Strangers to Our Own Society

Throughout the course of reading the Stranger, it has become apparent that our society has strong "cultural norms". These can be from the one that one looks, to the way that one handles situations. Mersault handled situations different than everyone else, and people never really knew how to handle him. At his mothers funeral, he didn't cry. He didn't seem like he was distraught and that was absurd to others. He wasn't inside the normal "box" so he seemed weird to everyone. Just like in our society today, people with special needs stand out like a sore thumb. They're different than the rest of us, mostly because of the way that the rest of us treat them. Students with disabilities can be just as functioning as everyone else, and they may not have any social problems so they do actually fit in, until we discriminate them. Throughout the course of this year, I got to intern in several different classrooms with many different types of children. I got to see how different children learn, and how beautifully unique each child is. I understand that we have to treat some humans different to fit their needs, however I think we need to cut back on our "social norms" and begin to broaden the spectrum.