Notebooks thrown in the pond,
Hearing aids discarded,
Being left alone,
Called disgusting,
Criticized for taking up special attention.
Kyoto Animation's A Silent Voice, a gorgeous and heartfelt work, follows a deaf girl named Nishimiya, beginning with her transfer into an elementary school. In her introduction, she explains with a notebook cast above her head that she cannot hear.
She is bullied extensively by her peers, who are convinced that she gets special treatment. They complain that the lessons are disrupted. And mock her speech. To watch her suffer is to feel disgust that it is tacitly allowed. One day the principal announces that Nishimiya has had several pairs of hearing aids damaged and asks for the bully to step forward. This highlights her status as an unwanted member of the classroom.
I understand the feeling of having special needs while in a "normal" classroom. While the unfortunate things that happen to her are unfamiliar to me, I can throughly understand that feeling of isolation.
In the US, special classrooms exist to help students with special needs. Wouldn't Nishimiya benefit from that, one might reason. One incident begs this question. An instructor is brought in to teach Shuwa -- Japanese sign language -- but the class resists. They prefer the notebook. Their convenience over Nishimiya's well being. Utilitarianism at its finest.
If Nishimiya was in a more individualized setting then her needs could be met without disrupting the class.
The idea is nonsense, really. Citation: myself.
During high school I was on an Individualized Education Plan where I took a special education class along side the "normal" ones. A class called Social Cognition, which covered many basic conversational and organizational skills. For me, someone with a physical disability, it was an effort to sidestep my true needs.
For some the class may be helpful, but it was not for most of the students from what I could tell. It had no bearing in anything. And for me I wanted things like extended time on tests. I wanted help with concerns from my physical disability not a special ed class focusing on social skills. It doesn't help that special education is seen as unnecessary for "good" students.
Because of that, I took myself off my IEP.
Special ed is so very insular,I feel, often isolating students. There's a stigma attached to it in the US. That's why integration is important. That's why asking the children to learn Shuwa is important. That's why teaching about the experiences of wheelchair users is important. Students with disabilities deserve to fully participate in the classroom, condition permitting, and nontoxic face stigma. Naturally that includes Nishimiya.
Unfortunately Japan and US both seem to struggle with accommodating students with disabilities. Especially in the realm of stigma and stopping bullying. Yet the Japanese emphasis on the students who struggle seems beneficial in thus regard, given their efforts to ensure Nishimiya's success.
There is hope, with increasing awareness both of specifically deafness and disability in general. Integration is worthwhile, especially with the emphasis on the wellbeing of all students in the classroom. Much preferable to the insular nature of the special education classroom for many students.
May the trauma Nishimiya faces not happen in the future.
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