Completed: 11/22/2020
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Recommended By: My cousin, Amee, via my wife
Review:
Different is not normal. There are many ways to be different, but only one way to be normal. Those of us who are different (in whatever way) feel less than or at least other than. Mooney talks about learning disabilities, but also addresses how he extends his understanding of differences to include anything that isn't "normal." Sexual, physical, or simply approach to life. I really liked the distinction between dyslexia and dysteachia. I have thought that it is critical to meet kids where they are in order for those kids to learn. Differences acknowledges and values the need to see kids/adults as individuals, to teach and relate to those individuals as individuals. My father, a psychologist, has said, "people are people wherever you go." Of course he did. If he didn't then psychology makes little sense. I think that people are wonderfully different everywhere and that the difference is frequently the source of what makes them wonderful. This book was freeing to read.
Mr. Orr, a pedophile who preyed on children in my school, made me feel like a person who was valued. He did not prey on me and, for that, I am glad. I was so hungry for acceptance, though, he must have seen me as a potential victim. As it turns out, for whatever reason, I wasn't his type. I remember him, though, as someone who believed in me. Maybe it was just because he did and it wasn't related to his sexual desire for young men. I hope so. Regardless of the reality, I am glad of his support and sad for the young men who were not simply supported, but were abused. This book brought him to my mind because he accepted the outcast and celebrated the unusual. I hope that was not just a ploy to abuse the outcast and the unusual.
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