Percy Jackson’s ADHD and how it affected his choices.
Nearly everybody has read the book “Percy Jackson”. Even more, people have gone to school. From the book “Percy Jackson”, it can be easily concluded that Percy suffers from ADHD, and will do a lot better without it. But why?
Currently, Percy is in a very bad position: he is getting distracted from class. It does not sound very bad? Think again. If Percy gets distracted from class, his grades “slipped from D’s to F’s”, because he is not listening to the teachers. Usually, people do not enjoy something that they are not good at(or bad at), and will result in them thinking about things that he is good at, which gets him distracted. As we all can see, the previous results will get Percy’s study habit into a negative loop, making his score worse with each passing day. Additionally, with “compliments” from Gabe such as “Your report card came, brain boy!” The loop is becoming more and more effective.
Not only does Percy have a very bad habit of studying for tests, he often gets mad at his teachers for not doing his work( another common symptom for ADHD), and on one occasion, called his English teacher an “old sot”, without even knowing what it meant( yet another symptom of ADHD).
The third time, things got interesting. When Percy went on a field trip, he “messed up” many times. At the start, he said things to Nancy Bobofit such as “Will you shut up?” And “That’s it!”. Later, when his math teacher, Ms.Dodds, saw him use his powers on poor little Nancy, and talk with her, Percy’s thoughts immediately thought of some of the rules he had broken, such as “the secret stash of candy that” he “was illegally selling in my dorm room”. Although this is not because of ADHD (As a similar thing happens all the time), this also shows how distracted he is from schoolwork and his attitude towards school. As the story progressed, Mr.Brunner told him that he expected Percy as good as everybody else, and Percy got mad at him for saying that.
Not only does what Percy did distract himself from class, but it also distracted his peers. During class time, whenever something happens (someone gets sent to the hallway, some glass shatters, etc.) everybody will immediately stop working, and start a discussion about what has just happened moments ago, and even when the teacher tries to get everybody’s attention, nobody really cares, even if it looks like they do(this happened a lot in my school, and happened almost every time in the book, stated by Percy when the book said that he “got sent out to the hallways nearly every class”). This is very bad because getting distracted in class means that the distracted students will also not work as well, which means that a negative loop is more likely to appear, or the positive loop will slow down. Also, during the “accidents” that happened on field trips will very negatively affect Percy and his peers, and involves paying money for what happened.
Let us stop looking at the negative side of Percy, and instead, take a look at how he could fix his problems. Starting with getting distracted in class, this case has multiple solutions, that are all very simple. Firstly, the teacher could pay more attention to Percy, and make him less likely to get distracted and turn the bad loop that I mentioned above into a good loop. Percy could also work harder as an individual because if he does not do well in school, it will be hard for him to find a job as an adult. Percy’s second problem, however, is harder to deal with. The first problem will need lots of time, but the second problem needs Percy to think and react immediately. Whenever Percy sees or hears something that he does not enjoy, he just blurts out what he thinks. There are several ways to solve that problem. The first solution is to constantly have someone around to calm him down when he gets upset. Although that solution will see an immediate result, it is very hard to continue for more than a few days, as everyone has their agenda for things. Another solution is to make Percy’s perfect environment, but as we all know, that will cost a fortune that Percy does not have. The third solution is one of the most effective, however, Percy might feel. Everybody that Percy knows has to try to make Percy as bad a possible and giving him severe penalties for doing the wrong work. This will make Percy afraid of the rules, and, will solve the first problem at well.
The fourth and ultimate solution is for Percy to make/convince himself to do his work. Like my parent always say, “You can do anything, it is just a matter of if you want to do it or not”. This solution will require Percy’s morality to be high, and I, from the first-hand experience, have found that it is not always the easiest thing to have.
In conclusion, although ADHD is one of the reasons that Percy does not do well, there are many other reasons that Percy does not do well in school. If Percy would stop using ADHD as a cover for him to not work in school, Percy might do well and achieve a higher score than D’s and F’s. Fixing his problems will not only improve himself but also improve his community.
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