Deaf university graduate hired as a teacher aid at alma mater in Kumamoto Prefecture

Sumiyoshi Shota trains his student how to draft.
(photo: http://kumanichi.com/)

 

May 4, 2012

Sumiyoshi Shota (22), who graduated from the Kumamoto Prefecture Kumamoto School for the Deaf, has started to teach at the alma mater for a new post as a teacher aid this spring.

He passed the employment examination succefully, starting instruction in a classroom. He brightens eyes, saying "I want to show the young students that they can be independent even if with disability."

Shota uses sign language and writing for communication with hearing people. He attended the mainstream program until the junior high school, and he went to the school for the deaf as a high school student, because, as he says, "I didn't want to be treated as a special student who requires help from the teacher, but wanted to spend a student life with other students equally."
 
The dream of Shota's that time was becoming a designer and building a house for his parents. While he studied at the Tsukuba University of Technology located in Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki Prefecture, the thought that he would contribute to independence of those who are disabled like himself also swelled every year.

When Shota visited the alma mater to discuss his future career last spring, he was suggested by the teacher about the position of a "teacher aid," and opted for taking an examination.
 
As a result of hard study, Shota was the first successful candidate by the special selection frame for persons with disabilities introduced by Kumamoto Prefecture Education Board in the 2010 fiscal year.
 
Shota says that he would acquire a teacher's license and become a class room teacher in the future. "There are also many things which can be carried out in spite of deafness. I want my students to believe their possibility and to do their best toward a dream."


Japanese original article:
http://kumanichi.com/osusume/hotnews/kiji/20120504001.shtml