Myth of Laziness : America's Top Learning Expert Shows How Kids and Parents Can Become More Productive

by Levine, Mel

• ISBN13: 9780743213684
• ISBN10: 0743213688
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-01-02
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

"When we call someone lazy, we condemn a human being," writes Mel Levine, M.D. InThe Myth of Laziness,the bestselling author ofA Mind at a Timeshows that children dismissed as unproductive or "lazy" usually suffer from what he calls "output failure" -- a neurodevelopmental dysfunction that can continue to cause difficulties into adulthood if left unchecked.The desire to be productive is universal, says Dr. Levine, but that drive can often be frustrated by dysfunctions that obstruct output or productivity. Drawing on his clinical experience and using real-life examples of both children and adults he has worked with, Dr. Levine shows how to identify and remedy these dysfunctions. A child suffering from language production dysfunction, for example, may be incapable of clearly expressing or explaining his thoughts, thereby leading to low productivity in school. A child who has difficulty making choices may wait until it is too late to complete a project or may act impulsively, creating a pattern of bad judgments. Similarly, a child with memory weaknesses may be unable to draw on his accumulated knowledge for an assignment. In each of these cases, as Dr. Levine shows, writing skills are often the key to diagnosing specific causes of output failure.Practical, wise, and compassionate,The Myth of Lazinessoffers parents and teachers day-to-day strategies and support to prevent output failure and, when necessary, to help children overcome dysfunction and become productive, successful adults.

Author Biography

Mel Levine, M.D. is professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina Medical School and director of its Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning. He is the founder and cochairman of All Kinds of Minds, a nonprofit institute for the understanding of differences in learning. The author of the national bestseller A Mind at a Time, he lives in the Raleigh-Durham area with his wife, Bambi, and many farm animals.

Excerpts

Prologue: The Myth of Sisyphus

Sisyphus, who founded the city of Corinth...witnessed the abduction of young Aegina, daughter of Asopus, at the hand of Zeus and revealed the name of the abductor to the girl's father....When at last he died at a great age, the gods made haste to give him a task that would hold him prisoner. He had to roll an enormous rock up a mountain and, when it reached the top, the rock rolled down to the bottom and Sisyphus' task began at the beginning again.

-- Pierre Grimal, "Greece: Myth and Logic" inLarousse World Mythology

In Greek mythology, King Sisyphus of Corinth witnessed Zeus's abduction of Aegina and told her father, the river god Asopus, who was searching for his lost daughter. Although Sisyphus was merely a bystander, his disclosure angered the other gods, who unjustly condemned him to spend eternity using his hands and his head to roll a mammoth boulder up a mountain in the underworld, repeating the arduous task over and over again.

Countless desperate children and adults are the modern-day versions of Sisyphus as they toil with their hands and their heads but fail to reach the hoped-for summits of performance in school and in the workplace. And so often they, too, are unjustly accused, in their case, of laziness. They, like Sisyphus, are innocent victims who deserve our sympathy and understanding, for they possess minds that learn and think better than they work. They may radiate brilliance when it comes to logical thinking, humor, and the social skills. But what they produce or the effort they put forth falls short of expectations -- the expectations of their parents, their teachers, their bosses. For them, work doesn't work. Like Sisyphus, they feel as if they are getting nowhere as they toil. Their low or nonexistent productivity is not their fault, not in the least intentional. Yet, like Sisyphus, they are often blamed and even punished for crimes they never committed.

Copyright © 2003 by Mel Levine

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Excerpted from The Myth of Laziness: America's Top Learning Expert Shows How Kids and Parents Can Become More Productive by Mel Levine
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