Rain
Filing Flight Plan
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- May 18, 2016
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Rain
Hello Group Members,
I apologize for the length of my post, I'm trying to provide details in hopes someone can give some advice. Here's the situation:
My son is finishing his junior year in high school. He is participating in a two-year program in conjunction with a local college in which he attends high school half-day mornings and college half-day afternoons. When he graduates high school next year, he will have completed his first year of the college's professional piloting program. He successfully completed his first year of the program with a B average, and is set to begin working on his private pilot license during the summer. He wants to be a commercial airline pilot. As we were looking into the requirements for his private pilot license,we learned that ADHD is a diagnosis that will prohibit him from getting his medical clearance certificate. Let me explain about his "ADHD". This diagnosis came about when he was 11 years old in 6th grade and was having a rough year in school with an extremely difficult teacher. When we first sought help for him, the counselor who met with him said his results were borderline and made no diagnosis other than him being a typical boy. She worked successfully with him on study skills, organization & time management. He was getting by, although never to the satisfaction of his teacher. We were having a difficult time getting the school to cooperate with some of the small suggestions the counselor made in hopes of making his school life better, such as allowing him to have a second set of books to keep at home in case he forgot to bring a book home for homework/study. The counselor said that with a diagnosis, it basically would force the school to have to comply with these minor requests. Because his results were borderline, and because we were met with so much resistance from the school over the simplest requests, we agreed that the diagnosis was in his best interest. So he got a diagnosis and he got his second set of books to keep at home, but I feel like he also got a career death sentence for being a typical 11 year old boy who had the bad luck of getting a rigid, difficult teacher. He continued to see the counselor for help with study skills through his 7th grade year (2 years total, 6th & 7th) as he transitioned into middle school, and hasn't seen her since. He did take Strattera for about 20 days at the start of 7th grade at the suggestion of his pediatrician who we shared the ADHD diagnosis with. However, he said he didn't like the way it made him feel and we discontinued it before completing the first month. He maintained good grades in middle & high school and this year successfully juggled both his high school & college classes, worked two jobs and participated on the high school swim team. He is 17 now and his life has barely begun, but I feel like that one decision that the adults in his life made six years ago (a decision we thought was being made to help him) will now make his dreams impossible. Since his 6th & 7th grade years, the ADHD diagnosis has played no part in his life. Any advice? I was trying to research online and what I am finding is confusing & scary…. batteries of psycho-neurological tests, thousands of dollars…. and still an uncertain future with no guarantees. Pilot folks, has anyone been in a similar situation and had a successful outcome? Can anyone offer hope or steer me in the right direction to find out if this is a repairable situation … or should my son give up his dream of being a career pilot.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read my post. I'm crossing my fingers for some positive, hopeful response.
I apologize for the length of my post, I'm trying to provide details in hopes someone can give some advice. Here's the situation:
My son is finishing his junior year in high school. He is participating in a two-year program in conjunction with a local college in which he attends high school half-day mornings and college half-day afternoons. When he graduates high school next year, he will have completed his first year of the college's professional piloting program. He successfully completed his first year of the program with a B average, and is set to begin working on his private pilot license during the summer. He wants to be a commercial airline pilot. As we were looking into the requirements for his private pilot license,we learned that ADHD is a diagnosis that will prohibit him from getting his medical clearance certificate. Let me explain about his "ADHD". This diagnosis came about when he was 11 years old in 6th grade and was having a rough year in school with an extremely difficult teacher. When we first sought help for him, the counselor who met with him said his results were borderline and made no diagnosis other than him being a typical boy. She worked successfully with him on study skills, organization & time management. He was getting by, although never to the satisfaction of his teacher. We were having a difficult time getting the school to cooperate with some of the small suggestions the counselor made in hopes of making his school life better, such as allowing him to have a second set of books to keep at home in case he forgot to bring a book home for homework/study. The counselor said that with a diagnosis, it basically would force the school to have to comply with these minor requests. Because his results were borderline, and because we were met with so much resistance from the school over the simplest requests, we agreed that the diagnosis was in his best interest. So he got a diagnosis and he got his second set of books to keep at home, but I feel like he also got a career death sentence for being a typical 11 year old boy who had the bad luck of getting a rigid, difficult teacher. He continued to see the counselor for help with study skills through his 7th grade year (2 years total, 6th & 7th) as he transitioned into middle school, and hasn't seen her since. He did take Strattera for about 20 days at the start of 7th grade at the suggestion of his pediatrician who we shared the ADHD diagnosis with. However, he said he didn't like the way it made him feel and we discontinued it before completing the first month. He maintained good grades in middle & high school and this year successfully juggled both his high school & college classes, worked two jobs and participated on the high school swim team. He is 17 now and his life has barely begun, but I feel like that one decision that the adults in his life made six years ago (a decision we thought was being made to help him) will now make his dreams impossible. Since his 6th & 7th grade years, the ADHD diagnosis has played no part in his life. Any advice? I was trying to research online and what I am finding is confusing & scary…. batteries of psycho-neurological tests, thousands of dollars…. and still an uncertain future with no guarantees. Pilot folks, has anyone been in a similar situation and had a successful outcome? Can anyone offer hope or steer me in the right direction to find out if this is a repairable situation … or should my son give up his dream of being a career pilot.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read my post. I'm crossing my fingers for some positive, hopeful response.
) and if the child meets 5 out of 10 items (or whatever the number is), they are labeled as ADD. And then they start prescribing Adderall or Ritalin. The quack that we went to even had coupons for the drugs that the first order would be discounted. And they even tell you that this is a lifelong thing and they will need meds forever basically to be "normal".
