Coloring Outside The Borders

A long time ago in a secluded chamber, the gods made a decision on what it meant to be "smart" and what it meant to be stupid. This ancient caste set the distinction for good and bad, not just in academe, but in the halls of homes and offices. At six, if you were a clever student who learned in traditional linear frames and colored within the lines, you were rewarded with good grades; described as "a promising student." But if you learned differently and weren't a traditional student, you were at best regarded as "average" and at worst, written off as dull or even "learning-impaired."

Consider an acquaintance named Jonathon Mooney. Written off as a hopeless under-achiever by his school system, crushed by the weight of Attention Deficit Disorder and Dyslexia, Mooney was more an inconvenience to his teachers than a challenge. With each passing school year, Jonathon and his beleaguered mother fought for the right to salvage his tortured academic experiences from the trail of wreckage known as K-12 education. While discouraged at every turn, Mrs. Mooney would give no quarter; on a monomaniac's mission to keep her son from falling into the canyon of the failed.

She worked late into the night, dragging her son through endless homework assignments, projects and reports. None of her years spent in this forever-never twilight seemed to help. She was in fact, playing for time. One day during Jonathon's early middle school years she was asked to report to the counseling office to discuss her son's travails. Counselor: "Mrs. Mooney, I'm afraid we've reached the limit of what we can do for your son ... he may need to consider an alternative to our school." The guidance counselor might have remembered the ancient order that commands, "Never scratch a tiger with a short stick."

Without raising her voice, Mrs. Mooney replied with steely expression and the resolve of a Navy Seal; her son would indeed remain in "their school" and was entitled to all resources available through the best-practices of public education. It was a short colloquy but the counselor got it. Somehow, Jonathon Mooney's relentless mother salvaged her son's dignity from the debris of 12 tenuous years' public education where so many students are routinely taught to dislike themselves.

Jonathon Mooney graduated cum laude, with Ivy League honors from venerable Brown University. His first book, Learning Outside the Lines, speaks to schools, parents, and anyone who'll listen about the perils of mistaking conventional learning with true intelligence.

Speaking to an audience, Mooney asks, "Do you see that janitor down at the end of the hall, working the night shift? Do you know who put him there? We did. He wasn't 'bright' or seen as a person with promise. He just fell through the cracks. Maybe he'd have made a great teacher."

You may ask, "What does this have to do with my daily universe?" Short answer: everything. The people we too quickly dismiss as "average" could be among our most gifted. The old-school views on who is smart, who's not, must give way to the willing suspension of disbelief. We're better off discovering hidden talent than to witness first hand our "average employee" who becomes our competitor's superstar.