Do We Really Have a Choice?: How Normal or Good Students Are Constructed at My School.

             According to McRue (2002), compulsory able-bodiedness refers to the destructive, normalizing requirement placed on disabled bodies by society. When people in the society think of normality, they are most likely thinking in the able-bodied sense of it. This means that to be normal is to be able-bodied and to be able-bodied is to be free from physical disability. Such definitions of able-bodiedness imply only two choices for people in the society, and people are socially compelled to adhere to one: to be able-bodied, or otherwise to be disabled. Compulsory able-bodiedness, therefore, leaves no choices for people since it is a system that disciplines bodies in a society by forcing them to conform to a standard; if one is unable to conform, then one is considered as not normal or abnormal.

This concept gives me a new perspective to look at how normality is constructed in our everyday life. It seems to me now that we know by ourselves sometimes what we can and cannot do, regardless of the choices we have. In fact, we do not have choices; we have to follow what the other people considered normal or standard in order to fit in that society, otherwise we will be considered as abnormal or deviant. This idea makes me think back to what happen in the context of school and how normality is constructed in the classroom in particular and at school, in general. In this paper, I will explore how the normal or good students are constructed in the everyday life at my school, Princess Chulabhorn’s College Buriram, a public boarding secondary school in the northeast of Thailand. The focus will be on the students in Mattayom 6 (12 graders) since it is the class that I have taught at school for 12 years and I stayed at the dorm with some of the students for 4 years.

I would like to start with the little conversation I had with one of my colleagues in my department office after one student who came to hand in his assignment to me left the room.

My colleague: He is not a good student. He failed my class last year. He sometimes 
                        came to class, but he didn’t pay attention to the lesson and spent most 
                         of his class time sleeping. He had never done and handed in any 
                         assignments. How does he do in your class?
Me: He has done well so far in my class. Even though he hasn’t participated 
        much in class, he hasn’t missed the class and got all the assignments 
        done. He seems an okay student for me.

This conversation illustrates how normal or good students are constructed and perceived at my school in the classroom setting. In the classroom, students who are considered as normal (good students) are the ones who are obedient and they follow what teachers perceived as standards students should do in the classroom. In other words, good students are the ones who attend the class regularly and never are late for the class. They always sit quietly and pay attention to when the teacher is teaching in class. They also sometimes take note and laugh at the jokes the teacher sometimes makes. They don’t talk to their friend during the class or do something that distracts their classmates’ attention to the lesson. They sometimes answer the questions the teachers ask to them. In addition, they sometimes ask the questions both from their friends and teacher when they do not understand the lessons or the directions of the activities and the assignments they have to do during the class. However, some of them like to ask questions after the class ends. When they are assigned to do some activities in class, they are actively engaged with the activities and get the work done on time. They do their homework or assignments and send them on time. Importantly, they pay respect to the teacher and do not talk back to her/ him even though they seem not to agree with her/ him.

Here’s another conversation one of my students had with their friend when we were playing baseball on the school field in the evening.

Student 1: I think we better stop now; we need about ten minutes to walk back to our 
                              dorm. I don’t want to be punished because we go back to the dorm late 
                              again.
             Student 2: I agree. The dorm teachers are annoying. I don’t want to get into trouble.

At school in general, normality is constructed through the school rules. School rules are used to prescribe what students have to follow, and at the same time, shape the students’ behaviors. In order to be considered as good students, they have to follow the school rules. Since students stay in the dormitory, their routines begin early in the morning. They have to get up at 5 and come down to do the group exercise in front of their dormitory for 30 minutes. Then, they have to clean the areas they are responsible for in the dorm, make their beds, take a bath, and get dressed. They have to get ready for school by 6.50 when they come down and stand in line with their classmates in front of the dorm. They are checked by the teachers before walking to the school canteen where all students at school have breakfast altogether at 7.15. After they finish their breakfast, they stand in line again with their classmates and walk together to go through the check spot of the student committee who will check their uniforms. They have about 10 minutes to do whatever they want around the school field before they attend the morning school assembly at 7. 40 where they sing the national anthem, perform religious ceremony, and listen to school announcement and the teacher talk. At 8.15, their first class starts. At lunch time, they have to walk in line again with their classmates to the canteen, eat, and then do whatever they want with about 25 minutes they have before the afternoon class begins at 12.50. The school day ends at 4.10 and it’s time for their dorms to open as well. After school, there are many activities that they do. Most of students play on the school fields; go jogging, playing volleyball, playing soccer, playing basketball, or hanging out with their friends. Some students take the extra courses with the teachers, and some do their homework or assignments with groups of their friends in the school library. At 5.30, they have dinner and have to get back to the dorm by 6.00 to attend the evening assembly at their dorm which takes about 30 minutes. At 7.00, some students can come out of the dorm to take the evening extra courses until 8.30 but only with the teachers who are in charge of them picking them up at their dorm. At the dorm, students can watch TV or they can study in the study hall. However, they have to go to bed at 10.00. The students who want to continue working or studying have to do that in the study hall. The students who do not follow the school or dorm rules, they will get discipline lecture from the teachers or get punished. In addition, their behavior points will be deducted and if 50 points are deducted, they will have to do the community service for the school. Like the classroom setting, respect and politeness are considered important when students deal with teachers and staff at school.

This normality which is constructed in everyday life of students in Mattayom 6 at my school can be applied for all students in Mattayom 6. Those who do not follow on this standard both in the classroom and school in general are considered as bad students (deviant students). In other words, students have no choices; if they cannot be normal or good students, they will be labeled as bad or deviant students immediately. It seems like the school and teachers give them choices; nevertheless, they do not. In addition, in line with the idea Schweik (2009) discusses in her book The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public which links disabled with the poor people because they are both described as the objects of prejudice, devalued by the society, and thus should not be seen in public places, I found these bad or deviant students who cannot conform to the standard are sometimes ignored from the teachers or even their friends. In this case, deviant students are linked to disabled people and they should not be seen at school. Instead of making them want to adjust to school standards, it seems like this label make these students in a much worse situation and leave them out from the rest. As a consequence, when they go out into the society; they are also perceived as bad and deviant from people in general and have little chance for social mobility since they do not conform to the standards of the society. School serves as a place to label them as bad or deviant students and this label continues to get reproduced in the society later and this seems to go on and on from generation to generation.

In order not to make school a place to reproduce inequalities in the society, teachers have very important roles to disrupt this idea of normality and they should be the ones who start doing something about this first. In my opinion, instead of treating students they considered as deviance the ways they used to do by devaluing, ignoring, or excluding them, teachers have to deal with them differently by helping them to see values and gain confidence in themselves. In the case of my school, I think teachers should give these students opportunities to speak out about their problems and start working with them from there. Since we live in school like a family, I believe it’s important for teachers to show their students that they really care about them and want to help them to make the best from learning at school, not just trying to picking on them all the time. Positive learning experience in the classroom and at school in general can occur when they trust the teachers and they believe in themselves that they can do what the others do. From my own experience in my English class, I rarely have problems with students who are labeled from other teachers as bad students because I do not try to devalue them yet to help them to gain confidence and always assure them that they can do almost everything the others do if they try harder. They all attend every class of mine, do every assignment they have to do, and finish the class with good grades. Some of my students even come to talk with me when they have problems with other teachers and ask for advice.

References

McCruer, R.( 2002). Compulsory able-bodiedness and queer-disabled existence. In S. L.

        Snyder, B. J. Bruggeman& R. Garland-Thomson (Eds), Disability studies: Enabling the

        humanities, (pp.88-99). New York: Modern Language Association of America. 

Schweik, S. (2009). The Ugly Laws: Disability in Public. New York and London:

       NYU Press.