I love what the dyslexic and ADHD genius Thomas Edison said when asked by a reporter how it felt to have failed 10,000 times at developing the light bulb. Edison calmly replied, “Well, so far, I’ve found 10,000 ways it doesn’t work.” On October 22, 1879, he experienced success: a light bulb that lasted 40 hours. Edison continued to improve this design and by November 4, 1879, he filed for U.S. patent 223,898 (granted on January 27, 1880) for an electric lamp using “a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected to platina contact wires”.
Edison was awarded 1,368 patents during his lifetime. He was a tremendous problem solver: many of his inventions were designed to solve problems. Edison was also a tremendous goal achiever: he once said, “I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work.”
Setting & achieving goals reduces the feelings of poor internal control many children with learning and attention challenges feel. Students who struggle do well with a structured approach to goal setting. Goal setting helps a child recognize the cause and effect of her efforts: just as Edison said, “When I have fully decided that a result is worth getting, I go ahead of it and make trial after trial until it comes.”
For more about the life of Thomas Alva Edison see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison
(c) 2009, flexiture, monte w. davenport, ph.d.
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