Learning to Be Adolescent: Growing Up in U.S. and Japanese Middle Schools is a book based on the long-term observations of author Gerald K. LeTendre. He compares curricula, classroom practices, and the views of educators about adolescent development. In both nations, LeTendre observes, school personnel are extremely concerned with volition, the developing willpower of young adolescents.
While both American and Japanese teachers believe that nurturing a young person's ability to use his or her will is crucial, they take very different approaches to dealing with expressions of will. The author finds conflicting expectations and theories about adolescent development within each system, and he describes how these can lead to confusion and contradictory rules. He explores how these views are put into practice.
The book costs $20. For more information, contact Yale University Press, P.O. Box 209040, New Haven, CT 06520-9040, call (203) 432-0964 or visit the Web site [www.yale.edu/yup].
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