Mooney's Class
Edward Mooney, Jr.
Antelope Valley Press
August 15, 2005

Title: Tools for school

You may have seen all the displays at retail stores around the AV. Like it or not, today many Antelope Valley schools open their doors to thousands of students.

Besides all the pencils, pens, rulers, paper and notebooks that kids all over this valley will be toting off to school in their new backpacks, I’m hoping they’ll be keeping a few other items handy – in their minds.

I hate to disappoint you, but I’m not speaking of times tables or lists of states and their capitals. I’m talking about the most critical factors affecting your success: why you go to school in the first place, and how to overcome the barriers that stop you from achieving your dreams.

For this column, don’t see me as a teacher. See me as a student from “That Seventies Show”. Yep, I sat in school desks for many long hours. I had one major dark cloud in my life back then, though. As much as I miss my father, back in my high school days he was a raging abusive alcoholic. It’s a miracle that he and I rebuilt our relationship – a testimony to two people committed to a relationship, no matter what it took.

I was an “at-risk” student. I gave up on school for a short time. As many of my students know, I am ashamed that I failed one class in my academic life. No, it wasn’t because I was unable to do the work. The biggest factor, I’ve learned, in failure, is the student giving up.

I gave up – until I ran into Mr. Lowell Schroeder, a decent, humble Christian man who I’ve written about before. He didn’t lecture me, or yell. He cared about me. He had patience. He had wisdom. I want to ask you to begin your new school year with words he offered me too many years ago. I don’t take any credit for the following words. They belong to that former Navy boat officer from World War II. He gave them to me, and I hereby hand them to you.

Tools for Winning in School

Carry a dream in your heart and mind. For all the talk about reform or new instructional methods, if you don’t want to be a part of school, you won’t be there, except physically. We parents and teachers need to find a way to ignite something deep inside you that will make you want to do well. If we don’t do this, then you’ll drift. This fire is the beginning of success.

Carry the joy of learning. If the joy of learning leaves, then you’ll want to be somewhere else. Once again, we teachers and parents need to ignite your desire to discover.

Carry the name of an adult you can trust. When one grows up in a dysfunctional family, one learns to shut down. At this point in your life, you need the guidance of adults. Find someone you can talk to.

Carry confidence and hope. Don’t believe your abusive alcoholic parent’s tirades. Also, many parents create glass ceilings – they unconsciously say, “don’t rise higher than I did in life”. Break that glass.

Carry a planner and do the work. Keeping up with the work is the best way to pass.

Carry your emotions, and express them properly. Feel what you have to feel. Learn how to know your fear and your anger. Talk to someone.

Carry an attitude: I will never give up. This is the only way to succeed in anything in life. Remember the first tool? Having a dream? How will you get there if you get discouraged?

I always wanted to be an author, but I gave up believing for a while. I chose to believe once more, and this time I refused to take no for an answer. I’m still on that trail. Yes, there’s too much focus on standards, testing and pressures – don’t let that stop you. Succeed anyway.

Remember what my mother always taught me: You may have lousy teachers, or a lousy home life. Succeed anyway. I didn’t want the alternative: living like my abusive alcoholic father.

I wanted to break free of the chain of alcoholism in my family. Education and caring are the legs that took me there. They’re available to you, too. Believe.

Thought for the Week:   " Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” - Albert Einstein

Edward Mooney, Jr., of Palmdale, is a teacher at Quartz Hill High School and the author of the novels "The Pearls of the Stone Man" and "The Journey of the Stone Man".