When you find that someone has something in common with you, don’t you get excited?

If your teacher share his experience with you and can truly understand you, you probably feel strong attachment with him/her, much more in a inclusive classroom.

According to the article “Disabled teachers make the best disability educators“, there is an initiative in Germany to train college students with disability to be able to teach in an inclusive classroom.

The first group of disabled students will undergo two years of full-time training. Their aim is to acquire teaching skills and learn how to share their needs and life experiences in a professional way with those who will become the future experts in pedagogy.

There are many organizations which promote inclusive education. But it is rare to have a teacher with disability in inclusive classroom. Is there any better situation to promote the importance of Inclusive Ed?

This reminds me of hirotada Ototake, who was born without arms and legs due to a genetic disorder, and published “No One’s perfect (1988)” (Gotai fumanzoku in Japanese) which sold more than 5 million books. In Japan, a small island country, the definition of disability has been (is) narrow (without including light disability) so that people tend to have a prejudice toward persons with disabilities. I guess by publishing his book, he contributed himself to breaking its wall (despite it needs more).

He then became a teacher, believing that teaching the answers is not a core of education and what’s important is to teach how to solve problems. The key here is a self-esteem, which comes from acceptance of others.

I think he can be a great person who promote Japanese inclusive education just like the initiative in Germany mentioned above.

To do something new is difficult, and a person like him can be a good contributor for future advance. Likewise, my old post “using a famous person” explains how Stevie Wonder encouraged policy makers to enforce more inclusive policies for blind people like him. 

Also, my another old post “Perfect man” introduces a 4 minuted video which explains how much we take “normal” for granted.

There are not many people who achieved something our of scratch, but by letting those people share their experience and lead others, we can learn more effectively.