Jason Tomes

For some of my 14 years in Japan, I worked as a junior high school teacher. Working in several different junior high schools allowed me to have some experiences I am sure I would never otherwise have had. Being fluent in Japanese also opened the doors to some unique opportunities. Some of my most memorable experiences took place in the special education classes in Japan’s junior high schools.

Because Japan requires that everyone finish junior high school, public school classes are provided for students requiring special education. These classes often have cute or inspiring names. One common designation for the classes is the “Nakayoshi Gakkyu”. This would be the “get along well” class.

Japanese educational law states that if a parent wants their child educated in regular classes instead of the special education class, their request will be honored. Some people reading this may have taught in the JET or some other program and wondered why some of their students were never put into special education sections. This may have been because of a lack of facilities, or upon the request of the student’s parents.

If anyone out there is currently teaching in Japan, there are several reasons I believe it will be worth your while to request a few teaching hours with the special education classes. I list some of them here:

• The special education teachers in Japan are top-of-the-class educators. They are some of the best, most open-minded, and well trained people I have ever met.
• The students tend to absolutely love English, and are often quite good. They make observable progress, and many feel less inhibited when speaking English than when speaking Japanese.
• It gives a teacher someone to root for. Often, the native English speaking teacher at a school has to teach so many different classes that when the Taiikusai Sports Festival, Bunkasai School Festival, and school year sports tournaments come up, it’s hard to know who to cheer for. The special education class is a good one to identify with and support.
• Teaching special education is both challenging and educational. If you are interested in cognition, the learning process, the design of materials and assessments, or any serious educational pursuit, teaching these kids will make you think and learn.
• The memories will stay with you. I have both good and scary memories of teaching special education… mostly good. I like to think the students also remember me.

I have an anecdote to illustrate this last point. Once I was teaching a class in which there was a boy who could speak very little, and couldn’t move most of his body. He was confined to a wheel chair that he steered with his chin. The regular teacher for the class told me that he doesn’t really like English because the English teachers always make him feel like they want him to speak more. Having poor motor skills in his mouth and tongue, he doesn’t really enjoy speaking, let alone a language such as English requiring oral acrobatics.

I taught his class for 6 months doing my best to include him and not pressure him. He did the necessary work, and from what I observed, understood English as well as his classmates. I still, though, had not been able to make him laugh. I knew that he laughed with his teacher and classmates, but I had never seen him laugh in English class. Then one day when other students were silent and writing something, our eyes met. For a moment, he froze and had a look in his eyes I had never seen before. I could have interpreted it as either horror or humor, but then in the midst of the silence, he farted.

His classmates and teacher started laughing out of control. The boy was also laughing as hard as I’d ever seen and had tears in his eyes. When everyone calmed down and got themselves under control, I put on my most serious “teacher-face” and said, “Now that is called a “fart”. It will be on your next exam,” at which time laughter ensued for a few minutes more.

Since that day, silent moments during class often elicited suspicious or accusing smiles from the students in the class. If eyes met, laughter soon followed. The boy I mentioned above, even began to try to sound out English words, and did a pretty good job of it.

I have other stories of fun and funny times teaching special students in Japan, as I’m sure many of my readers do as well. Feel free to share in the comments and inspire our fellow teachers to venture into the colorful classroom down the hall.