Neuronormative
Neuronormative refers to the dominant cultural framework that treats certain ways of thinking, feeling, sensing, and behaving—usually linear, verbal, regulated, and compliant—as normal, natural, and desirable, while positioning divergence from that standard as disruption, deficit, or disorder.
In schools, the neuronormative ideal shapes everything from classroom management to curriculum design, privileging children who sit still, speak on cue, and learn predictably, while pathologising those whose bodies move differently, whose emotions swell suddenly, or whose brilliance unfolds through nonconforming patterns.
To expose neuronormativity is to challenge the fantasy of a universal child—to name the systems that mistake homogeneity for harmony, and to demand an educational world capacious enough to honour neurodivergence not as a problem to fix, but as a variation to welcome, support, and celebrate.
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PBIS and oh, the places you’ll go
Remember that Dr. Seuss book promising unlimited potential? Oh, the places you’ll go! Well, PBIS has places to take your kid too. And you’re not going to like where this journey ends. It started with good intentions (it always does) Schools adopted Positive Behavioural Interventions and Supports to reduce suspensions. To build better communities. To…
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Finding my voice here
I speak in long sentences because I have waited long enough to say what I mean, because I think in spirals, and because the shape of my truth requires breath, pregnant pauses, and circling. I write the way I do because it is the way my thoughts arrive—rich, recursive, precise, emotional, and unwilling to fragment…
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Positive behavioural interventions and supports: a behaviourist rebrand
Positive behavioural interventions and supports circulates through British Columbia’s public schools with a gentle, polished confidence, offering administrators the comfort of matrices and fidelity tools, offering families soothing language about positivity and predictability, and presenting itself as an enlightened evolution of schoolwide discipline, yet what I see each time I study its structure is the…
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25 ways AI can encourage critical thinking and make your classroom more accessible
Educators have spent the last two years debating whether artificial intelligence belongs in the classroom, as though it were still possible to close the door on the tidal shift already transforming how children read, write, and think. Large language models (LLMs) are not a novelty—they are a new infrastructure for thought, capable of flexing around…
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PTSD, big reactions, and school’s responsibility for care
The presence of PTSD—whether diagnosed formally or manifesting in trauma-linked behaviours—does nothing to diminish a student’s legal right to safety, dignity, and education. Schools are bound by law to provide accommodations and proactive support to every student, including those whose distress may surface as loud, sudden, or intense reactions. PTSD can be the direct result…
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Thriving beyond survival: neurodivergence, environment, and disability justice
Every person’s ability to thrive is deeply shaped by their environment. None of us are our best self in a room starved of oxygen – in other words, even the healthiest individual would struggle in an inhospitable setting. This truth is magnified for neurodivergent people (such as autistic, ADHD, or otherwise neurologically atypical individuals) who often face…
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Non-coercive, trauma-informed alternatives to PBS/ABA in BC schools
Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) and Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) are behaviourist approaches widely used in schools to manage student behaviour. However, a growing chorus of neurodivergent advocates, educators, and researchers highlight that these methods often prioritise compliance and “normalising” behaviour over student well-being rcpsych.ac.uk. By focusing on making neurodivergent children appear neurotypical (meeting neuronormative standards), traditional PBS/ABA can…
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Not a stick in the mud
When I told another mom recently—someone kind, someone well-meaning, someone whose son used to play with mine back when things were easier—that I was feeling fragile about him being home since March, and that it had all gotten heavier than I expected, she responded gently and said, “Would he like to come over for a…
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He doesn’t go from zero to sixty
“He’s not a car,” I said, exasperated, after someone described Robin as going from zero to sixty. The withering look I received in return was pure disgust—as though I had interrupted a sacred adult ritual, as though I may as well have had a huge boil in the middle of my forehead, oozing pus. But…