M. Phelps is my new hero...

We're deep in the throws of Olympic hysteria, so I must give my opinion. (as my cyber audience waits with baited breath) I really enjoy gymnastics. Track and field has lost its luster, thanks to the rampant occurances of doping. Baseball and softball are being DROPPED as Olympic sports in favor of BMX biking and trampoline? Are you KIDDING me? (but the trampoline stuff is COOL! We have found Zack's future Olympic sport). Keith's teachers have required him to watch each night, so he has enjoyed it. And like 98% of Americans, I have fallen in love with Michael Phelps. I, along with everyone watching, teared up when he won that last gold medal. What an accomplishment! While everyone else was emotional with patriotism and pride, I was experiencing a different feeling. I watched this American icon capture the nation and realized, he used to be exactly like my son. Wild. Distracted. Judged. Michael Phelps has ADHD...extreme ADHD. Michael Phelps is my new favorite success story.

Michael's mom was a teacher. She grew tired of teachers telling her about all of her son's shortcomings. "He can't concentrate." "He'll never be able to focus on anything." "I can't get him to do anything." Oh, Ms. Phelps...I feel your pain. Now, let me say that Keith's personal teachers have NEVER said anything like that. If they thought it, they did know better than to actually verbalize it to me. Wouldn't be a good idea. We have been SO BLESSED with amazing teachers every year. I assure you, they are hard to come by. Even today, so many teachers don't view "kids like mine" as valuable or as promising. They are nuisances. Distractions. Wastes of time. Sidebar here...if you are reading this, and you are a teacher, and you feel this way...CHANGE OCCUPATIONS! Back to my point...read this excerpt from an article I found about Michael and his mom.
“We worked as a team to overcome ADD”
No doubt about it, Michael Phelps has made waves in his chosen sport.
Yet Michael might not have loved swimming at all, were it not for the ingenuity of his mother, Debbie Phelps. “At age seven, he hated getting his face wet,” says Debbie. “We flipped him over and taught him the backstroke.”
Michael showed swimming prowess on his back, then on his front, side, and every way in between. But in the classroom, he floundered. An inability to concentrate was his biggest problem.
“I was told by one of his teachers that he couldn’t focus on anything,” says Debbie. She consulted a doctor, and nine-year-old Michael was diagnosed with ADHD.
“That just hit my heart,” says Debbie. “It made me want to prove everyone wrong. I knew that, if I collaborated with Michael, he could achieve anything he set his mind to.”
Debbie, who had taught middle school for more than two decades, began working closely with Michael’s school to get him the extra attention he needed. “Whenever a teacher would say, ‘Michael can’t do this,’ I’d counter with, ‘Well, what are you doing to help him?’” she recalls.
After Michael kept grabbing a classmate’s paper, Debbie suggested that he be seated at his own table. When he moaned about how much he hated reading, she started handing him the sports section of the paper or books about sports. Noticing that Michael’s attention strayed during math, she hired a tutor and encouraged him to use word problems tailored to Michael’s interests: “How long would it take to swim 500 meters if you swim three meters per second?”
At swim meets, Debbie helped Michael stay focused by reminding him to consider the consequences of his behavior. She recalls the time when 10-year-old Michael came in second and got so upset that he ripped off his goggles and threw them angrily onto the pool deck.
During their drive home, she told him that sportsmanship counted as much as winning. “We came up with a signal I could give him from the stands,” she says. “I’d form a ‘C’ with my hand, which stood for ‘compose yourself.’ Every time I saw him getting frustrated, I’d give him the sign. Once, he gave me the ‘C’ when I got stressed while making dinner. You never know what’s sinking in until the tables are turned!”

Oh, how I love Debbie Phelps. She deserves to be up on that medal stand with Michael. She deserves a gold medal herself. If I had one, I would give it to her. That just goes to show you that you can't dismiss a child because they don't fit the mold. As to why Michael is able to focus in the pool, there is a medical explanation. It's called "hyper focus." And if any of you are either a. a teacher, or b. a mom of a kid with ADHD, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

“Single-Minded Focus”
Michael Phelps won the Gold Medal in his first swim in Beijing! There seems to be some confusion and wonder at how and why Michael Phelps was able to overcome so many odds to not break under so much mental pressure. Michael is described in countless articles to have laser like focus on his swimming and single mindedness on being the best. His concentration has even been described as other-worldly. Yes, Michael has the body makeup of a perfect swimming machine, but in competition it is always the mental aspect which allows someone to step above the rest – in Michael’s case, way above the rest – domination.
Michael Phelps has ADHD. I am not the least bit confused by what others are describing about his laser like concentration, this mental part of his makeup, believe it or not, is rather normal for most people with ADHD. It is called Hyper Focusing. Hyper Focusing allows us to concentrate on something so intensely that we cannot break away from whatever we are focusing on, it can provide supreme drive and motivation. Before I go on about how this helps Michael, let me first be clear about the reality of Hyper Focusing for most people with ADHD. Hyper Focusing is a major cause of dilemma and strife, it can be more of a distraction than anything else. It is often said that kids with ADHD cannot focus and concentrate in school, that’s not entirely true, it is just that these kids are focusing on other things – day dreams, that butterfly outside the window, or maybe something they want to do outside of class.
It is when we start Hyper Focusing on something which we have a talent in, and can make a career of, that Hyper Focusing becomes a benefit. People with ADHD can be the best at anything they set their mind’s to, well, not just the best, better than anyone who has come before them! This has been proven time and time again, this is not a myth or made up wishful thinking, it is a fact. Find someone with ADHD who is doing what they Hyper Focus on in which they have talent and you will find someone doing amazing things which defy all logic. Michael Phelps is the latest proof. Sadly, Phelps is the exception, not the rule. It doesn't have to be that way. Finding the next Phelps shouldn't require one to look any further than any school across America. Don't necessarily focus your search to the top of the honor roll, best behaved lists, or teachers' favorites. This search requires something that is sadly, hard to find. Teachers who see past the "disability" and dig for the "ability," and parents who refuse to accept defeat. Phelps had 1 part of the equation. Can you imagine if he had both?

Here's to you, Michael Phelps. You're amazing. You are deserving of all the attention and press you are receiving. You are now the hero of MILLIONS of kids and adults alike across the world. (My Keith included) And while I have loved watching your rise to fame and your amazing success, you're not my hero. As I stated in my title, M. Phelps is my hero now. And the M. doesn't stand for Michael. I love ya, Mike...but my new #1 hero is your mom, Ms. Phelps. In my opinion, she is truly the one to be celebrated. I hope that I can be as determined, as focused, and as driven as she has been.

Rock on, Ms. Phelps. This mama of a little wild boy salutes you. And while I'm giving out medals, here's to you, Mrs. Arledge-Byrne, Mrs. Ritch, Mrs. Costello, Mrs. Winslett, Mrs. Levine, Mrs. Tidwell and Miss Tisdale. You are champions in my book, and stars in my boy's eyes. YOU are what teaching is all about. My gratitude is endless. My blessings are ineumerable. My disaster is BEAUTIFUL.