Plano Senior High School is using a book entitled “The School of Hard Knocks” as a tool in its AVID program and student and teacher reaction has been positive.
The book serves as a platform for brothers A.C. and Axel Cristales, who grew up in Garland, to help others by sharing their life experiences. They learned that opportunities do not always present themselves in a positive way. People often learn the most from the negative, and sometimes painful, experiences.
Their father left them when they were young children which caused them to wonder why their father didn’t love them and why he didn’t want to be with them. It also left their mother with the hard task of being both mother and father and being solely responsible for financial support.
The boys didn’t have the opportunity to play sports and do the things that other children take for granted because they helped their mother with her job after school. There was also no money for extra activities.
A.C. learned from that experience, though, and prefers to see it in a positive light.
“There were times when I wish I could have played sports, but we were helping my mom clean offices,” he said. “But that work ethic and dedication to family, she passed on to my brother and me.”
A.C. uses words including phenomenal, courageous and selfless to describe his mother and he added that she loved A.C. and Axel unconditionally.
Axel Cristales
“We got in our share of trouble but she was still there for us,” he said. “I got suspended from Park Crest Elementary School when I was in fifth grade. When my mom came to pick me up, she was yelling and crying. I realized then that I wanted to do everything I could not to be the source of her suffering.”
A.C. shared that Abraham Lincoln said “‘Everything that I am and everything I hope to be I owe to my mom.”
“I feel the same way,” A.C. said. “At a time when my mom could have surrendered, she did everything in her power to raise us.”
Both A.C. and Axel are educators and both have worked for Garland ISD. The book came out of a program that A.C. started at Sam Houston Middle School when he was assistant principal. He tried to think of discipline alternatives other than suspension because he knew that it wasn’t working. He had the idea to start a mentoring program where he shared his own life experiences and he encouraged the students to talk about their difficulties. The group discussed possible solutions as well.
The Plano HS students started on the book after winter break, and since then, A.C. has met with them for Q&A.
“It was great to hear the ways that the book has impacted them and how they are putting it into practice,” he said. “That was everything my brother and I had envisioned when we wrote the book.”
The book has had a positive impact on students, especially those who are in similar situations as the brothers’ situation growing up. They are able to visit with someone who has been where they are and hear how they got through it. For example, students whose fathers are not in their lives have heard how A.C. has been able to forgive his father and it has been helpful. Click here to hear some of the students tell what they found helpful about the book.
The chapter called “Habits” is one that the students agreed has been one of the most beneficial. It has helped them understand what kind of people they want to be around and how those relationships influence the person that they become.
“Having positive people in my life made a huge difference,” A.C. said. “I got involved in church and I had teachers who saw potential in me and told me that. Those words were powerful to me.”
A.C., who currently teaches sociology at Richland College, said that the main objective was for the book to be genuine and real and transparent.
“We wanted to share our heart, our struggles and our experience and hope it helps people,” he said.
The brothers are happy that the school is using the book. A.C. said that was “everything they’d hoped for.”
Anyone, at any age, looking for positive life changes can learn from this book or be reminded of important lessons they learned before.