What Is "Normal?"

Thursday, September 5: Pass on some useful advice or information you learned and always remembered.

This prompt reminded me somewhat of one of the prompts from the "Blog Everyday In May" challenge where I wrote about some of the pieces of advice/things I've learned that no one taught me in school.  You can read that post here.  So for today's prompt, I thought I'd focus more on a piece of information I've learned and always remembered. 

I took countless psychology courses as a Psych major during undergrad, then again while working on my masters in Special Education.  Some of the things I learned in these classes I found very useful, while some things of course, were quickly forgotten.  There is one theory/ piece of information, that has really stuck with me though.  I can't even remember in what class this idea was discussed... I wish I had saved the article or book from which I read this theory.  But I didn't... so I'm just going to attempt to summarize from memory and briefly discuss how this idea affects the way I view the world and the people I interact with. 

There is a theory that is gaining momentum in the psychology world that disorders, disabilities, "normalcy" exists on a spectrum.  So basically, rather than a very black and white idea of normal vs. disordered, there is lots of grey area that can represent a huge range of conditions.  The best part of this theory is that everyone, yes everyone, exists on this spectrum in terms of different personality characteristics, feelings, habits,  ability, thought processes, etc.  This idea allows for a huge amount of variance regarding what we consider normal and "not normal." 

I love this idea because I really think it helps take away a lot of the stigma of having a psychological disorder.  If everyone is on this spectrum, it's hard to categorize/stereotype along the lines of "normal" vs. "different/not normal/disordered" etc.  It also acknowledges that we can (and do) move along this spectrum throughout our lives. 

Being a special education teacher, this idea really helps frame how I think about and interact with my students.  I also think this idea is really helpful in the education world, because it falls right in line with the movement toward full inclusion for all students, regardless of ability... which I'm a big proponent of.  I also think this can help us in how we interact with people- both those we know and even strangers.  It can help us to be more compassionate, understanding, accepting, and forgiving. 

I wish I had an actual link to an article about this theory to share, but I just cannot seem to find what I'm looking for.  If I do run across it, I'll add it here. 
 
A pretty serious, somewhat academic topic that's a bit out of the ordinary for my blog, but I guess that's what this challenge is for- to get us thinking about, exploring, and sharing ideas/thoughts. 

Annnndddd because no post is complete without photos, here are a few teaching photos from my special education classrooms over the years :-)

A project my former middle-schoolers did about famous people with disabilities