We should challenge the concept of “normal” and instead embrace the things that make us different, this year’s Talbot Speaker told students. Mr. Mooney, an author and lecturer who advocates for people with learning disabilities and attentional disorders, urged students to draw upon their unique skills and personalities to make their mark in the world. Mr. Mooney, a Brown University graduate who has dyslexia and attention deficit disorder (ADD), did not learn to read until he was 12, and today spells at a third-grade level. While at Brown, he and a few fellow students founded Project Eye-to-Eye, a mentoring program for students diagnosed as learning disabled or with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. His first book, co-written with fellow Brown student David Cole, Learning Outside the Lines, is a guide for students with learning challenges. In 2007, Mr. Mooney published his memoir, The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal.
“We have this idea that the ‘good kid’ is the compliant kid; the ‘good kid’ is the kid who sits still and learns quietly. But that’s a narrow definition of what constitutes intelligence, and it leaves a lot of people out. The best innovators and creators are not compliant people. They’re questioners. They challenge what is considered normal.”