“Normal” is Just a Setting on the Dryer

On a recent trip back to my hometown with my kids to visit my parents, I drove past one of the local rural elementary schools and saw this posted on their sign:

Coincidentally, a few days before the trip I received an email from one of my aunts who is a special education teacher.  She had attended a recent 2010 Autism Conference and had emailed a copy of her notes from the conference to all of her family and friends who might be interested in reading the notes from the sessions she attended.  As I skimmed through her notes I read this quote:

“Remember, there are NO ‘typical’ kids, just kids without IEPs”
— Dr. Jed Baker

Within one week I encountered two different versions of this idea that there are no normal or typical kids — each child is unique and has his or her very own unique needs.

As I read both of this statements, my initial reaction to both was “absolutely!”  Without questioning either statement I immediately agreed with the concept.  I think if I tweeted either of those statements out on Twitter, both would be retweeted many times over with possibly only a few people stopping to question the idea behind them.

I took the photo of the sign because I thought it would make a great conversation piece in some future workshop or presentation that I might facilitate. However, as I drove home I continued to reflect on the statement and on the act of posting this statement outside of the local elementary school.  By posting the statement, I would assume the school is saying “this is what we believe and this is how we approach our educational program.”

That’s all good and well… except… this is a typical elementary school that exists as part of a larger school system that serves all kids in the area.  I know that there are many hardworking educators in this particular school system and I am sure there are many hardworking, dedicated, and caring teachers who work in this particular elementary school.  I am sure all of them assume they are teaching individual children who all have individual needs.  None of their students are normal or typical — each is very unique.

But — how many of those teachers are NOT doing one or more of the following:

• using a district-generated curriculum & pacing guide that dictates where all students at each grade level should be at any given point in the year
• providing whole class instruction most of the day and expecting most, if not all students, to stay on track with the group
• introducing new concepts based on the curriculum & pacing guide rather than on individual students’ interests
• preparing all of the students for annual standardized tests that assume all children within certain grade levels should have same level of knowledge and skill at the same time regardless of their unique needs and abilities
• teaching classes of students who are grouped by age rather than by ability or skill levels

My point is that while many educators may agree with the concept of there being no normal or typical children, we work in a system that assumes that most children are “normal” and that only students who have certain identified needs will benefit from individualized learning plans. We work in a system that cannot accomodate the development and implementation of IEPs for every student — despite what we may believe (or profess to believe) about individual uniqueness.

I am certainly not criticizing any of the educators at this elementary school.  As I stated earlier, I have every reason to believe they are very dedicated and caring teachers who work hard every day of the year to provide the best possible learning environment for the students in their care.

I think my concern is that if we are going to make statements about the uniqueness of each individual student — statements that suggest that all students need and deserve individualized learning plans/environments/programs — then we need to be prepared to roll up our sleeves and create learning environments that allow for that kind of individualization.

Among many other flawed components of our system, we need to be prepared to do away with the following:

• age-based grade levels
• age-based curriculum standards (standards are great — as long as they are not tied to a particular age or grade level)
• focusing on time as opposed to learning (let students learn at their own individual pace rather than by the calendar year)
• instruction methods that assume all students can learn at the same pace and in the same way

I really do have some conflicted thoughts on this.  While I think the statements make for great sound bites, I question our use of the statements if we are not really prepared to reinvent our education system so that educators can really apply the concept of individualized learning for all.

I could be completely wrong on all of this… I would love to know what you think.  Please comment…

Change Agency by Stephanie Sandifer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. You may copy, distribute, transmit and/or remix this content for noncommercial uses as long as you attribute the work to Stephanie Sandifer (with link back to the original post) and agree to license the work under the same or similar license.