Writer and Neurodiversity Advocate Jonathan Mooney says his 4’11” mother who swore like a truck driver and who sounded like Mini Mouse was always in his corner advocating for him, believing in him, fighting for him, and celebrating him. She’d tell educators, “If my son doesn’t learn the way he’s taught, well, teach the way he learns.”
This video appears in:
Transcript
A journey of healing and thriving with neurodiversity requires people in your corner, educators, a community like LD Online, and in my case, first and foremost, my mom in my corner. You know, my mom, quite a character. She’s not a tall woman. On a good day in high heels my mom is like 4’11, little Irish bulldog. [laughs]
And my mom has a really funny voice. She has a very high-pitched voice, it’s very squeaky, and she totally sounds like Minnie Mouse. My mom totally sounds like Minnie Mouse. So, a lot of people dismissed her, you know. She’s not tall, she sounds like a cartoon character, but let me tell you, people dismissed my mom at their own peril because my mother she cursed like a truck driver.
And I’ll tell you something, if you were a principal or a teacher doing wrong by me, you did not want cursing Minnie Mouse in your face. [laughs] But, that’s where my mom was, every day when things were going wrong for me, she was in that office.
My mom understood that I didn’t need somebody in my life to fix me, what I needed in my life was for somebody to fight for my right to learn differently, and that’s what my mom did. You know, my mom would say to anyone who would listen, teachers in particular, my mom would say, ‘If my son doesn’t learn the way he’s taught, well, guess what? Teach the way he learns.’
Not change the person, change the environment. She believed in me, she fought for me, she celebrated my unique strengths, gifts, and talents, and my journey of change and transformation was built on the foundation of advocacy that my mom represented in my life.
Because not only did she fight for me, not only did she give me the message I was worth fighting for, but eventually she gave me the message that I should fight for myself, and I’ve been doing that for 22 years, not just fighting for myself, but fighting for others, and will continue on that road as long as I can.
For more information about learning disabilities, please visit LDOnLine.org. This video was made possible by a partnership between the National Education Association and WETA.