Hello bloggers today I read a text called What is 'Normal That isn't Normal' and my task is to highlight green the important sentence in a paragraph. I hope you enjoy.
When people say hurtful things to each other, they often use the insult that someone isn't normal. They call them crazy, weird or a freak—there are lots of different ways of saying it, but they're all trying to suggest that someone is bad for being different.
The thing is, people don't really know very much about what is normal. Everyone has an idea of 'normal', but it's probably very much mistaken. Maybe in one group of friends it's normal to be into cars or a particular pop group, but that is only normal among that small group of people -- and it is likely that not all of them are really that interested anyway, they might simply pretend to fit in with what they think everyone else likes. In another group of friends it might be normal to like completely different things.
What seems normal can change a lot as well. It used to be normal that children didn't go to school-instead, most of them stayed at home and worked with their parents, usually on a farm. They would think it was very strange to sit in a classroom and learn about the world. But even today, What's normal in one school might be strange in another one. At school in Japan the children chat together about their pet robot dogs, but probably if you did that people would think you were weird. If people think you're not quite normal, you might just be a bit unlucky“maybe the things you like are not very popular in the corner of the world you happen to live in right now, but they wouldn't seem at all strange if you lived somewhere else, or at a different time.
In fact, it is normal to be quite weird. At first that sounds crazy. How can it be normal to be strange? But it makes sense when you think about it. What 'normal' means is 'like other people'. But what are other people really like? It is much trickier to answer this question than you might suppose. As we've already discovered earlier in this book, you don't get to see the whole of anyone. Everyone is much more strange and interesting than they may seem: they have weird thoughts in the middle of the night that they never tell other people about. When they're on their own they do funny things that they would never do in front of other people. They act completely differently, too, when they are with their granny or their mum than the way they do at school with their friends. That's because the way someone is at school is only a little part of who they really are. You know this, because that's what you are like. Other children at school are really much more unusual than they appear. If you feel odd or weird sometimes, don't worry—you probably have a lot more in common with others than you think. It is just that the others are keeping the odder bits of themselves hidden.
You might think: 'I do not care about being normal. What is so good about being normal anyway?' It's a good question. A lot of philosophers started to have good ideas when they stopped caring so much about what others thought. Maybe you will, tool.
So in summary: Some people will say “You are a strange,weird and unusual person!!”
