Day-to-day life in a Japanese elementary school (specifically small town)/blindness accommodation?

[chierii]

So I have a kid character who's been homeschooled/informally taught before moving to a small town in Japan. She's noticeably not Japanese and hasn't had any introduction to the culture, though she's been taught the language and is conversationally fluent. She's about nine or ten years old

Comments

[fjm]

I'm having trouble imagining a child taught to be almost fluent in Japanese and not taught to use chopsticks. I grew up in Birmingham (UK) which has a large China town and can barely remember not being able to use them.

Re the ritual: the key thing I remember from an old documentary is that Japanese children start the day by cleaning their classroom.

These key words worked for me: japanese elementary school documentary

[swan_tower]

I was going to mention classroom-cleaning, yeah, though I don't know for sure when during the day it happens.

Also, my sister (who taught English in Japan, though in a high school -- which might well be different) said that the teachers moved between rooms, rather than the students doing so, when classes changed.

I believe she'd leave her shoes in a locker at the entrance?

Those are the only random details I can remember from my sister. From the manga Tokyo Babylon, I know that (at least at the time it was written), Japan didn't have much in the way of accomodation for blind people, compared with the U.S.; the seeing eye dog thing was only just getting started there. No idea what it's like now, though. If she's dependent on a service animal, that might well create problems.

[chierii]

The language thing is kind of a special setting-specific case. I don't have any control over that (not an original work).

But thanks for the keywords, I'll try them out!

[lady_bealzabub]

... is this for katawa shoujo?

[an_kayoh]

I work at three elementary schools in a town of about 4500 people in northern, coastal Japan

[an_kayoh]

Hmm...seem to have written a small novel.

There's also these:

MEXT - Special Needs Education

MEXT - Guide for foreign students to start school

MEXT is the ministry in charge of education, poking around that site might help with some of your research.

Kids Web Japan - Meet the Kids - this site has school profiles on some elementary and middle schools around the country. You can get a good idea of the daily life and activities from there. There's also a school for the physically handicapped featured.

[fjm]

fascinating.Thank you.

[chierii]

Oh wow, this is a lot of great info. And the links you added are awesome too. Thanks a lot!

And given all that she'll probably have her own dedicated teacher, though she'll definitely be trying to rejoin the class for...everything she possibly can. She's a stubborn one. Should prove fun to write. Thanks again!

[lilacsigil]

Japan is not good at mainstreaming disabled students. It's much more likely that she'll be at a special school (because of her blindness, not because of being foreign). The schools are quite well-funded and well-staffed compared to disabled education in most Western countries. If she's in a small town she might get a specialist teacher to help her in a regular school but it's more likely that she'd travel (up to 2 hours each way) to a larger city if at all possible. A friend of mine had a 1 hour 40 minute commute each way and there were a small number of deaf students who attended a nearby school and commuted even further than that as it was the only school for disabled students in the area

[chierii]

I don't know enough to say for sure whether there's a school for the disabled anywhere nearby at all so I think I'll play it safe and have her get a specialist teacher, though as I said above she'll be trying really hard to integrate, stubborn as she is. Probably more fun to write that way too!

The language thing is a weird setting-specific thing, one of the few fantasy elements present at this point. I didn't go into any detail about it because I didn't think it was relevant.

Thanks for the info!

[chierii]

As I said to others above, I'll probably be going with the removed from regular classes deal. But from what you've said, if she insisted on integrating with the regular classes as much as she could (and her guardian would want her to integrate if it was brought to him), would she be allowed to?

Also coddling/overcompensating treatment is definitely one of the best ways to annoy her, so it sounds like I'm on the right track with that one. Thanks!

[chierii]

I'll see what I can do with what I have. Thanks!

[busaikko]

Is she Japanese nationality? Because foreign students who require language support in some localities have been told they don't need to attend local schools: compulsory education is only for Japanese.... (This does not happen everywhere; in many cases kids are just thrown in and expected to cope somehow; but for a small school which is not equipped for a disabled child, and the family not willing to send her to a special support school*... I can see the principal suggesting strongly to her parents that they hire a katei kyoshi (home tutor).) If her mother (or other family member) were willing to attend school with her and help out, the school would probably agree (this happened at our school, the mother sat next to her daughter in all classes

[chierii]

Not Japanese, but circumstances have kind of left her with the local school as the only choice. Her guardian works at the local high school, so he can't sit in with her, but would it be feasible for a classmate to help out?

Can't read braille yet, but I can definitely see her guardian teaching her how to read it after school. Perhaps in addition to someone teaching her there?