My fourth grade teacher basically called me stupid and insinuated I was illiterate in front of my parents at one point. My parents weren't always as supportive as they could have been but they did their damnedest to fight the teachers that just wanted to toss me aside and move on. Not to mention I was actually reading at a college level by that point in my life (not to brag or anything, just goes to show how my teacher wasn't really paying attention to me). It wasn't that I couldn't read, it was that I was wholly uninterested in the material my class was reading.

I was in special education up until eighth grade, and that really fostered in me this idea that I was "different" or "weird" or "broken". After a while it got to the point where I was rejecting the "help" they were giving me because I just wanted to be a normal kid. I was sick of being pulled out of class constantly, and treated like I was stupid.

So by highschool I was out. They got rid of my IEP, and I was more or less a regular student. To the point that I even rejected having ADHD, and really started to believe I was just lazy or stupid. Now I'm three years out of highschool, having stopped college twice now because I just can't figure out this school thing. I'm back on ADHD meds, which is helping, but it's still a struggle.

It absolutely sickens me that kids like me are still having to deal with this nightmare of an education system, who will grow up to be self loathing and depressed because of the weak minded adults who just want to toss them aside or shove them into a box.

Honestly when I have kids (who in all likelihood will also have ADHD) I might just homeschool them, so they won't have to deal with this meat grinder of an education system, and the trauma it would leave them with.