I just have to comment on Jonathan Mooney’s powerful presentations at three Ohio colleges this past Sunday and Monday. For those of you who don’t know Jonathan, here’s the official story – He grew up with a learning difference that impacted the way he learns in the classroom. Labeled a troublemaker and told by his teachers that kids like him wind up in jail, Jonathan learned to read and write at the age of 12. Yet, he went on to attend Brown University and graduated with a 4.0 GPA. In his recent book, The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal, Mooney describes his experiences growing up with a disability and shares his journey across the country meeting others with learning differences in a “short bus” that he purchased and modified for his trip. More about that in my next post…
During his presentations at Otterbein, Southern State Community College, and the College of Mount St. Joseph, Jonathan wowed audiences with his dynamic presence and mind-bending stories. He challenged us to consider that the concept of NORMAL is a relatively new and false notion that emerged from the glorified standardization of the industrial revolution. Today, most of us knowingly or unknowingly judge ourselves against the concept of normalcy. We judge and measure the worth of others accordingly. In the process, we are less diverse and miles away from who we really are.
In school, “good kids” are the ones who sit still at their desk and do what the teacher tells them. A measure of a goodness is not whether the student is kind, or compassionate or caring. Nope, a good student is a compliant student. Clearly, we have a warped idea of what a good student is, a view that extends to other stations in life, ie. we are good citizens if we are compliant and obedient.
We reward and punish people into normalcy. If that doesn’t work, we sanction the removal from society all those who resist. We selectively eliminate any evidence that humans are naturally and beautifully diverse – all in the name of preserving and protecting normalcy and at the price of our own humanity.
Here’s Jonathan in his own words: What a simple, common, and destructive message: You’re not normal. How many people have been told, regardless of who they are, You’re not normal? But where did the idea of normalcy come from? How many lives has that idea screwed up? And how do people learn to reject the message that they have to conform to this way of being?
