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Educational issues facing ethnic Brazilian children in the Tokai region
Chapter: Gifu
Event Date: April, 2008
by Claudio Da Silva and Craig Alan Volker. As 2008 commemorates the 100th anniversary of Japanese immigration with Brazil, this presentation was an important and timely issue. Volker provided a brief explanation to the history, current circumstances, and the difficulties facing school-age children of Brazilian descent. For many, without the required social or language skills and living in a community suspicious of them, many lack support to achieve the basic language tools of life for living in Japan. At the age of 16, most are unprepared to enter Japanese high school, leaving them few options like becoming unskilled laborers or returning to Brazil.
Da Silva, a Brazilian native and teacher presented us with an insiderfs view of the history and attitudes that have shaped the Brazilian community seen today in Japan. He introduced the Escola Comunitaria Paulo Freire (ESCOPAF) school that supports the Japanese-Brazilian community through a specialized education program.
Reported by: Jon Catanzariti