I was hanging out with my son today in the kid's nonfiction section at Barnes & Noble, one of his favorite places on earth (well, it really could be the nonfiction section of ANY bookstore).
Leaning innocently next to the almanacs; the "Wacky But True"s; and the good, old "Book of Why," we saw this book: "Are You Normal?" (At least they had the sense to put normal in quotation marks!)
I'm sure that title was someone's seemingly clever way of cheaply and quickly repackaging a bunch of facts from the "humans" section of any of those other books I mentioned above, but National Geographic, REALLY?This week's online autism community drama aside, "am I normal" is a very real, very poignant question for parents of any "quirky" kid. When they ask it, it can be glorious - because it requires a level of social awareness that might not come naturally. Still, when they ask it, how could your heart not skip a beat?
So my son sees this "Are You Normal?" crap, picks it up, flips through it, and puts it down.
Then he says this:
"Everyone should know there's no such thing as normal.I hugged him so hard.
A lot of people are going to be disappointed."
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*Here are a few thought-provoking posts and comment streams from well-respected blogs that touch on this disturbing divide.
- Along Came The Bird: A Different Look At Autism
- Yeah. Good Times. "I Wish He Was Normal"
- Mama Be Good: Power and Pain: The Autism Community and You Can't Hate Autism and Expect Acceptance
