A European mother and her young adopted African son were referred to this clinician for an evaluation due to extreme behavior problems in school and significant difficulty learning in a group. The evaluation process quickly becomes quite complex: do we assign Western diagnoses such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder? Or do we instead consider his life experiences? The stakes are higher since only the diagnosis of a learning disorder will grant him school accommodations and fee reimbursement from the insurance. The author concludes that diagnosis does not always allow the complexity of a child to appear and be helped, and ultimately affects how a teacher will interpret the child’s character.