Edison was at the bottom of his class and considered difficult, prone to distraction, and “developmentally delayed.” Biographer Edmund Morris quotes him as saying, “I used never to be able to get along at school. I don’t know what it was, but I was always at the foot of the class. . . . My father thought I was stupid, and at last I almost decided I must really be a dunce.” In today’s education system, Edison might have been labeled ADHD, as are nearly one in seven American boys. Mechanical thinkers like Edison often become bored in classroom settings dominated by verbal learning. These are the
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