In the United States and Japan there are cultural attitudes that both promote and hinder education. While Japanese education is usually described as superior to an American education, a careful examination reveals that in both systems certain values and attitudes are carried to extremes and have a negative impact. This book shows how cultural attitudes shape schools and how Americans and Japanese can overcome the educational maladies in both countries.

Under the present educational centralization Japanese secondary school teachers are severely handicapped in carrying out the goals of cultivating a spontaneous spirit and creating a culture rich in individuality. Although Japanese nursery, kindergarten, and elementary teachers could provide many hints to improve the methodology of their American counterparts, the reverse is true at the secondary and college levels. American teachers try to encourage students to be creative in approaching a problem, writing an essay, and sketching an object, and they will suggest appropriate courses, recommend books, and encourage intellectual challenge, while Japanese secondary school teachers' goal is narrowly focused on presenting designated textual material in as efficient a manner as possible.

In the United States, farmers constitute less than ten percent of the population, but American schools still operate as if students had to return home each day for chores, or as if the summer vacation and fall schedule had to be used to help parents with planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops. Today, most American mothers work full time and children have much more free time and live in less secure urban environments. The amount of time spent attending school in Japan and the United States is just one of the cultural attitudes that is examined in this book.

Eighteen essays on the failure of diplomatic efforts by the US and Japan between the two world wars--the problems that thwarted diplomacy, the possible avoidability of the Pacific War. The collection serves as a retroactive study in peace research as well as a study in diplomatic history.

A collection of 46 essays that trace the course of democracy in Japan from 1868 to 1952.

In an era of steep gas prices, snarled traffic, catastrophic climate change, and a yearning for a higher quality of life, interest in bike-friendly public policies is surging nationwide. A surprising array of political organizations, visionary politicians, and colorful individuals powers this movement and a growing number of bike enthusiasts are taking to the streets. From the night rides of Critical Mass to the dumpster-diving Rat Patrol, this book shows the eccentric side of the bicycling universe even as it illustrates the mainstream efforts of politicians like U.S. Representative Jim Oberstar and plain folks like "Biker Mama" Jane Healy. Dedicated to the idea that biking is an ongoing act of nondestructive living, Pedal Power shows why the dominance of the automobile is yesterday's idea and edges us closer to a more democratic, multimodal transportation system so essential in the age of global warming. The bike, regarded as irrelevant to the 20th century, is making a comeback in the 21st. Pedal Power takes us there and suggests that the most compelling thing about riding is that it changes the way people experience the world and, therefore, the way they think.

In an era of steep gas prices, snarled traffic, catastrophic climate change, and a yearning for a higher quality of life, interest in bike-friendly public policies is surging nationwide. A surprising array of political organizations, visionary politicians, and colorful individuals powers this movement and a growing number of bike enthusiasts are taking to the streets. From the night rides of Critical Mass to the dumpster-diving Rat Patrol, this book shows the eccentric side of the bicycling universe even as it illustrates the mainstream efforts of politicians like U.S. Representative Jim Oberstar and plain folks like "Biker Mama" Jane Healy. Dedicated to the idea that biking is an ongoing act of nondestructive living, Pedal Power shows why the dominance of the automobile is yesterday's idea and edges us closer to a more democratic, multimodal transportation system so essential in the age of global warming. The bike, regarded as irrelevant to the 20th century, is making a comeback in the 21st. Pedal Power takes us there and suggests that the most compelling thing about riding is that it changes the way people experience the world and, therefore, the way they think.

Under the present educational centralization Japanese secondary school teachers are severely handicapped in carrying out the goals of cultivating a spontaneous spirit and creating a culture rich in individuality. Although Japanese nursery, kindergarten, and elementary teachers could provide many hints to improve the methodology of their American counterparts, the reverse is true at the secondary and college levels. American teachers try to encourage students to be creative in approaching a problem, writing an essay, and sketching an object, and they will suggest appropriate courses, recommend books, and encourage intellectual challenge, while Japanese secondary school teachers' goal is narrowly focused on presenting designated textual material in as efficient a manner as possible. In the United States, farmers constitute less than ten percent of the population, but American schools still operate as if students had to return home each day for chores, or as if the summer vacation and fall schedule had to be used to help parents with planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops. Today, most American mothers work full time and children have much more free time and live in less secure urban environments. The amount of time spent attending school in Japan and the United States is just one of the cultural attitudes that is examined in this book.