Identity

Alice: Strive to be Normal


Alice was born in 1957 in Buckinghamshire. She went to mainstream primary schools and moved to a residential special school with her sister for her secondary education.

Here Alice describes how she identified herself as a young person.

  • Alice
  • Alice
  • Alice
https://howwasschool.allfie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/strive-to-be-normal.mp3

Transcript

When I left school, I swore never to have anything to do with any disabled people ever again, apart from my friends of course, because they were alright, they weren't really disabled people. And so I didn't for a long time mix with other disabled people except my friends. And also, but I think more importantly, was this kind of 'You have got to strive to be more normal than the normal' ethos that arose from old Florry's that until I discovered the Social Model at the age of about thirty three, I was being 'normal', and actually being normal as a disabled person is an incredibly stressful thing to do, so I'd spent, what was that about? Fifteen years, post leaving school, busy being normal, and, and being told that, that they, people didn't think of me as a disabled person and thinking that was the nicest thing they could say about me, and that I think was far more important than any other consideration.

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