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Cheers and tears with Jonathan Mooney at AT&T Park
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On Saturday April 25, 2009 Jonathan Mooney celebrated neurodiversity with the biggest group of learning disabled kids in history at San Francisco's AT&T Park. By the morning of the event there were over 1100 registrants. Jonathon was the keynote speaker at the Education Revolution 2009, sponsored by the Parents Education Network (PEN).
Mooney, who grew up in San Francisco, is an brilliant young man who had a severe reading disability and ADHD. He didn't learn to read until he was 12 years. He has an amazing career. He graduated with degree in English Literature (usually a major which dyslexics avoid) from Brown University. He has written two books, Learning Outside the Lines and The Short Bus. http://www.jonathanmooney.com/ He is also the founder and president of Project Eye to Eye, an advocacy and mentoring non-profit program for learning disabled students. Project Eye-To-Eye currently has 20 chapters, in 13 states working with over 3,000 students, parents and educators nation wide.
Jonathon told amazing stories with great humor and warmth. He spoke of his mother. She was a tiny woman with a "Minnie Mouse" voice who would swear like a sailor and thought nothing of bursting into the Principal's office and giving him an full blown piece of her mind. Jon claimed the school simply tolerated him because they lived in fear of the wrath of a "Minnie Mouse invasion."
Jonathan spoke of his experience working with adults in his mentoring program. He spoke of working with an adult who had been incarcerated for running a 50 person drug ring. Jonathon used this example to make a great point about how schools and society need to learn to see the strengths of LD kids, not just their weakness. This former inmate said, "You know I am dyslexic, I can't read and I couldn't succeed in school, What am I supposed to do?". Jonathon's response, "Dude! You are an entrepreneur! You just need a different product!"
Underneath all the humor was the underlying current of pain, shame and daily embarrassment of attending school as a learning disabled student.
I have two teens, one with learning difference and one with high functioning autism. They both had experiences of failure in public school. Each was clinically depressed by the age of 10. They laughed along with Jonathan, but almost every child there has been subjected to pain growing up in an "antiquated school system." One can't help but wonder, how many years will it take before schools undergo the major teaching reform? How many years will we taxpayers pay schools to repeat the same mistakes generation after generation? How many jails will we buld before we "get it"?
My 16 year old's best friend attended the event with him. His friend was fortunate enough to be placed (thanks to parents who chose to hire an advocate) into Charles Armstrong School by 2nd grade. He said to his Mom, "You know I was really lucky, I never had to go though all the pain all these kids went thru."
Jonathan described visiting a classroom. In the back of the classroom, he saw a giant box with a little head bobbing around inside. Later he asked the principal about the situation in the classroom. He principal replied "Oh that is just Jack!" The crowd laughed about the Jack in the box, but at the same time, one wonders how this child must feel about having his desk surrounded by a box, isolating him from the rest of the "normal" children.
The rest of the day was spent visiting exhibitors and getting to learn about the many resources available in the Bay Area to support children. Each of my children found friends, past and present to hang out with. We also had full run of the ENTIRE baseball field, the batting cages, running the bases and we got to sit in the dugout! Any child who wanted to, could tell their story on video tape with a film crew who hung out in the dugout. All in all, it was a fabulous day!
Thanks to PEN, the Parents Education Network for putting on such an innovative event for children and families!
Thanks to the San Francisco Giants for their helpful and hospitable staff as well as letting us use their outstanding facility. It was dream come true for everyone, kids and adults alike!
For more info: http://www.parentseducationnetwork.org/
To peninsula parents! A new tutoring resource location as of May 4, 2009
The Reading Clinic
514 Bryant Street, Suite 118
Palo Alto, CA 94301
If you have any questions about our programs or the services they offer, call Jonathan Purbeck at (650) 558-9069
www.thereadingclinic.com
Palo Alto, CA 94301
If you have any questions about our programs or the services they offer, call Jonathan Purbeck at (650) 558-9069
www.thereadingclinic.com
More About:
disablities ·
prisons ·
education ·
literacy ·
SFUSD ·
autism ·
reading ·
educational reform
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