電子書籍

Breaking Barriers in Education: Creative Arts, Meaningful Connections, and Stories of Growth from Japan’s Special Needs Classrooms

(著) 高崎明

作品詳細

[About the Book]
— The irreplaceable days spent with children at a special needs school —
The author, whose passion had long been mountain climbing, suffered a serious accident one winter while climbing Mt. Fuji. The injuries sustained were so severe that they affected not only climbing but even everyday life. By chance, the author's next career path led to becoming a teacher at a special needs school.
"I didn't focus on support or instruction. I simply enjoyed doing fun things together, building flat, equal relationships with people with disabilities," the author shares.
With this open-minded and unconventional approach, the author spent precious days with extraordinarily lively and joyful children who possessed a free and vibrant spirit.
This book is a heartfelt record of the children the author met and the memories created while working at the special needs school—a work overflowing with understanding and affection for people with disabilities.

[Table Of Contents]
Introduction
Frontispiece 1: Songs, Dances, and Plays – Workshop I : Phase 1 & Phase 2
The Progress of the “Asobō-kai” (Let’s Play Club)
Chapter 1: Street-Corner Performances Everybody Come Together, Let’s All Wasshoi
Chapter 2: Chaplin Would Turn Pale Songs, Dancing, and Plays
Frontispiece 2: A Hilarious, Edge-of-Your-Seat “Mori wa Ikiteiru”: Workshop II: Phase 3
Chapter 3: The Classroom Turned Into a Theater Both Audience and Actors Worn to the Bone
Chapter 4: Out into Town With the Children Let’s Have Fun With “Asobō-kai”
Chapter 5: If Only There Were “Places” Where You Could Meet All Kinds of People… The Ripple Effect of a Newspaper Letter About “Violent Physically Disabled Children”
Chapter 6: Turning a “Workplace” into a “Place to Live” Opening a “Udon Shop” at the “Aozora Market”
Frontispiece 3: Kan-to-to, Chin-to-to, Kan-kan, Jaan: Street Performances
Afterword
What Came After
About the Author

[Editor's Comment]
The children the author encountered teach us, the readers, about the joy of creating and expressing freely. From crafting projects to putting on plays, their boundless energy and uninhibited creativity shine through these pages. We hope you will experience their spirit through this wonderful book.

[About the Author]
Akira Takasaki
Born in Hyōgo Prefecture in 1949.
Graduated from Dōshisha University (Department of Electronic Engineering), worked at an electric company, then quit to climb Denali.
After that, he lived as a caretaker at a mountain lodge, then worked at an architectural firm. Under the influence of Hayashi Takeji, he impulsively decided to become a teacher.
In 1978, he passed the teachers’ exam, but a winter mountaineering accident ruined everything.
Since 1980, he has worked at a special school in Yokohama.
He’s an unassuming backstage presence who sometimes steps forward for the “Asobō-kai.”
In 2010, he founded the employment support facility “Pukapuka,” where he remains today.