Book Club - ODDLY NORMAL

ODDLY NORMAL
One Family's Struggle to Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms with His Sexuality 

disruptions-

In almost every grade doctors tried to diagnose him with a different disability. His parents had thought for a while that he was gay but the schools and the psychologists kept testing him and saying different things. They had an IEP meeting in the book and he was finally given an IEP. Some said that he has ASD and some ADHD and some aspergers and later on GT/LD. His IEP included “consistent and predictable” teaching methods and classroom environment with “no yelling”, constructive criticism, not negative comments and if the behavior isn’t disruptive please try to ignore it. This book was so interesting because it really showed the errors that can be made in diagnosis and the stress and heartache that that causes the kid and the parents. This was a disruption to me because I can see myself in the place of these teachers and doctors. I am taking the students with disabilities class right now and a lot of the behaviors line up with typical descriptions of many learning disabilities. This was disrupting because I feel like I am likely to make this same mistake and I also saw how damaging and terrible it was for both the child, joe, and his parents.
I was so sad in the very beginning of the book when joe was sad because all of his favorite toys were gone. His parents had taken them away because they were dolls and they didn't want him to be bullied once he got to school. This part caused me to stop and think and to put myself in the shoes of the parents. What would I have done in that situation? Is it wrong to take away the dolls or were they really helping him because he would have been bullied for that? It was a little disrupting to me to have to really put myself in these shoes because I don't know what the right answer is and that scares me because I don't want to make a mistake with my own children. 
Also throughout the book, both the teachers and the administration made it out that the parents weren’t doing a good job with their kid and that it was somehow his fault that he was misbehaving in  school. Which after reading their story so personally I could see so clearly how outrageous that is, and  now I want to make sure that I never make the mistaking of believing that.

Many of the school faculty and counselors said that they didn't think that Joseph was gay but that his behaviors were manifesting something else. In this case they were assuming that he was straight until it was proven that he was gay and even when the parents said they thought he was and there were many clues. This was disrupting because I could realize how heteronormativity is something that I can completely prone to. I would never even think any other way, and I could see how huge of a problem that is, and how wrong it is. 

Another disruption for me was the suicidal attempt and especially when he got to the doctors and they told them that he may have only been trying to seek attention. I understand that can be the case sometimes I think that was a little early to talk about that while the parents are still in shock and just want to make sure their child is okay. I felt that they were taking it a lot lighter than they should have and that was extremely frustrating and disrupting to me.

The entire novel related to class and many topics that we have been discussing. Some of the terms from class that I especially noticed coming out in the book were gender- nonconforming, gender roles and expectations, gender norms, gender expansive, heteronormativity. Gender norms and gender non conforming were a big part in the beginning of the book when Joseph was playing with dolls wanted pink light up shoes, to dress "girly". Heteronormativity played a part when many of the school faculty and counselors said that they didn't think that Joseph was gay but that his behaviors were manifesting something else. In this case they were assuming that he was straight until it was proven that he was gay and even when the parents said they thought he was and there were many clues. This made me realize how much our culture does revolve around heteronormativity.

I was so grateful for the new perspectives I was able to see during reading this book. There was so many things that I was unfamiliar with, and these ideas and experiences that I was exposed to will definitely help me to become a better teacher in my future. I plan to put a stop to any bullying or harrassing that happens in my classroom. I will stand up for the different kids and make sure the students understand that that is wrong and that it is unacceptable in my classroom.