How long has it been since I've written a blog entry? Two or three weeks, I think. How long has it been since I've written about Katawa Shoujo? Two months. So, it seems I am far overdue for not just a blog entry, but one about Katawa Shoujo as well. Today's blog is all about how Katawa Shoujo incorporates Special Education into its narrative and atmosphere.
A quick question: what is Special Education? Growing up, Special Education had a, shall we say, bad reputation. When I was a kid, we had kids who were, shall we say, slower to learn than the rest of us. These kids were placed in Title 1, a Special Ed project that few of us outside of it understood, save for the fact that they got to go on lots of field trips. We didn't know much, but most of us hated the kids that were in Title 1 because we felt they worked less hard than us and were rewarded more often. Special Education just wasn't something we were taught on. However, now that I'm in college again, I can say, with absolute certainty, what Special Education is: it's education that's given when the average offering is insufficient.
Who receives Special Education? Extraordinary students. These are the students that have extraordinary conditions that render regular education insufficient to their needs. Notice, however, that this does not necessarily mean that the student is, well, mentally challenged. An extraordinary student can be someone who is in a wheelchair, for example, an autistic, a super genius, anything.
Katawa Shoujo takes place in a special, seemingly private school named Yamaku. This school has several facilities designed for its students. There's a track field, a football field, a pool (though it's never seen in game), a well equipped nurse's office for emergencies, books in audio and braille for the blind, and all of this is staffed by the finest professionals available. But, for what?
The students of Yamaku High are, for the most part, students with special needs. Take, for example, our hero, Hisao Nakai, who suffers from arrhythmia. Hisao needs to maintain a steady regiment of diet, exercise, and medication, lest he keels over and dies. Hisao needs: a medic to have emergency medicine on hand, medical facilities that can handle a child having a heart attack, experienced medical attention, healthy food, professional staff that knows how to act in case of emergencies, quick access to a hospital in case the proverbial shit hits the fan, a calm environment, and access to dozens of different medicines that are constantly well stacked. And that's just for Hisao.
Yamaku High is built specifically to attend to the needs of the disabled. But please don't think of Yamaku as some sort of special school to send away "the crippled". Yamaku isn't a "crippled kids school", it's a school, a school that specializes in giving the care and attention that extraordinary students need and deserve.
My apologies for using that word, "cripple". No offence is meant.
Yamaku is a school, first and foremost. The students that are sent here, they are sent there to learn. They learn English, Science, Math, Japanese (the game is set in Japan, after all), Art, Music, Literature. They have a Student Council, athletes, after school clubs. These are students who, with a little extra help, can achieve their dreams, fulfill their passions. They socialize here, they make friends, they fall in love, they LIVE. Yamaku isn't a hospital that doubles as a school, it's a school that can handle what regular schools are ill equipped to do. It's a school that makes Special Education its Modus Operandi.
The thing about Special Education is that we're never really taught what it really is, nor do we think much about the sacrifices that an extraordinary student requires just to have the same opportunities we do. It's really hard, you know, being able bodied and all, to think about what life is like for someone who can't see, or can't hear, or can't walk. I can't imagine a life where I'm unable to talk because of something I was born with, or unable to control my arms, or needing to carefully calculate just how much energy and effort I need to put into my every day activities. And these things that are so hard for me to imagine? They are the day to day reality of many, many people out there, who live their whole lives like this.
The disabled, however, aren't helpless victims that require to be laid in bed 24/7, or institutionalized indefinitely, they are people. People who have dreams, people who fight everyday not just to stay alive, but to get ahead in life. They are people, like you and I, who feel like we do, get angry like we do, get happy like we do, and love like we do. They are no different than us.
Wait, no, that's not how it should be worded. It's not that "they are like us", it's more like, we are like them. We are exactly like them, just that some of us have more advantages. Still, we all have our damage.
One of the primary reasons Four Leaf Studios made Katawa Shoujo was to spread that message: that everyone has damage. The disabled are no less than us, no more than us. They are not helpless, but they are not superhuman either. They are people, and this is a subject a few people out there simply fail to grasp.
Many disabled people live tough lives, and all they ask is a little help here, a little extra room there, and a little understanding. Special Education provides exactly that to the ones who need it most: the kids. You don't see this sort of thing often in media, save for some "inspirational" schlock that does little more than soothe the egos of those that otherwise wouldn't lift a finger to help the disabled. Katawa Shoujo, however, doesn't do this, rather, it presents the disabled as people, and Special Education as exactly what it is: extra help designed to help the student form their own future. In my opinion, Katawa Shoujo is one of, if not THE, finest presentation of Special Education ever shown in any media.
