Homoeopathic remedies for school problems
2. Concentration Difficulties
Aethusa cynapium (fool’s parsley)
Lives in his fantasy world
The Aethusa-child sits in the class deeply immersed in his fantasy world. It does not register any of his boring lessons. These boring things do not interest him at all. He cannot recognize any connection to his inner dream world, which is more real to him than the outside world. It is beautiful, alive and full of unlimited possibilities. He is so captured from this that he looses contact to school.
The teacher notices the absentmindedness of the Aethusa-child and tries to get him back into the reality of the German lessons by asking questions. In the morning it is especially difficult to connect with the child because it is too lazy to talk. The Aethusa-child is drawn out of his wonderful fantasies and stares at the teacher. He becomes pale, even the upper lip is pale and on the cheeks there are red spots. He cannot utter a word because he does not know what she is talking about. The teacher tries to get the attention with a summary of the lessons. The brain takes in the material but it does not make any sense to him because the information of the brain is not passed on into his fantasy world. He lives and creates only from his imaginary centre. The Aethusa-child looks at the teacher and thinks: “I live in a wonderful world. What should I do with your world? One says the earth is beautiful, but I have a thousand more beautiful pictures in my book of fantasy. If you could enter my world you would forget your world.”
The Aethusa-child can hardly integrate into a community and have contact with his classmates because the others do not know his world and cannot understand it. He has a lot of empathy for his classmates. He would like to enter their world to tell them about his fantasy world but nobody seems to be interested. So he decides to withdraw.
One only has to think of the “Neverending Story” by Michael Ende, of the land “Fantasia”. The Aethusa spirit has written this book so that the fantasy became the real world. If, for example, there are airplanes constantly circling in his head they appear in his imagination in fantastic colours or forms, such as a flower or a dinosaur. He does not register absolutely anything of the lessons in this condition.
If a child has difficulties to concentrate and has a lively fantasy then Aethusa is the correct teaching material. It helps him to learn better and to integrate his fantasies. Then he can experience the outside world as reality. Exactly as his own world stems from his fantasy, others have created for him the earth from their fantasy. But his difficulty stems from the fact that he experiences the earth as a terrible creation. Everything here is so dry, careless and not interesting. Therefore, he does not see the necessity of school at all. He does not understand what he should do there and that life itself is a learning process.
The Aethusa-child can already be recognized when being a baby because the baby cannot digest the milk and vomits it in big clumps. He must learn that there is a certain kind of substance which he needs in order to develop. At school there is a mental substance. Here it is exactly as it is with the mother milk. The Aethusa-pupil is not willing to take in the substance. He doesn’t need it and spits it out. the denser he becomes, the more learning material is given against his will. If he had the choice he would only need fantasy milk, almond mild or others. Mother milk is simply too boring.
The Aethusa-pupil is mostly lively and active and has a strong mobility urge. If he has to concentrate on something he becomes more and more dense. This way the experience with the mother milk is repeated. The more he gets what he really needs the sicker he looks. The eyes of the baby change through the mother’s milk. The more the Aethusa-child removes from what he needs the more energy he feels but he looks sicker.
So if the Aethusa-child gets the healing remedy Aethusa in its baby time then school difficulties and learning concentration disturbances can be prevented at an early stage. Leave him his fantasies and he will have unlimited energies.
His motto is:
“Realize your fantasies into the reality!”
Case example
Markus has serious difficulties at school.
Constantly he is absent-minded and does not have any answers. He dreams or fidgets. Everything distracts him. If he sees a flower then the blossom hides a world of stories. Markus has a constant urge to move. At home he cannot stay with a game. He only wants to be outside and romp around. In the private area he needs constant stimulation. All passive occupations such a TV or reading he doesn’t like.
After Markus has taken Aethusa LM30 two drops daily for a period of time he becomes more self-assured and actively participated in the lessons. He began to like school and discovered the usefulness of school.
Agaricus muscarius (Fly Agaric)
Standstill of thoughts
The pupil Agaricus is asked by his history teacher in the first lesson: “Agaricus, can you tell me something about inquisition?” Agaricus does not react. The teacher who does not know the weaknesses of the pupil asks him a second time: “Are you still asleep, Agaricus? Maybe you better get up in order to wake up.” Agaricus understood the words of the teacher from the beginning but the sense did not touch his brain. He stares at the teacher and gets up awkwardly. This way a chair falls down loudly. This wakes up the whole class but not the brains cells of Agaricus.
“Would you repeat you question? The inquisition, what is that? I have heard the word before but it does not make any sense to me at the moment. I think I better sit down again.”
“But Agaricus, let your brain work. We have talked about it during the last lesson.” The teacher tries to encourage him. “I simply cannot do it.”
Agaricus uses his brain cells sparingly and only makes such an effort as it is necessary for making the next grade. Why should one waste one’s energy? Agaricus believes to catch the essentials of school somehow. The subtleties will be taught by life. (Similarities to Tuberculinum)
This way you can see with Agaricus a disgust against all tasks where he has to think. This does not only include mental tasks at school but includes thinking in general. If he has to think, blood goes into his head, his face becomes hot and his thinking ability is immediately disturbed. The Agaricus pupil does not like to talk, because when talking he has to think. He does not find the correct words because his brain activity is at a standstill. If he would not try so hard in this state and tense up his thoughts could flow easily. He has to make a big effort to connect with that what he has heard before.
The state of the Agaricus-pupil in the morning corresponds approximately to a grownup who drank too much the evening before and who is now totally out of it. There is an absolute standstill of thought as if somebody has beaten you with a hammer on the head. The further the day continues the more mobile he becomes. Only at noon he notices a clearing of his brain. In the morning he is evil-tempered and stupid. In this condition he should go to school? He goes but the lessons don’t mean anything to him.
Later during the day the stream of thoughts flow by him. In the evening the pupil starts to rhyme. Now he is even charming. It flows forth from him and everybody is captivated. In the evening his physical immobility has disappeared. He dances, sings and lives it up.
The remedy Agaricus furthers the general mobility and general coordination of the muscles. The Agaricus pupil does not feel like speaking or learning languages. Either he doesn’t say anything or not the right thing. As small children they can make sounds or sing songs, but cannot speak. For these children it is a big effort to go to school. They have to try hard but can understand little.
The Agaricus-pupil might have a great mobility which is sometimes badly coordinated and that makes him restless. If you want something specific from his he becomes malicious or gets into rage. These children can become a threat for their environment through their undirected rage. They concoct rash and vengeful plans. Their brains function now – but in a destructive direction.
If he tries to suppress willingly his flush in the morning and to let it go he immediately gets dizzy. Where his will power is not strong enough it can even lead into involuntary movements and convulsions.
In a positive condition the Agaricus-child is relaxed and able to absorb. His brain is automatically concentred on the lessons and he has no difficulties to absorb them. At the same time he sees different application possibilities of the material.
In a negative condition his brain and will are not coordinated. The child tries but cannot concentrate. In the morning he is tired and cannot think. He blushes while speaking. He has an aversion against any mental exercise or work. Awkward children stumble easily and have no talent for sports. They do not like to answer. The Agaicus-type does not find the correct words and does many mistakes when writing.
His motto is:
“If school makes sense it benefits you!”
Ammonium carbonicum (Hartshorn)
Distracted and jumpy
The hartshorn is a leavening which is mainly used in Christmas bakery. It binds the oxygen and makes the cakes fluffy. During Christmas time you can easily recognize the child which needs Ammonium carbonicum as homeopathic remedy because it develops an almost ever-hungry craving for lard cookies, lebkuchen (ginger bread) and other cookies which where baked with hartshorn. He who has already eaten too much from these precious cookies knows how they affect the little grey cells – namely chaos in the brain!
The Ammonium carbonicum-pupil wants to know this exactly and asks his biology teacher: “What does the Ammonium-carbonicum condition look like?”
The biology teacher explains it: “Hartshorn needs a lot of oxygen. If you do not have enough oxygen in the blood your brain does not function anymore. Then we can do breathing exercises at an open window. Inhale deeply and let go everything when exhaling.”
That reminds the Ammonium carbonicum-pupil of his last asthma attack. Because he could not stop eating Lebkuchen he became short of breath. The teacher awakes from his memories of the last Christmas time: “You see, when you don’t exhale enough you get carbon dioxide poisoning of the brain.”
The Ammonium carbonicum-pupil decides to have fewer cookies in future. That is not easy for him in dull November days. He always lightened up his mood by having sweets. The performances of the Ammonium carbonicum-pupil also depend very much on the weather. On a cloudy day he is in a bad mood. Then he becomes stubborn, unruly and does not want any contradiction. On such days he is not willing to be guided and it is even more difficult for him to write a German essay. He has great difficulties to stay with the subject. Constantly he has new thoughts and writes them down incoherently. Often there is no end.
If he is to say something during the lessons he is afraid to express himself because he does not know how to clear his ideas in his head. Because he knows that he cannot create any inner order and does not have any overview he is very careful with everything and tries not to get into unpleasant situations. Mostly he likes to go to school but gradually he is overwhelmed by the information influx and his brain becomes a balloon. It is all too much for him. He closes himself up and does not allow anything to touch him.
The central problem of the Ammonium carbonicum-pupil is that he does not want to give anything from himself. He practically suffocates from his metabolic products, may it be carbon monoxide or his ideas in his head. Also he does not like to be washed. Rather, he runs around dirty.
The Ammonium carbonicum-pupil needs a lot of sleep so that his body and brain can regenerate themselves, the carbon acid can be eliminated and his brain cells can work again.
In a negative condition, the incoming information cannot be processed and stored because oxygen is lacking.
- He cannot structure his thoughts, does not find a beginning nor an end, especially when writing essays.
- In his head there is chaos and he pushes everything away from him. In this condition he is very tense, short tempered and wants to be left alone.
- After having lard cookies or other sweets he has a desire for savoury foods. He feels better after a good food.
- He makes mistakes when spelling, arithmetic, writing and speaking.
- Dull weather interferes with his mood and performance.
- Words become tangled when talking. He names the item which he sees instead of the desired one.
- He forgets what he wanted to say.
- He is very distractive and has totally different thought from the one which are part of the topic.
In a positive condition the Ammonium carbonicum-pupil can process the received information immediately, can digest it and direct it to the proper place. There is an optimal supply of oxygen so that the brain cells can work.
His motto is:
“Inhale the strength of the clean air!”
…to be continued
From: “Homöopathischer Ratgeber – Schulschwierigkeiten (Homoeopathic Advisor – School Difficulties, No. 19, 6th issue 2011, Lage & Roy publishing house, D-82418 Riegsee-Hagen
Comments are closed.