with therapists to get a grip on bipolar while avoiding the drug lithium. I realize it’s a gift that has to be managed and a curse if you can’t. Have you any advice for bipolar teachers? We are a unique breed as it’s a stressful environment to work in where society and exam systems expect you just to fit in and perform. How would you manage a bipolar teacher who prefers to spend his midterm off recharging than correcting midterm papers? I live in the real world of having to pay bills and mortgages etc and I don’t want to live in fear of losing my home. I want to channel my Bipolar to some higher use for both myself and the people around me.”
My Answer: First of all I want to commend you on serving as a high school teacher with bipolar. You may not realize it, but you are probably a Godsend to the 15% of students who also long to keep seeing the world in an artistic way. Virtually all great artists are inherently bipolar whether they realize it or not. Your service as a teacher and an authority figure to those students will probably save many lives. Your work may be a ministry.
My advice to you is to keep up the great service you are giving these students by simply existing within their system and actually understanding them. Do whatever it takes to ease your administrative burdens so that you can focus your whole heart on this greater purpose. Is there any way you can delegate the grading of midterm papers? The only midterm papers that I believe probably need your direct attention are those from students who are similar in temperament to you and wish to see the world in an artistic way – and you must be careful not to miss any – some may hide behind a veneer like I did in high school pretending to be a shallow “jock” in order to be popular. Those students’ midterms may contain the seeds of genius which only you might spot, grade and acknowledge accordingly. As for the rest of the papers from more “normal” students, a couple ideas that come to mind … Maybe you could see if you could swap duties with other teachers who may actually prefer grading papers instead of ______ (fill in the blank with other teacher duties “unseemly” to normal teachers such as monitoring detention – incidentally where you might also do a lot of good.) Or maybe you could give some sort of college recommendation, course credit, “experience” opportunity as a TA, or community service credit to one of your brightest students from last year to help you grade this year’s midterms. Those are just my ideas, but maybe some other folks reading this might have some ideas, so check for a modified version of your question and answer (fully protecting your anonymity) to appear in DaVinci Nation and on my blog’s Q&A section, where thousands of others may have some bright ideas to share about how to navigate this kind of situation.
An article by Garret John
My boyfriend is ADHD, he is 45 years old. Even though I talked to him about it and he agrees that he is ADHD I would like to know, how do I cope with the mood changes, sometimes it feels if I get the grumpy difficult person and the other people get the charming man he can be. If I talk about it he would say that I am the only person who understand him and I will not reject him like the rest would do.
I sound like a old complaining girlfriend who does not get the attention she wants but I would rather help him and be his friend even if it means that I have to stop the relationship. He jumps from one project to a next and does not stay and finish the one he started.
I live in Namibia (next to South Africa, do you think I can get hold of your book? I do not use a credit card, is there another way to pay for the book?
I need help I would love to marry this man but he never seem to have time for us. MAY HE IS JUST USING ME?? Now I trully sound like and complaining old hag………….