What is Normal?

Society deems having high functioning Autism as, in layman's terms, how well you pass as "normal".

Now, I put normal in quotations, because what really is normal?

We live in a world filled with so many interesting and different cultures, that what's "normal" to someone in America, is abnormal somewhere in Asia.

Even in the same country, city; families have different "normal". Going beyond the parents (1 Mum, 1 Dad; 2 Dads; Step Parents, etc.) I remember classmates being picked up by their parents after school; they would swear and disrespect them without consequence.

If my siblings or I tried saying some of those things that our peers did, our parents would knock our heads off! Maybe not literally, but we would be in trouble. A lot of trouble.

When I think of the word normal. What comes to mind is, I believe, Einstein's quote, "Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."

I remember a time, I must of been 6 or 7 years old. My class had this silent reading program where you had to read silently for 45minutes. So I thought, great! I love reading. One small problem, and I don't say this to brag, but I already had a high school reading level.

We had this book shelf in the classroom. Full of tons of books, all different levels of reading up to around the grade above us.

I brought my own books from home or the library. It sounds like problem solved, but it wasn't.

My teacher thought I couldn't read these large, thick books; and therefore I was just pretending to read.

Despite my objections, a new rule was implemented. We could only read books in the classroom.

Being the logical thinker I am, I read the large dictionary that was kept at the front of the room. (This was a time before the internet was mainstream. We had to look up how to spell words in a book. LOL)

I was being a smart aleck. The dictionary magically disappeared. Defeated, I read the books on the shelf. But I read them in 5-10 minutes. Getting up to get a new one each time.

Now I'm disrupting the class. And there's no way I read all those books. Even though, I could tell her the plot and characters of each book.

I was sent to sit in the hallway during silent reading.

It was supposed to be a punishment, but I enjoyed it. It was quiet, I could read my book from home, and nobody threw things at me. I chalked it up to a win in my books.

This is just one story, but because I didn't fit in that square box of a 6 year old's reading level; I was punished. Punished for something that should be encouraged. Isn't that the goal, to be educated?

I had other teachers that encouraged me, challenged me. They modified my work to make it harder, they graded me based on my standards not my peers. They did it because they were outstanding teachers. I never had an IEP or anything; being in a small town, they weren't really here yet. We had them, but they were only used for the kids with severe issues. (I don't know the politically correct terminology here. So I apologize if I offend someone) The kids who had lower IQs (IQ tests are stupid but that's another topic, for another time), the kids with feeding tubes and wheelchairs, or the kids who were extremely disruptive (would hit themselves, hit others, etc.)

IEP's now are very mainstream in the schools. And they're for anyone. If someone is dyslexic, they can have an IEP which gives them extra time on English work. Back in my day, I sound old... the sad thing is I'm not. It just shows how far the school system has come. Back in my day, the dyslexic kid silently struggled and the class groaned when he was asked to read.

But I'm rambling on here. I guess that is the title of my blog though.

To the main point, we had these standardized tests we had to take almost every year. They were a big deal, only number two pencil, no extra marks, fill in the circle completely. They didn't count as grades, they were just so the government could see if we reached the average requirement for reading, writing, and mathematics. As well as track our growth in the subjects.

What about science? What about Art? What about the other subjects we learn in our curriculum, why are they not important enough?

We studied for months for these tests; hours and hours that could have been used to enrich our lives. Instead we were taught how to fill in a circle. To see if we matched up with the country's average.

For a few years I tried on these tests; probably did well. We never were told our scores, we were just a number.

Then I got curious; I started purposefully filling in the wrong answers. Not all of them, just enough to fail.

Nothing happened.

The next year, I answered every single question wrong.

Nothing happened.

If we were actually being tracked, why was nothing said? Shouldn't I have been questioned? You got an A last year, but this year you failed.

I don't know, it just seemed weird to me.

This post has gotten away from me; started as a rant about normal, and then somehow turned into a rant against standardized tests.
It's getting quite long now, so I'm going to end things here.