Normal...what's that even mean?

If you've kept up with the blog, then you know I'm getting my masters in counseling.
Well I was reading articles and case studies and you know...doing the whole grad school student thing when I came across something about a professor normalizing one of his students with a disability and it kind of set off a little spark in my head.

Now this is a hot topic in education today.

I'm not here to say what's right and what's wrong.

There certainly can be benefits for putting students with disabilities in regular classrooms (depending on the disability) and there can be faults to that.

Once again, I'm not here to say what's right and wrong, nor am I here to talk about education.

What ticked me off was that the professor who is supposed to cater to the student's disability was sitting there ignoring it....not not ignoring it...downright against it. The professor wanted the student to act "normal".

Now...I've wanted to be normal my whole life.
But what is normal, because normal means something different to everyone.
But.....
Normal for me is playing whatever sport you want to play and still being in no pain the next day. Normal is not taking 12 pills and a shot just to survive.
Normal is not having to get labs once every 2 weeks to make sure your liver isn't failing.
Normal is not having a disability.

In this case, the professor is normalizing the student, therefore she doesn't want to be normal anymore.

Does society not do this on a daily basis?

You have to be normal or you get made fun of.

You have to act just like the others or else you'll never fit in.

What's wrong with this picture?
Everything.

This student who needs the benefits to help her in life is not able to get them because society/the professor/average joe wants her to be normal.

How do we fix this?
How do we stop normalizing the stigma of a disability?
How do we demolish the idea that being normal is something that we should strive to be?

Go read my Accept Adaptation Post and you'll get an idea :)

We should be extraordinary with or without a disability.
We should want to be the best version of ourselves that we can be.

That professor was wrong.
Anybody who wishes normality on anyone is wrong.

See, I'm stubborn in the way that, let's take this example, that if I was forced to be normal...I wouldn't want to be it anymore.

In fact, I would downright ignore the person and be myself.

If you force something on someone, they aren't going to have a positive reaction to it.

Let the student have extra time on her test.
Let the kid stand up from time to time so his legs don't ache.
Let those who have wanted their whole lives to be normal, realize how uneventful it really is.

It's not hurting you in anyway, so why not?

While I've wanted to be normal my whole life, I've come to learn that nobody is ever really normal anyway.

And that's what's so great about it.

In the wise words of Grandma Aggie Cromwell from Halloweentown...