ADD/ADHD and the Hunter-Farmer Theory

John Eder

Developmental Psychology

Mathew Day

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

 While I was in the second grade in Brooklyn, New York I was being continually

disruptive in class and I was often at the principal’s office as a result. It reached a boiling point

to where I was taken out of class and sent with my parents to a place in Manhattan for several

days, where I submitted to interviews and a series of test like the WAIS IQ test, a hearing test, an

eye exam, and others. It’s a vivid memory, I had a ball making puzzles, playing games, drawing

and answering the interviewer’s questions. For a change I felt celebrated rather than being in

trouble. It was a nice break.

I vividly remember my interviewer being impressed when I said I felt I would be better

served in a “parochial” school like those that some of my friends attended. He asked me to

repeat myself. I had a big vocabulary for a six year old kid and was fearless about trying out new

words. Apparently, I also had the insight, even then, that school, as it was, was not serving me

well. It’s amusing to me now that I had prescribed a stricter and structured setting for myself like

catholic school. But, it’s not surprising I was scanning the horizon for alternatives.

The days of testing culminated with recommendations that were made at an exit meeting

that both my parents and I attended. It would be the first time I would hear what would become

a familiar refrain throughout my time at school, that even though I possessed a higher than

average intelligence I was not applying myself and I was bored by the curriculum. The

diagnostician who conducted the bulk of the tests told my parents and me that the program in the

public elementary school I was going to was not suited to my individual learning style. He said if

the circumstances went unchanged it was likely that I would continue to have challenges in that

setting and that my discipline problems would persist as a result. He also predicted that I would

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begin to fall behind because of frequently being removed from class and I would have a rocky

road ahead.

The staff enthusiastically recommended I transfer to a new experimental school across

town. I vaguely remember him telling us that the program was more individualized with mixed

ages in the class and that it was less structured and more self-determined based on my own

interest. He described an open classroom concept that sounded like a one room schoolhouse. I

can picture it in my mind now as I did then. The program, I was told, took a more creative

approach to learning though art and play. I clearly remember hearing something about being able

to make models. That sounded great to me. I loved that idea.

The major difficulty with their proposal was that both of my parents worked and were

unable to take me to the other side of town to that school before they went into work. The other

option was that I take a subway myself but in the 70’s the New York City subways were

dangerous and my parents were not willing to entertain that idea. My mother supported the idea

but my father was the authoritarian, an abusive alcoholic and an Archie Bunker type. The

suggestion doubtless offended his sensibilities. He probably would not have wanted his kid in a

“special” school. He forbid it. He felt my being held back to repeat the second grade would solve

all my problems. In his “educated” opinion, I was simply “immature” as a result of being

younger than many of my classmates. My father took me into the school and demanded of my

elementary school principal that she keep me back to repeat the second grade to no avail.

I have made efforts to track down the school records of that event for this paper but I

have been unsuccessful so I may never know for certain what transpired but I have often thought

of it. As predicted by the examiner, I continued to have discipline problems and did not apply

myself academically. I was bored; I clowned around and stared out the windows; I fought and

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played games at the back of the classroom. My teachers sent me out of class more and more. I

spent many more hours in the principal’s office and was suspended numerous times. As a result I

missed a lot of math and fell behind. They sent me to a special math class for extra help but my

difficulties with math have persisted to this day. It was probably only harder to know that there

was a better fit for me out there and yet I had to continue in the same ineffective venue.

I still look upon those years in school as wasted years. I barely made it through high

school. Ieven dropped out at one point. I’ve often imagined what that experimental school would

have been like, who I would be now and how it might have changed my life. Perhaps it was a

school like the Rudolph Steiner School in New York, a K-12 school with a mission to address:

”. . . the physical, emotional, and intellectual capacities of the developing child

through an age-appropriate curriculum that integrates the disciplines of

movement, fine arts, and practical arts into the study of humanities, science, math,

and technology.”

That sounds a lot like the vision I’ve had in my mind of the school that was described to me

when I was evaluated in the second grade.

Steiner felt that children should learn at their own pace and not be rushed, that “In the

early grades. . .” children “. . .build their skills more by imitating the artwork and writing of their

teacher than by producing original work.” That sound’s similar to vygotsky’s idea that children

needed to be met at their own level of comprehension and learn cooperatively with the guidance

of an adult (Mitchell).

Steiner called for “cultural evolution” in the educational curriculum where “. .

.storytelling, art projects and creative. . .” classroom activities enhance the teacher-child

relationship. . .” by approaching a “. . .more psychological and philosophical. . .curriculum

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content” (Mitchell, R.). Steiner’s approach seems to have a great deal in common with

Vygotsky’s theory that the individual’s development is a result of his or her culture. Vygotsky’s

was a vision of education whereby the classroom teacher is not a rigid tyrant or task master but a

role model who employs “spontaneous concepts” and facilitates the students in solving problems

by their own guidance or “in collaboration with more capable peers” (Au).

Two years ago, I was having an extraordinarily difficult time with a new job as an

Executive Coordinator for a non-profit. In the interview for the job I glossed over those parts of

the job that I knew I was not good at like filing weekly reports, writing grants, processing large

mailers, doing budgets, working with databases, and facing deadlines. I focused on my people

skills and my ability to organize folks and to excite and cajole them into action.

I worked alone from home. I let the paperwork pile up. I was in actual physical

discomfort. I just plain hated it and I procrastinated. I began to wonder about what I had ever

completed in my life. Within a few months I was very far behind and scrambling to cover from

shortfalls. My anxiety became intense and I became resentful of my employers and their growing

irritation. Things were coming to a head. This was a familiar scenario in my work life. My

confidence that I could ever hold a job was again shattered. I wondered what was wrong with me

and why I could not master what seemed so simple to so many people. It was infuriating and

humiliating.

The possibility that I had ADD had been brought to my attention by well meaning friends

and coworkers in my adult life for many years. Many people describe themselves as “ADHD”. I

was frankly offended by the suggestion and I rejected the idea out of hand as national hysteria

and a scheme developed by pharmaceutical companies. But because of my desperation at hitting

the wall again in my career I was willing to consider it. I wanted to break this cycle. I looked-up

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ADD/ADHD online and was stunned at how familiar so many of the symptoms were to me. I felt

I had to put aside my biases about ADD/ADHD and move forward with this line of inquiry.

I sought out trusted professionals and a doctor friend to help me to address the root of my

problems I was having with work and in life. I took a written test and blood work and soon I was

diagnosed as having ADHD with marked distractibility and irritability separately by the doctor, a

psychiatrist and two separate counselors. Unexpectedly, this was an extremely moving and

empowering epiphany for me. I was relieved. These realizations lead to my making my most

recent and much more successful, second attempt at college. I had long eschewed the idea of

college as a possibility for me. But, I reasoned that now that I knew my barriers I could address

them head-on with counseling and assistance.

ADHD was “first characterized as a specific disorder in the early 1970’s” (Hartmann, P.

11). When I think back on my event in grade school in the early 70’s, I don’t recall that

Hyperactivity, as ADD/ADHD was more commonly referred to at that time, was ever brought

up. If it was, I was unaware and it did not come up again in my school career. After all, I was not

hyperactive, but I did, have many other symptoms of ADD/ADHD as I have said.

In my personal research on ADHD I came across the thought provoking theory, put forth

by author Thom Hartmann. Hartmann theorizes that people with ADD/ADHD are actually a

genetic hold-over of ancestors from a Hunter/Gather society in a world dominated today by

Farmers. His theory is that some time ago human society grouped into two distinct factions,

Hunter/Gatherers and Farmers. The Farmers prevailed and the ancestors of Hunter/Gathers with

us today display a group of traits commonly labeled as ADHD/ADD.

Hartmann says Hunters/Gatherers possess a particular set of “talents” familiar to those

described as ADD/ADHD such as, quickly changing strategies, constantly monitoring the

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environment for changes, having bursts of energy, thinking visually, quickly growing bored with

mundane tasks, risk taking, being quick to anger and intolerant of errors as though every decision

was a life or death matter. According to Hartmann, the Farmers possess many of the traits

necessary to function successfully in today’s world such as patiently sustaining a slow and

continuous effort on tasks, carrying out long range planning and budgeting. They are not easily

distracted and they are cautious and detail oriented team players (Hartmann, P. 1-8).

The prevalence of ADD/ADHD in adults is around 4% in the U.S. and 18% worldwide

(Arcos-Burgos p. 1). Hartmann asserts that this occurrence of ADHD/ADD is too high to be a

mere “quirk” because nature does not make such widespread errors. He points to Tay-Sachs

disease and Sickle Cell, which saved Jews and Africans from being wiped-out by plagues of

tuberculosis and malaria respectively, as being anachronistic gene traits that have outlasted their

usefulness (Hartmann, P. 12-13).

Hartmann counsels parents of ADHD children to look upon those traits as “talents” to be

cherished rather than suppressed with drugs. He refers to the gene trait as the “Edison

Syndrome” after the inventor and encourages parents to send their children, who possess the

gene, to alternative schools or home school them. A school like the Rudolph Steiner School,

might be more suited to their particular talents (Gold, P. 69)

Until recently mainstream science may have regarded Hartmann’s theory, as a romantic

notion and intriguing food for thought but a study published in 2007 found that a strong genetic

link to ADHD may indeed “support Thom Hartmann’s Hunter–Farmer theory, reaffirming that

ADHD might be an anachronic behavioral trait” (Arcos-Burgos, P. 1). In light of this stunning

information it is clear that a terrible crime is being perpetrated on school aged children labeled

with ADHD.

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 It would seem that those Hunter/Gathers qualities that once assured the survival of the

human species are now deemed undesirable in the American classroom and cubical and have

spurred a profitable business for drug companies. Studies have shown a “sharp increase from the

early to mid-1990s in the prescription of psychiatric drugs, such as Ritalin, to treat the disorder in

very young children” (Coles, A.). These “Edison Gene” children are involuntary and completely

innocent marks.

Despite the growing chorus of pleas that the “Consideration of the rights and interests of

the child must be paramount” we are allowing the empowerment of untrained classroom

educators to act as diagnosticians so that they can more effectively exploit the tools of chemical

restraint in the name of a more compliant classroom (Kean, B.). Drug companies have conspired

with educators and prescribers to the extent that “Behaviors that were once considered normal

range are now currently defined as pathological by those with a vested interest in promoting the

widespread use of psychotropic drugs in child and adolescent populations” (Stolzer,) This is a

reprehensible conflict of interest.

We are marginalizing a certain type of person and suppressing their talents because they

are unwanted in the contemporary American workplace and its incubator, the American

educational system. We are using what amounts to chemical restraint to create a more compliant

student. Child advocates need to call for an immediate rethinking of school policy for children

labeled with ADHD lest a cabal of educators, drug companies and prescribers continue to“. .

.pathologize every undesirable behavior--especially where children are concerned. . .” in the

name of profit and expediency (Fumento).

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 References

Arcos-Burgos, M., & Acosta, M. (2007, June). Tuning major gene variants conditioning human

behavior: the anachronism of ADHD. Current Opinion in Genetics & Development,

17(3), 234-238. Retrieved April 14, 2009, doi:10.1016/j.gde.2007.04.011

Coles, A. (2000, May 10). Educators Welcome Guidelines for Diagnosing ADHD. Education

Week, 19(35), 6. Retrieved April 8, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Fumento, M. (2003, February 3). Trick Question. New Republic, 228(4), 18-21. Retrieved April

8, 2009, from Business Source Premier database.

Gold, S., Chenoweth, E., Rotella, M., Andriani, L., Scharf, M., Valdes, M., et al. (2003,

September 8). THE EDISON GENE: ADHD and the Gift of the Hunter Child (Book).

Publishers Weekly, 250(36), 69-69. Retrieved April 15, 2009, from Business Source

Premier database.

Hartmann, Thom. Attention Deficit Disorder: A Different Perception. Grass

Vallley: Mythical Intelligence Inc., 1993.

Kean, B. (2006, October). The globalisation of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the

rights of the child. International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine, 18(4), 195-204.

Retrieved April 8, 2009, from Environment Complete database.

Mitchell, R. (2007, Summer2007). Seeking the Archetype of the Teacher. Encounter,

20(2), 27-35. Retrieved April 14, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

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Rucklidge, J., & Tannock, R. (2002, November). Neuropsychological Profiles of Adolescents

with ADHD: Effects of Reading Difficulties and Gender. Journal of Child Psychology &

Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines, 43(8), 988-1003. Retrieved April 15, 2009, from

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Stolzer, J. (2007, Summer2007). The ADHD Epidemic in America. Ethical Human Psychology

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