I recently attended the Division on Career Development
and Transition (DCDT) Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. The keynote speaker on the first morning was Jonathan Mooney, a learning disabilities advocate and public speaker.
Jonathan Mooney is an activist and writer with dyslexia who did not learn to read until he was 12 years old. He is a graduate of Brown University and holds an honors degree in English Literature. He is co-founder of Project Eye-To-Eye, a widely duplicated mentoring program for students with disabilities. He is also a winner of the prestigious Truman Scholarship for graduate studies in creative writing and education and was a national finalist for the Rhodes scholarship.
Jonathan has authored two books and lectured at Harvard University, Brown University, the University of Wisconsin, New York University Medical School’s Grand Rounds and Beaumont Pediatric Hospital’s Grand Rounds. He has been featured and quoted in The New York Times, The Providence Journal, The Boston Globe, USA Today, and numerous other local and regional papers in the cities, states, and countries where he has traveled.
Speaking to a room of special educators and professionals, Jonathan emphasized what he believed to be the real issue at hand. Self-concept. The core disability that individuals must overcome is how they view themselves. Before he was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia, Jonathan was labeled as the ‘stupid, lazy, crazy kid’ because he couldn’t sit still and couldn’t read. He heard, “what is wrong with you?!” over and over again in his elementary school days.
Jonathan dropped out of school for a year in 6th grade because he believed what his teachers were telling him about himself. He believed that he was stupid, lazy, and crazy. That was his real disability; his negative self-concept. And this self-concept led him to a very dark place. During the time when he was out of school he devised a plan to kill himself. The turning point for Jonathan was when his mom brought home a CNN video of an interview with a man who had dyslexia who had received a Law degree from Harvard. Seeing an image of a positive future for the first time, Jonathan finally saw that he could have a very different future than the one his teachers were assuring him of.
Sadly, it seems that society values one brain at the cost of all others. This was why no one believed Jonathan could succeed. He didn’t learn to read until he was 12-years-old. We think that the smart kid is the kid who reads, the smarter kid is the kid who reads early, and the smartest kid is the one who reads early and fast. You’ve all heard people bragging about how early their child can read or do multiplication, yet we never hear anyone saying, “My daughter is amazing at building things with her blocks” or, “My son is really intuitive about other people’s emotions and needs”. Where did we come up with this idea that only ‘readers’ are smart? Why can’t we realize that cognitive and physical differences are a valuable form of diversity? Difference is not deficiency.
Jonathan didn’t overcome dyslexia. He didn’t beat ADHD. At nearly 30-years-old he still reads and writes at a third grade level and, as he says, “has the attention span of a gnat.” What he overcame was his negative self-image. He overcame the picture of a bleak future.
Secondly, Mooney stressed that lives are changed by people-not programs, not software, not products, not systems. When looking at resilient adults who had overcome difficulties in their early lives, 95% of them reported that during childhood they had one meaningful adult who had inspired them. An educational professional, a janitor, a counselor, a parent. Be that person for someone.
Jonathan talked about how, unfortunately, the bar was constantly lowered for him in school, so low that he was tripping on it, falling down and not getting back up. A high school guidance counselor told Jonathan that ‘kids like you don’t graduate from high school’, ‘kids like you will end up flipping burgers for the rest of your life’, and ‘most kids like you end up incarcerated.’ But Jonathan did graduate from high school, he is a successful entrepreneur, and he has never been incarcerated. Thankfully, Jonathan also had a few people who believed he could succeed. These were the meaningful adults who inspired his resiliency.
Mooney stressed to his audience the need to raise the bar of expectations and then give people strategies to get over that bar. Often we spend so much time focusing on what is wrong with a person and lose sight of what is right with them. We should accommodate weaknesses and scale strengths. Everyone is good at something! Spend time focusing on these things and how they can be magnified.
“To be human is to be valuable.” Period. Everyone has a fundamental right to be different. Everyday, people live meaningful, valuable lives, not despite their differences but because of them.
http://www.jonathanmooney.com/
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