College instructor knowledge of ADHD symptoms

I have been on both sides of this kind of argument. There are bad college instructors, and there are also bad students.

If you talked to the instructor during office hours when you were the only person there, then yes that was OK and the instructor should at least try to listen.
If you decided to take over the (very limited) class time to focus on your own issues, then that is extremely rude and unacceptable. If you insisted on going on at length when people were waiting with their equally important issues, then that was rude. And if you approached the issue by telling the instructor that he/she was wrong and ignorant, that was not only rude but also counterproductive, the best way to convince the instructor to dislike and ignore you. As a college instructor I have had that student and believe me, it did not get him any favours from anyone— me OR the three other instructors who gave him F’s independently.

New students in college often have a big shock. It may have little to do with ADHD and a lot to do with being overprotected in high school and not understanding what college is about. Instructors hear the same complaints from a LOT of students and they tend to give very short answers because they know by experience that only time will get the ideas into people’s heads.

In college, you only have 42 hours (3 hours a week times 14 weeks) for a whole class. In high school, you have 150 hours (180 days times 45 minutes). College instructors do not have time to play games, do not have time to re-teach the material five times to those who can’t bother to listen, do not have time to give out all the answers before each test, do not have time to do all the work in class.
The extra 108 hours (150 minus 42) has to be done by the student independently. It is a truism in college that for every hour in class, you have to spend at least two hours working outside of class, both on assigned work and on self-directed reading and studying. Students who have not learned to be self-directed have a lot of adjusting to do their first semester. All students, ADHD or not. Instructors who see and hear the same old same old every year will send you away with the same answer: Do the work. Read. Study. Go tho the library. Go to the math lab. Use the tutoring service. AFTER doing all that, use the instructor’s office hours to come and ask useful questions, questions about the course work. In class, take notes and use every minute productively. Every minute you spend complaining is a minute lost that you could have spent learning the material, so complaining is doubly a waste of time and resources.
To cover a text in 42 hours, there is no other choice.

College classes have strict curriculum requirements to cover, and the instructor (if he is responsible and professional) cannot just leave out a chapter or two if a class or student is having difficulties; the next semester and graduation or professional requirements would be thrown into confusion. The student has to adapt to the curriculum, not the other way around.

College is supposed to be a place for you to mature, a place for young adults. Nobody is there to hang over your shoulder and watch that you are doing the work. Nobody chases you to class. You have to mature and do these things on your own.

If you have difficulty, most colleges have a Disability Support Service office where you can get help. That is the first place to go to ask. As in anything else, there are good, bad, and mediocre DSS offices and people; hope that you get a good one and if you don’t, insist on a change of counsellor. Be proactive, get out there and do something.

The very worst thing to do is to sit and complain that the instructor is mean to you so to pay him back you won’t do his work. Listen, it isn’t his work, it’s YOUR work, and he isn’t getting the grade for the class, YOU are. So get help and get through the class.

If you get a really, really bad fit for an instructor — and this has happened to me, over many decades I have had four or five real doozies, ranging from total incompetents to massively prejudiced — then if it is just impossible, drop the class and take it with another instructor later.

Thanks for the information!. My interest was more along the lines of whether college instructors have the knowledge and ability to deal with students with hidden disabilities.

Sociology classes focus on diversity and sensitivity in relation to other cultures, minorities and disabled, but I’ve noticed little information about diversity and sensitivity toward those with hidden disabilities. And so, if the textbook doesn’t include it and the professor doesn’t know it, then it might be a situation ripe for bias. Perhaps it’s a non issue and that’s okay. Just trying to ascertain if any information exists.

I shouldn’t have added the information about the instructor being rude as it seems nothing to do with my request. Thanks!

The problem with hidden disabilities is that they are - here it comes - hidden. I think it’s unreasonable to expect a professor, or anybody else for that matter, to somehow know that a person has a hidden disability.

Here’s an example. During all the years our Regional Counselor for the Deaf (yes, I know Deafness is not a Learning Disability, but it’s hidden) was located in my office, it seemed like I was forever walking up to people in the waiting room or hall and saying things like “May I help you?” Not a good way to approach a Deaf client. So I then tried signing the question while I spoke it. The hearing people looked at me funny. My conclusion? There aren’t any perfect solutions, so you do what you must.

Back to LD. Many years ago, decades in fact, I had a client who was accepted to attend college and was as well prepared as anyone at that time. He had been to the Disabilities Services Office and thought everything was on track. The first day of class he went up to the professor and asked “Do you know about me?” The professor said yes and that was that.

Well, except the Disabilities Services Office had not been in touch with any of the professors and the professor thought the student was asking if he was on the class roll - and he was. It took a little sorting out to get things straight with the school, but what the heck, it was a good excuse for a road trip and the client’s father, a retired Marine, was a good traveling companion.

I’ll go out on a limb here and answer your question about professors and their ability to deal with hidden disabilities. Don’t expect too much - it’s not their specialty and even if they’ve had a little training they likely haven’t used it very often.

Speaking of hidden disabilities, I had back surgery almost 2 years ago for a crushed sciatic nerve (not a disc problem either) and probably shouldn’t be lifting any refrigerators or moving any large safes. On the other hand, the people that ask me to help them only see a youngish-looking 54-year-old who is 6 feet tall and weighs 190. Yeah, I limp a little still, but they don’t know the extent of the problem until I tell them.

John

However, many colleges *do* have ‘sensitivity training’ for LD/ADHD/mental health issues. (we have ‘em here.)