| News
& Views
- Jun, 1992 Issue |
Special Needs
Japanese Students
By Diane Rapp, Educational Consultant
Scarborough, New York
(914) 945-0630
In the February issue, Lon mentioned placing a young man from
Japan in an alternative program and the probability of more
such students coming. It is important for us to respond to
this challenge, but we must do so with our eyes open. Students
from Japan, while in some ways the same as adolescents the
world over, in other ways are infinitely more complex. Having
lived in Japan for over 10 years and worked as an educational
consultant placing Asian students for six, I have some opinions
I would like to share with you.
There are more kids
with special needs coming from Japan; affluence has created
many troubled kids, and the U.S. is perceived as a place that
will take anybody, because of our historic generosity and
current economic woes.
While many of our
special needs programs are perfect in theory for these kids,
some approaches may not be. Counselors should be familiar
with Asian culture and ethics. Questions of identity are complicated:
do we want to make these kids Americans or prepare them to
return to their own society? Are behavior patterns that are
acceptable in their culture, but not in ours, permissible?
Schools and special programs must understand the complex linguistic,
academic, social, and cultural needs of these kids.
Some boarding schools
have felt that "once they learn English everything will be
fine." Even with reasonable English skills, everything is
not so fine for many of these kids, even the "untroubled"
ones. These students may have undiagnosed learning disabilities,
and after years of struggle and humiliation, their self-esteem
has almost disappeared. They are failures in a society in
which success is critical. Substance use and abuse is common
among teenagers, with alcohol and cigarette vending machines
on every street corner.
In Japan, psychiatry
and psychology are just beginning to be part of diagnosis
and treatment; it is still a stigma to ask for such help.
It would be ideal to have a Japanese psychologist on staff
or at least available on a consulting basis, but this is practically
impossible, particularly in remote areas in which many programs
are located.
Parents have virtually
no understanding of the approach of our therapeutic schools,
so any on-going dialogue or attempt to discover background
information is almost impossible, and both of these elements
are critical to the success of most programs. At the same
time parents assume, for the large sum of money they spend
for these programs, that success is guaranteed. Due to the
"shame" many of these kids have caused their families, there
will be no one assigned to act as a surrogate U.S. parent,
so there are no real lines of communication.
While not meaning
to be an alarmist, I think it is critical to understand the
background, special needs, psychological and educational profile
and probable future of each Japanese student BEFORE accepting
him or her. Clearly, it is a challenge, but at the same time
an opportunity. There is almost no help for these kids in
Japan, so with patience and thorough groundwork we can fulfill
a tremendous need.
Copyright
© 1992, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced
without prior approval if the copyright notice and proper
publication and author attribution accompanies the copy.)
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