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 Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:17 pm
Recently, with all the battles over my 504 with my English teacher and the SAT people, I've been reflecting on my very short time in Japan, and a partiular experience that dealt a harsh blow.
I was a summer student with YFU, in Okinawa, Japan, and one of my area representatives used to teach at special ed schools. He took about 5 of us on a tour a various schools in the area, including schools for the deaf, mentaly challenged, physicaly handicapped, and blind.
Since I'm technicaly a "special needs" student, I've always been curious as to how learning dissabilities and handicaps are dealt with in Japan, and I was struck when I noticed just how much lower the quality of education was. Students are taught basic curriculums in class sizes of only a handful of students, or one-on-one. It seemed like the minorly afflicted kids were taught on the same level as the severly handicapped.
I really can't describe it...I met students who seemed completly normal, probably just ADD or dyslexia from what was described, and physicaly handicapped students with perfectly clear minds, but were dwarfs or had braces on their legs...And when the realization hit me that I would probably be one of those students, it wasn't easy to swallow.
So how are special needs students dealt with in the rest of Japan? I'm probably making a mountain out of a mole hole, but explaining ADD and dyslexia to my host family sure wasn't easy.
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 5:58 pm
I've been wondering about that too . . . not just Special Ed. though, but about how disability in general is handled in Japan. In the UK, it seems to be handled really well, since we have the Disability Discrimination Act and stuff like that. In Japan, I don't know if they have such things in place. Benig partially sighted, I'm curious ^_^
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 10:46 am
My guess is that they are similar to the UK and the US. There are going to be places in which you have poor quality help, while in other cases and areas, you have help of all sorts and in various kinds. At least that's my guess.
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 2:56 pm
This is anecdotal evidence, but in 1 Litre of Tears the disability school says it won't continue their high school education at all, it just works with them and their disabilities. That wasn't the fanciest school, but it looked pretty nice, so I'd guess it was somewhat upscale.
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Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:15 pm
i have no idea
i also have a questions do the regular schools have special ed programs? like the public highschools here in the U.S.? and also how are they viewed upon by the other students?
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Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:44 pm
I think it's just like it is in the US
but I could be wrong.
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Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 3:23 pm
missgothiclolita i have no idea i also have a questions do the regular schools have special ed programs? like the public highschools here in the U.S.? and also how are they viewed upon by the other students? I believe that the schools do not integrate the special ed into normal classrooms, at least not very often. The view from other students probably varies, just like here in the US.
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Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 3:52 pm
I taught a special ed English class at one of the junior high schools I was assigned to. It was comprised of three students (freshmen). They had their own class room and their own teachers. One of the students, he was able to take his English classes with the rest of the students. However, the other two had a special English class and I taught only them like once a month while everyone else got a class with me once a week, in additional to their weekly English classes.
The two special ed students I did teach had very easy lessons. Quite simple and elementary. We played picture games and read from a different text book. Their English skills were very good but I think the pace of the mainstream class would have been too fast for them thus their own separate lessons.
As far as how Japan treats those with disabilities and etc., I think they "deal" with it but it is taxing to them because their loved ones are not to the standards of what society expects. Society can be very brutal in Japan. I found that many Japanese stifled themselves and didnt release emotion because it was something not looked favorably upon.
Original Poster, the school you went to was it in Naha? I think a friend of mine taught at the school and he loved it. He said that the blind students were so keen when someone entered the building. They heard things like the change rattle in his pockets and when they came to say hello they would do so by touching his face. He loved it there and thoroughly loved teaching his students.
*experiences from the JET Program. If you have questions PM me at this avi or Xiankai. 3nodding
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 1:09 pm
I believe some schools in the U.S. have special ed programs. Mine does they have seperate classes but have chances to interact with the other students.
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Posted: Mon Feb 26, 2007 11:07 pm
From my understanding, in any school that you go to, you have to be tested into. So most likely, they tested really poorly and were sent to the special needs school. It probably doesn't matter what disability you have, as long as you scored into the school... so basically you'll get the same education with people of those who scored around what they did.
Thats just my guess...
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Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 10:47 pm
I'm an ALT in Japan and I have two Special Needs Schools I got to each twice a month...
They seemed pretty decent...though I'd never had any expreance with any kind of special need children...
the Schools seemed conected, they're practcaly right next to each other.
One was big, about the size of a regular Japanese High School and the other one was small, maybe only a couple hundred kids...both schools have Elemntary, Jr. High and High School sections.
The Bigger one I was told is for kids with more mental handicaps, the classes were no more than 5 to 7 kids and each one had a teacher or aid... the smaller school is for students with some kind of phisical handicap along with some mental handicap and classes where no bigger than 3 students
In both schools the handicaps ranged from Low to High disablity, and they would keep kids in the same disability group.
my expreance is very similare to 1koza's
simple lessons slow paced elemntary lessons. I played memory matching games and read picture books like The Giving Tree and If you Give a Mouse a Cookie In the High school classes I taught in, they seemed to speak undersand English better that the High School Students I teach and "Normal" mainstream schools.
I love teaching at the specal needs schools. the kids are always happy to see you and the teachers are really nice.
about the treatment of people with disabilites, In Japan they have a saying that tranclates as "The nail that sticks out is hammered down" so sticking out in any way is bad...tho that is changing...slowly...In Japan, it's not so bad.
But Aisa in genaral has bad treatment of people with disabilies...Korea is by far the worst I think. they treat people with disablities like they'er sub human...
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Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:28 am
hmm well if it is anything like the US I would be put in advanced classes for my capacity but then put in the lower clases for my output XD;;;;.... * is a sad reality * * also just a joking thing *
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Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:43 pm
Don't most schools teach languages with simple elementary stuff anyway? I mean, that's how you have to start out a language. Our french teacher always played memory/matching games with us and Bingo (she called it Oo la la though).
Er, we are talking about teaching Special Japanese students English as a second language, right? (It might help me to know what year these students were in, too)
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Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 4:26 pm
I agree with what Tsuki Chan Sempai said. Its true that they have special schools for special needs people, but Japan is NOT handicap friendly. I can't say too much about mental disabilities, but it is definately not the same as in the US or UK. I think people need to understand that Japanese culture is not the most tolerant of cultures. They are also perhaps one of the most "psychological" races as well. Tsuki Chan Sempai is right about the not sticking out thing. Just so everyone knows, you know how almost everywhere in the US is handicap friendly, with ramps, elevators, etc? Well, not in Japan. I was in a wheelchair due to a sports injury and I couldnt get anywhere....it was really surprising since you dont notice these things unless you're put in that situation.
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Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 2:52 am
I don't know if this really has to do with handicaps
But some of the Japanese people I know left Japan
Just so that they could escape the pressuring society
As my friend couldnt' keep up with the "standards"
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