{"id":4457,"date":"2010-02-02T12:22:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-02T20:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.philosophyforchildren.org\/what-is-normal\/"},"modified":"2010-02-02T12:22:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-02T20:22:00","slug":"what-is-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/what-is-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"What is normal?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_I-bvyBpij2c\/S2iBx1UAN0I\/AAAAAAAAAUY\/AA_weyMA1yg\/s1600-h\/normal3.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 256px;\" src=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_I-bvyBpij2c\/S2iBx1UAN0I\/AAAAAAAAAUY\/AA_weyMA1yg\/s400\/normal3.gif\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433735643547055938\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div>When I was in a fifth grade classroom last week, the students told me that they had been puzzling a little together about the meaning of &#8220;normal,&#8221; and wanted to ask me about it. What is normal?<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The dictionary says being normal is being &#8220;an average person,&#8221; the students told me. <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;But no one is the same,&#8221; one student said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Well, what does it mean to be an average person?&#8221; I asked.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Well, an example of not normal would be pouring gasoline on your cereal,&#8221; offered a student. <\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;But what if there was a city the size of Washington DC whose population all poured gasoline on their cereal every morning? It would be normal for them,&#8221; countered another.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;And what would make that normal?&#8221; I asked.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;The fact that most people do it,&#8221; answered the student.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;So then is the meaning of normal what most people are or do?&#8221; I asked.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Perhaps normal is whatever your tradition or culture thinks you should do,&#8221; suggested a student. &#8220;Something might be normal to other people, but not within your tradition.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I think that normal is just something that we think,&#8221; mused another student. &#8220;Like nothing is really normal. Normal is just something people round things off to. It&#8217;s normal to open a door to go to school, so it&#8217;s usually true, but sometimes it&#8217;s not like that. Normal is just a thought people use to round off how we understand things.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Kind of like a shorthand, to describe how we ordinarily do things?&#8221; I asked.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Yes, exactly,&#8221; he replied.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;But it&#8217;s a shorthand for what <i>most <\/i>people think,&#8221; responded a student.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;Sometimes it&#8217;s good to be what people call &#8216;not normal,&#8217; &#8221; another student broke in. &#8220;It would be really boring if everyone was normal, whatever normal is.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I was in a fifth grade classroom last week, the students told me that they had been puzzling a little together about the meaning of &#8220;normal,&#8221; and wanted to ask me about it. What is normal? The dictionary says being normal is being &#8220;an average person,&#8221; the students told me. &#8220;But no one is <a href=\"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/what-is-normal\/\" class=\"more-link\">&#8230;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  What is normal?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[201,196,195],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classroom-discussion","category-philosophy-for-children","category-wondering-aloud"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What is normal? - PLATO - Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is normal? - a post from PLATO - The Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/what-is-normal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is normal? - PLATO - Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is normal? - a post from PLATO - The Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/what-is-normal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"PLATO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PLATOPhilosophy?fref=ts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-02-02T20:22:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/plato-philosophy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/normal3-1.gif\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"525\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"336\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jana Mohr Lone\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@WGAdmin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@platoorg\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/what-is-normal\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/what-is-normal\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jana Mohr Lone\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/73f61769c3bfdaeefc1633dd9cc8d59c\"},\"headline\":\"What is normal?\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-02-02T20:22:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/what-is-normal\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":303,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/what-is-normal\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/normal3-1.gif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Classroom Discussion\",\"philosophy for children\",\"Wondering Aloud\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/what-is-normal\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/what-is-normal\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/plato-philosophy.org\\\/what-is-normal\\\/\",\"name\":\"What is normal? 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