I always thought of it as more of a "give me something interesting to do and I'll apply myself person". I did great in science because we were always doing experiments and shit. Math not so much because it was just here's how to do X. Now lose an hour of your free time doing that 80 times. Fuck that.
It does not help that most teachers don't know how to make math relevant and interesting because at some level they don't think it is either. And even if you actually do find math to be interesting, school more or less beats that out of you.
Same both from the school system and my mum. It's led to a large chip on my shoulder and a very nuanced ego and lack thereof at the same time. I am making almost 200k a year and still a large part of me feels like a failure thanks to a childhood that didn't recognize my challenges.
Why is it that whenever cursive comes up the main argument in its favor always boils down to avoiding reading or writing longer than absolutely necessary? I read as fast as I want to and I can type faster than anyone could possibly write legibly so I am not sure what the appeal is.
"Rats is chugging along in second when he should be cruising in fifth". I've had countless reports like that but that one stuck with me, probably for being so much more creative than the others.
I think it was the year following that report that they stuck me on my own desk facing a corner so that "you won't keep getting distracted by other students". I guess that teacher just really liked euphemisms. At least I always had a set of stationary for myself lol.
I just had parent rage remembering how my oldest's 1st grade teacher wanted to hold them back just because their handwriting was "awful", and their 2nd grade teacher decided to put all the talkative kids away in their own section so they "wouldn't disturb the good kids" because THEY ALL TALKED TO EACH OTHER! This was also the same teacher that wrote "did you even study?" on a second graders spelling test when they came home with a D (that particular week had been so hard).
Sorry for ranting, but this was prior to oldest being diagnosed with ADHD, dyslexia, and dysgraphia. Sometimes the teachers just see flaws and lable the ND kids as trouble makers or lazy instead of thinking they need extra help. Occupational therapy helped so much with their handwriting, medication and psychotherapy helped with the ADHD, and blue light filters helped with the dyslexia.
Sadly... probably not much different if you got the help. My kid has all the help there is, since we know what it is like. The help isn't very effective until they reach the age of reason.
My second grade teacher managed to get away with this gem on one of my report cards: "Getting Armored to read is like having teeth pulled without anesthetics" lol
Some of my teachers thought I was "mentally retarded" (they still used that word back then) and others wanted me to skip grades. Sometimes literally in the same subjects. I'm still traumatized.
Now I kind of want to look at mine again. Mostly their main complaint was that I didn't do my homework. I did well enough on tests to mostly compensate for that. My grades suffered but this wasn't really seen as a big enough problem (read: I am inattentive not outwardly hyperactive) to do anything about. It was only in my final semester of undergrad that I was diagnosed after college broke me. "Congrats you now have accomodations! Shame your degree is basically already completed anyway."
Mine was all about not doing homework but my grades only dropped 1 level because of it and I was an otherwise straight A student (except in math; I got Ds in math). I wasn't even in school anymore when I was diagnosed on just a routine checkup where I was looking to get a referral for a therapist. Didn't think it was ADHD because it only became problematic years after high school. And I didn't even know about Borderline Personality Disorder at all until they said I had that too.
I thought I was reading my own report cards for a second lmao. I got help in the 90s but it didn’t do much for me. None of the meds they tried helped at all. I basically just had to try and learn habits for keeping notes/journals (off and on for years, even today in my early 40s) and other things to try and keep me engaged.
I was diagnosed at the age of 56. It might be worth you trying meds again. I have found Strattera to be extremely helpful to me.
And I followed every productivity guru in the world for decades just to try to keep things going for myself professionally. I have so internalized that I am just lazy and need to rail on myself to keep myself in line, that even though I know it isn't true I still do it to some extent.
I actually found meds that work! Non-stimulant but they help my focus a ton. I’m actually taking the same as you, it’s just under a different name.
Laziness definitely playing a part for me lol. That and adjusting to getting older. I still do solid workouts and feel like I’m in my prime, but it’s still hard to fight the exhaustion of life.