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 Anthony Cedolini (aka Tony), Ph.D., was born in upstate New York in 1942. At age 16, his family moved to San Jose, California, where he currently resides. He married Clare Marie DeRose in 1964, and they have three children. Dr. Cedolini has worked with children and parents for more than 50 years. He spent his first twelve years as a school psychologist and the remaining years in private practice as an educational psychologist, marriage, family, and child counselor. He and Clare, a learning diagnostician, worked together at their Educational Associates practice.
Tony initially attended the University of San Francisco (1960-2), then earned a bachelor's and master's degree from San Jose State University. After extensive research, his book, "Occupational Stress and Job Burnout," was published by Columbia University's Teachers College Press. It became the vehicle for his Ph.D. dissertation in educational psychology from Columbia Pacific University. He is also the author of three previous educational books. His first "A Parent's Guide to School Readiness" was published in 1971, his second "The Effect of Affect" in 1975, and "Occupational Stress and Job Burnout" in 1982. Throughout his career, he has provided seminars, publications, and newspaper articles.
Tony completed the book "Passport—Your Journey to Wit, Wisdom, and Inspiration" in 2018 for his extended family and friends. He just completed a revised edition, "The Classroom of Life," for general publication. The Classroom of Life is available on Amazon
Tony's passion and time have been primarily focused on helping children excel with the purpose of making their world a bit better. Consequently, he was recognized by Academic Therapy Publications as one of the "Outstanding Teachers in Exceptional Education". He has also been recognized by Who's Who In America for the past 35 years. He was co-founder and on the board of directors for Lyceum of Santa Clara County from 1971 to 2001. This Silicon Valley non-profit organization is self-supporting and relies on parent participation and professional volunteers. It provides after-school enrichment classes for intellectually gifted children, regardless of socio-economics. It has been responsible for some of the talented icons in high-tech Silicon Valley. Dr. Cedolini maintains interests in various organizations and activities outside of the mental health field. He especially enjoys reading, sharing ideas, humor, collects old coins and antiques. Tony’s other interests include classic cars, woodcarvings, travel, and winemaking. He has been semi-retired since 2017.
Interview with Literary Titan on 7/23/21.
The Classroom of Life shares inspirational stories, lessons learned, and wisdom gained through your life to help readers navigate the obstacles in their life. Why was this an important book for you to write?
The concept of the book was developed more than fifty years ago after our first child Maria was born. Each day as I looked into her darling face, I was confronted with the fact that life is replete with obstacles, challenges, and adversity. That epiphany sparked a personal mission to provide a more expeditious roadmap in order to successfully traverse life’s journey. It took 53 years to collect a compendium of useful knowledge and strategies from the many diverse gurus and sages of the past. As time passed, I determined that whether you’re a child, young adult, parent, or grandparent, this book would assist in navigating life’s journey. These lessons, inspirational stories, humor, memorabilia, and wisdom were gathered from the most venerated and enlightened minds and assembled in “The Classroom of Life”. It was my sincere hope that this knowledge would facilitate life’s complex journey.
What is a common misconception you feel young people have about challenges in life?
There are a number of misconceptions that young people have about their challenges in life. First and foremost is one's naiveté about the dangers faced and the subsequent catastrophic consequences. Few are equipped with a realistic concept of what to expect. They include stress, melancholy, adolescence, sex, letting go of past events, addictions, fears, and many more. Problems are an everyday occurrence requiring strategies to deal with their variety and seriousness. In addition, many, especially young adults, have a perceived sense of invulnerability and unrealistic feeling of herculean strength.
What were some ideas that were important for you to explore in this book?
It was very important to explore the many intricacies of everyone's life. My goal was to bring awareness and necessary action plans to tackle the many diverse and difficult situations faced regularly. It is with words of comfort and confidence that I offer new perspectives with meaningful answers. Being idealistic and optimistic I ultimately wanted to address the multitude of challenges we all face. They included the meaning of life, love, happiness, inner peace, freedom, and the pleasures that we all can achieve.
 What is one thing you hope readers take away from your book?
Hopefully, the reader will discover new understandings as well as viable and proven techniques to help deal with the daily stressors of age, anger, coping with difficult people, parenting, and the myriad of other obstacles and problems. Besides the many cogent quotes and righteous morals found throughout this treatise, I wanted to convey at least two very critical messages:
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant” Robert Louis Stevenson and, “We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as fools." Martin Luther King Jr.
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