Champion of Students with Learning Differences To Speak at Elmhurst College This Week

Jonathan Mooney advocates with a rebellious, uplifting voice that will strike a chord with anyone who has had a hard time marching in step with a culture of “normality.”

Once considered “severely learning disabled,” Mooney, who is dyslexic, did not learn to read until he was 12. He went on to graduate from Brown University with an honors degree in English, and has become an activist for students with learning differences.

Mooney will present We’re Not Broken: Empowering Students with Learning Differences at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 5, at Elmhurst College, 190 Prospect Ave.

His lecture will be the first in Elmhurst College’s Education in Crisis lecture series, a yearlong look at the significant challenges facing American education. Other speakers in the series will include education historian Diane Ravitch, veteran public school reformer Paul Vallas and Pulitzer-Prize winning author and historian Taylor Branch.

Jonathan Mooney is co-founder and president of Project Eye-to-Eye, a mentoring and advocacy nonprofit organization for students with learning differences. With the publication of Learning Outside the Lines, a book that is part memoir and part alternative study skills, Mooney has established himself as a leader in LD/ADHD, disabilities and alternative education. His second book, The Short Bus Story, is a work of creative nonfiction, part travel literature, part memoir and part oral history, consisting of true tales of physical and cognitive deviance from a cross-country journey through disabled culture.

Admission is $20 for the general public and free for Elmhurst College students, faculty, staff and alumni. Tickets are available online, or call (630) 617-3390 for more information.

A complete list of fall lectures is available on the college's website. For educators, several of the lectures, including the Jonathan Mooney event, will qualify for Continuing Professional Development Units. Forms will be available at each event that qualifies.

Source: Elmhurst College