Question: Special Education in Japan

[sabro]

I know very little about the school system in Japan. I know that proficiency exams are required to move from one level to the next and kids wear uniforms.

I am a special education teacher in California. I work with children that have mild to moderate learning disabilities, but who participate fully in the general education curricula. (I don't know if this will make sense to anyone outside education)

Question: How do you educate children with special needs: learning disabilities, physical disabilities, emotional problems?

[Mandylion]

Don't know if this will help, but I came across it by chance.

http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/ge...20041021ag.htm

[okaeri_man]

i recall my first host family's mother was a teacher at a special school - one for children with moderate disabilities. i don't know much more than that... but i remember i visited her class once and we played games and talked about australia, stuff like that.

[sabro]

Thanks. Outstanding article

[Pierrot le Fou]

Currently, parents get to decide whether they want to send their children to a special needs school (yogo gakkou) or a regular elementary school. Within that elementary school, they get to choose whether the kid gets sent to the special class (usually it has the name of a flower, like himawari, or tanpopo), or if they go into a regular classroom.

I have never been to a yogo gakkou, so I can't very well comment on them.

I have, however, taught at 8 different elementary schools on a regular basis (several times a month at each for over a year each), and have taught in both the regular and handicapped classes. There are many little quirks of the system that I'll try to get into for you.

First of all, the teachers are not specially trained in regular elementary schools. The prior special ed teachers, who I thought were qualified, are simply regular homeroom teachers. They get some training for special needs education in their teacher training, but they are nothing approaching specialists. Every April, teachers change schools or jobs within the school, and in that pool of jobs to be filled is the special education teacher.

There are usually several teachers who manage the special ed students, regardless of if it is 7 students (the most I have in one school) or 1 student (the least I've had in a school). For serious disabilities (ones that confine movement, or require extra extra care) the parents may actually come in to the school to help out. Otherwise the care and teaching is done by the one teacher, and an assistant (who may or may not have special training).

Depending on the school, the teacher, and the administration, students spend various amounts of time in regular classes versus the special ed classroom. Generally handicapped students can interact with the regular students in certain subjects, be it English (which happens a lot), Gym, Music, or even some of the academic subjects like social studies or science.

The real problem that I have with the system is heavily disabled kids who participate solely in regular classes and classrooms. Oftentimes they don't have an extra teacher in the room to help handle them, which can cause some serious problems.

Because the school is not allowed to disclose the disabilities of the children to non-teachers (read: part-timers like me), I cannot say for certain what disabilities my students have. Sometimes teachers will tell me anyway, and sometimes it's just pretty obvious (down syndrome is pretty-easy to tell, as are OCD and autism). Other times, I can't figure out WHY a kid is in the handicapped class, save that they are just a bit slower than the rest of the kids (and even then, didn't we all have kids a little slow in our elementary school classes?).

However, as I was saying, having disabled students in a regular class can severely negatively impact the rest of the class. I had one student who had clear anger management issues if nothing more serious, and he would run outside of the classroom, hit the teacher, punch other students, grab at whatever I was holding, and generally disrupt the entire class. The other teacher had trouble keeping up with that one student during lessons, and didn't even have the benefit of me doing the teaching in other subjects.

When it comes to Junior High, it's the same system. Parents get to select which school their students go to. Generally the more disabled students (especially those with physical handicaps) do not go to Junior High. However, I have many of the same disabled kids from my elementary schools in the Junior High I teach in now, still in the handicapped class.

Personally I think that handicapped schools are just a better idea in many ways. While many of the handicapped students are treated wonderfully by the other students in the school, the fact is that the teachers aren't qualified for dealing with some of the more severe disabilities, and it causes the kids not the get the attention or education that they need. I am not criticizing the teachers for this, as it isn't as if they are at fault for not having been educated properly, but teaching special needs children is a tough job that requires lots of education.

That's 'bout all I know in a nutshell.

[Pararousia]

Originally Posted by Pierrot le Fou

However, as I was saying, having disabled students in a regular class can severely negatively impact the rest of the class. I had one student who had clear anger management issues if nothing more serious, and he would run outside of the classroom, hit the teacher, punch other students, grab at whatever I was holding, and generally disrupt the entire class. The other teacher had trouble keeping up with that one student during lessons, and didn't even have the benefit of me doing the teaching in other subjects.

I visited an elementary school in Shimonoseki when we were there in June and the poor elementary teachers had 30-40 kids in a class PLUS one or two special kids. One reminded me of the child Pierrot mentioned above. It was all the teacher could do to control that one child. I don't know how they manage!