Brown’s Foucauldian analysis of social organization of space in the classroom corroborates the educator’s oft-held belief and offers insight on why boys might be diagnosed more than girls. Brown observed in a nursery that one peer group of boys took over space in the playroom using "expansive bodily movements (such as striding movements, arm-waving and purposeful marching)" (103). This domination of space, notes Brown, has been validated by other studies and "primary aged boys have been found to monopolize playground spaces and can control up to as much as ten times more space than girls." She quotes Thorne in recognizing that playgrounds have "a more fixed geography of gender" than other spaces and links "space, gender identities and noise levels in playrooms," attributing the high and unmanageable noise levels to "boisterous boys" (103). This seems very much in line with Faludi’s picture of the American male:

"The man controlling his environment is today the prevailing American image of masculinity. A man is expected to prove himself not by being part of society but by being untouched by it, soaring above it. He is to travel unfettered, beyond society’s clutches, alone—making or breaking whatever or whoever crosses his path. He is to be in the driver’s seat, the king of the road, forever charging down the open highway, along that masculine Möbius strip that cycles endlessly through a numbing stream of movies, TV shows, novels, advertisements, and pop tunes. He is a man because he won’t be stopped" (10).

However, Laurie’s story seemed to refute the aforementioned “values of heteronormativity, ableism, maleness and whiteness” as they “merge in the cultural constitution of schooling” (Goodley, 100-101). Laurie, a white, suburban, mother who has two boys on the spectrum—one autistic and the other ADHD--spoke of their diagnoses:

"For my older son who is now 18, I think the challenge was that we didn’t get the diagnosis until 7th grade; he is on the autism spectrum what some parents refer to now as high functioning the attention didn’t come into play until 7th grade. The clinician told me that in most kids like him Aspergers is so intertwined. They are capable of great focus when they are working on something they like and can focus on. In the school setting it was really easy and he didn’t really have to try until his junior year when he had to study for a physics test that it became really difficult."

About her second son’s diagnosis she noted,

"I don’t know if the school system would've caught him either because I put him in a preschool when he was three, in a Montessori with a woman who was taught at college level; she was a special ed. instructor. I put him in their because I was concerned that maybe he had autism as well my son--wasn’t diagnosed until second grade and I followed him closely in the school setting and what I found with him--and maybe this happens with girls--he didn’t have behavioral challenges he would just stop working, he would go quite and just stop working but he wouldn’t tell the teacher. His kindergarten teacher would try talking to him and she said, “I don’t know I try talking to him but he just stops and sits and doesn’t do something” and pretty soon he would start working again."

Laurie’s account throws into question the ‘common sense’ statements that claim how ADHD boys behave; an assertion based on gendered discourses about male behavior. That is not to say that heteronormativity, whiteness and ableism do not play a significant role in how teachers decide who seeks help; this discussion complicates that narrative and opens questions about how we perform gender, ‘should’ perform gender and how the attributes associated with gender specificity leave wide open spaces for interpretation and oversight. In this cultural formation and phenomenon, to quote Goodley echoeing Erevelles, "the main thrust appears to reside in making different children less intrusive rather than shifting schools to become more inclusive" (101).