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Tokyo - When American presidents talk about education, they inevitably stress the need to focus on math and science. In a technological world, they say, math and science ultimately equate with economic competitiveness. This line of thinking may be smart politics, but it makes education merely the means to an economic end.

President Obama is no exception to this tendency. But as a candidate, he also routinely noted the importance of the arts, as does Education Secretary Arne Duncan. It is fair then to ask what art actually offers.

Science emphasizes quantities. Art emphasizes qualities. Their mix, although paradoxical, moves us closer to completeness. We express such paradox in pearl jewelry ideals like the student-athlete, warrior-poet, compassionate-conservative, even "wise as serpents, and gentle as doves."

The arts offer both a key educational component and the unique experience of handling each stage of a project – coordinating hand, eye, and mind – from inspiration to finishing touches. In contrast, business realities necessitate specialization.

Schools also practice specialization, both in the estrangement of various studies and by progressively narrowing the focus. Perhaps because expertise pays, it is not generally the case that the "higher" people go in education, the broader, more interconnected, integrated, and holistic becomes their vision.

If the arts provide an alternative metaphor applicable to education, it is that elements must balance and synergize. The attractive color, "catchy" musical passage, or favorite rhyme that doesn't fit only weakens the work. With synergy, grayed colors combine into brilliant paintings, just as in sports a coordinated team beats an unsupported superstar.

We arrive at a dilemma. In groups, individuals play roles and specialize; completeness arises from the coordinated activity spanning the group. But if education's defining goal is only preparing students for those roles, it suffers for balance.

So where is the education model that not only emphasizes balance, but also explores the parallels and connections across disciplines?

One example is the quadrivium – arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy – a model that reaches back to Pythagoras. Consider its strengths. Arithmetic explains the relations between numbers. Geometry explains numbers in space; music, numbers in biwa pearl time; and astronomy, numbers in space and time. It was a vision of correspondences conducive to analogic thinking.

Our wiser cultural ancestors considered geometry more than an engineering tool and music more than mere entertainment. They were key, parallel studies, manifestations of numbers, which were therefore seen as embodying both quantity and quality, a clue to the complementary unity of science and art. Segregating the two, and regarding only one as essential, is a costly disintegration, expressing a quantitative bias necessary for technological expediency.

Admittedly, art is peripheral to making microchips or jumbo jets. But it's important to distinguish what our technology gets us, and what it doesn't. The technological gap between a smart bomb and a spear is vast. But the gap in intent can be imperceptible. Cable television, cellphones, and computers don't ensure a more meaningful quality of discourse, only faster and more far-reaching. While our means far outrun anything from the past, our purpose and moral intent struggle to keep pace.

So, yes, education is vital to everything. But it requires an element of inspiration, and inspiration rides on metaphor, correspondences, and relating, the surprising and far-reaching connections that put the world back together, that elicit the "aha" response. This is precluded by over-specialization, but it just happens to be the work of art, whose root meaning is "to fit or join together."

Thinking outside the box of each school department would be edifying. A math lesson might include rhythmic examples, or ratios also experienced as musical intervals. A geometry lesson could show how the master painters once ordered their compositions on geometric underpinnings.

Reopening these pathways would not bypass the akoya pearl traditional curriculum, but simply inspire the artist inside each student, longing to see the big picture. Unforeseen social benefits would surely follow

Shanghai, China - This is a great time to be an American in China. That's a convenient thing for Americans, but it's especially good news for President Obama.

When Mr. Obama visits China in mid-November he may face an audience both as enthusiastic and as divided as any he has faced at home. His recent decision on behalf of US labor unions to impose a 35 percent tariff on tire imports from China has angered many Chinese and prompted threats of in-kind retaliatory measures against the United States.

Still, admiration for Obama remains strong, particularly among young people in China. This is great news for Obama. As the long-term future of US-China relations is dependent ultimately on the youth of China, they are the audience he should pay special attention to. If he can maintain popularity among them, his influence in China has high potential.

Already, his stellar popularity around the world makes being an American abroad a much more pleasant proposition than it pearl jewelry was only a year ago.

This trip will be the third part of a four-country Asian tour including the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Singapore, and stops in Japan and South Korea. When the president arrives, expect to see cheering crowds of youthful admirers, souvenir Obama T-shirts, and other trappings of Obamamania here just as happens around the world.

Among the more idealistic youth of China one finds a somewhat different story. Many – including my own students – seem to hold Obama, not merely in admiration, but even in a kind of awe: From them I have heard the mantras of "Change" and "Yes We Can" repeated on more than one occasion. More than any other recent US president, Obama is seen by many young Chinese not merely as the chief executive of one powerful overseas trading partner, but as a world leader of special importance, and one from whom much is expected.

Evidence of Obama's popularity particularly among young people in China is not hard to find. Recently while strolling through the shopping arcades surrounding Shanghai's 16th-century Yu Garden, I happened upon a T-shirt shop prominently displaying one shirt featuring his smiling image.

In the past 18 years of traveling and living here, I have watched four presidents come and go from the White House, but this is the first time I have ever seen a US president's image on a T-shirt here.

Pirated DVD editions of Obama's speeches and pirated print editions of his books are now for sale on the street, and at my university Chinese professors show videos of Obama's speeches to classrooms full of attentive Chinese students.

With confirmation of his visits to both Shanghai and Beijing, universities are also planning lectures on Obama's significance for China and the biwa pearl world.

Even older and less idealistic Chinese will tell you that Obama is "better than [George W.] Bush." To Obama's good fortune, his predecessor was one against whom it would be rather easy to win a popularity contest.

Despite the tendency here (at least for the average Zhou the Plumber) to view US actions more or less exclusively on the basis of how they affect China, both Mr. Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq and his arrogant behavior toward the world at large made him immensely unpopular here.

Obama has more going for him, however, than the mere fact that he isn't George W. Bush.

This visit follows talks in September with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, at the UN General Assembly opening in New York and Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh. The possibility that Obama and Mr. Hu will sign a bilateral agreement to combat climate change during Obama's visit in November stands to garner much positive attention from young people in China.

A face-to-face event with Chinese young people, like his talk with Egyptian students at Cairo University in June, could also go a long way toward cementing hearts and minds among those who hold the future of US-China relations in their hands.

Unlike the president's fans in Europe, Africa, and even the akoya pearl Middle East, many pragmatic Chinese view US affairs strictly through the prism of how America's actions affect China's interests. They will not be swayed by the grand statements on world peace and brotherhood among men that so electrified his audiences in Berlin and Cairo. So the president might find it necessary to temper his own famous idealism with an element of pragmatism to reach a broader Chinese audience.

Bringing Michelle, Sasha, and Malia along for trip wouldn't hurt, either. Appealing to the youth of China may be the key to his success here. Obama should use it to his advantage while he has it.

Come November, I hope to see many Chinese young people wearing T-shirts like the one I recently saw for sale outside Yu Garden.

When Mr. Obama visits China in mid-November he may face an audience both as enthusiastic and as divided as any he has faced at home. His recent decision on behalf of US labor unions to impose a 35 percent tariff on tire imports from China has angered many Chinese and prompted threats of in-kind retaliatory measures against the United States.

Still, admiration for Obama remains strong, particularly among young people in China. This is great news for Obama. As the long-term future of pearl jewelry US-China relations is dependent ultimately on the youth of China, they are the audience he should pay special attention to. If he can maintain popularity among them, his influence in China has high potential.

Already, his stellar popularity around the world makes being an American abroad a much more pleasant proposition than it was only a year ago.

This trip will be the third part of a four-country Asian tour including the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Singapore, and stops in Japan and South Korea. When the president arrives, expect to see cheering crowds of youthful admirers, souvenir Obama T-shirts, and other trappings of Obamamania here just as happens around the world.

Among the more idealistic youth of China one finds a somewhat different story. Many – including my own students – seem to hold Obama, not merely in admiration, but even in a kind of awe: From them I have heard the mantras of "Change" and "Yes We Can" repeated on more than one occasion. More than any other recent US president, Obama is seen by many young Chinese not merely as the chief executive of one powerful overseas trading partner, but as a world leader of special importance, and one from whom much is expected.

Evidence of Obama's popularity particularly among young people in China is not hard to find. Recently while strolling through the shopping arcades surrounding Shanghai's 16th-century Yu Garden, I happened upon a T-shirt shop prominently displaying one shirt featuring his smiling image.

In the past 18 years of traveling and living here, I have watched four presidents come and go from the White House, but this is the first time I have ever seen a US president's image on a T-shirt here.

Pirated DVD editions of Obama's speeches and pirated print editions of his books are now for sale on the street, and at my university Chinese professors show videos of biwa pearl Obama's speeches to classrooms full of attentive Chinese students.

With confirmation of his visits to both Shanghai and Beijing, universities are also planning lectures on Obama's significance for China and the world.

Even older and less idealistic Chinese will tell you that Obama is "better than [George W.] Bush." To Obama's good fortune, his predecessor was one against whom it would be rather easy to win a popularity contest.

Despite the tendency here (at least for the average Zhou the Plumber) to view US actions more or less exclusively on the basis of how they affect China, both Mr. Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq and his arrogant behavior toward the world at large made him immensely unpopular here.

Obama has more going for him, however, than the mere fact that he isn't George W. Bush.

This visit follows talks in September with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, at the UN General Assembly opening in New York and Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh. The possibility that Obama and Mr. Hu will sign a bilateral agreement to combat climate change during Obama's visit in November stands to garner much positive attention from young people in China.

A face-to-face event with Chinese young people, like his talk akoya pearl with Egyptian students at Cairo University in June, could also go a long way toward cementing hearts and minds among those who hold the future of US-China relations in their hands.

Unlike the president's fans in Europe, Africa, and even the Middle East, many pragmatic Chinese view US affairs strictly through the prism of how America's actions affect China's interests. They will not be swayed by the grand statements on world peace and brotherhood among men that so electrified his audiences in Berlin and Cairo. So the president might find it necessary to temper his own famous idealism with an element of pragmatism to reach a broader Chinese audience.

Bringing Michelle, Sasha, and Malia along for trip wouldn't hurt, either. Appealing to the youth of China may be the key to his success here. Obama should use it to his advantage while he has it.

Come November, I hope to see many Chinese young people wearing T-shirts like the one I recently saw for sale outside Yu Garden.

President Obama took a tour of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's energy labs Friday, seeing the latest innovations in wind, solar, and battery research. And he also made a speech there asking Congress to pass a climate-change law soon.

But Mr. Obama's time would have been better spent visiting an innovative energy plant in West Virginia that, starting this month, became the first coal-fired plant in the world to practice what is called "carbon capture and sequestrations" (CCS).

On Oct. 1, the nation's largest electric utility, American Electric Power, started to inject liquefied carbon dioxide, captured from the exhaust of its pearl jewelry Mountaineer plant, and pump it into porous rock nearly two miles down.

This technological feat could end up being a historic moment for the future of the planet – if the process of burying atmosphere-altering gases can ever work on a global scale.

The technology is necessary for a very real political reason: Passage of any bill in Congress aimed at curbing the effects of global warming will hinge on the votes of senators from coal-dependent states in the Midwest and West. And so far, those senators aren't buying into the legislation on the table, such as a bill introduced by Democratic senators Barbara Boxer and John Kerry.

Unless that group of senators sees their states having a chance to achieve "clean" coal and can gain federal support for it, the US may not have a climate-change law this year.

Without such a US measure, there is little hope of success at a 192-nation summit this December in Copenhagen, Denmark, aimed at a new world pact on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.

Estimates on the actual cost for CCS vary widely – perhaps as much as a doubling of the public's electric bills. More than a dozen projects are under way around the globe. The US leads other countries in testing the procedure for its expense and, most of all, its potential risks.

Will the CO2 stay put and not leak out? Are there enough underground sites? Could it trigger earthquakes? Might underground water supplies be contaminated? Without reliable answers to those concerns, the rush to adopt CCS worldwide should slow down.

Yet the promise is big. More than half of the biwa pearl carbon needed to be cut from human activity could come from CCS. And most experts say "clean" coal will be needed because renewable energy sources and improvements in efficiency won't be enough to slow climate change.

Half of US electricity comes from coal. The fastest, easiest route to rid it of greenhouse-gas emissions is by carbon capture.

(A footnote in fossil-fuel history: The first commercially successful oil well was drilled 150 years ago on Aug. 27 in next-door Pennsylvania.)

After many tests, carbon capture from coal-fired plants may prove to be risky. But the public can then decide if the downside is outweighed by risks of global warming itself.

A similar decision awaits expansion of akoya pearl another "clean" source: new, supposedly safer, types of nuclear plants.

Public confidence in both technologies is needed if the US, and the world, can cool the planet.

Clinton, N.Y. - When the great amateur golfer Bobby Jones called a penalty on himself for a rules violation no one else had observed, others praised him for his honesty. Jones is said to have replied that he might as well have been praised for not robbing a bank.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez recently condemned golf as a bourgeois sport that should not be added to the Olympics. And in a recent blog, New York Times ethicist Randy Cohen criticizes golf on ethical grounds, maintaining, along with President Chávez, that golf is an elitist sport with little or no moral worth.

According to Mr. Cohen, it is a game of the affluent and privileged, professional players are too conservative, and the game lacks diversity or social concern. He suggests that from a moral point of view we probably would be better off without it.

But at a time when many observers of contemporary sports are criticizing the effects of elite athletic competition on the ethics of competitors, golf is a counterexample to their concerns. In fact, other sports could learn a thing or two from the etiquette of golf.

Critics charge that too many sports programs lead to a diminished sense of responsibility among athletes. Authority is delegated to rules officials and coaches. Players often are reluctant to correct even an obviously incorrect call in their favor or question decisions of their coaches, even those that have ethical ramifications. After all, it's the referee's job to pearl jewelry make the call and the coach's job to give orders.

Even worse, opponents are too often regarded as obstacles to be beaten down or reduced to mere barriers – something that stands between a team and a win – and not respected as fellow competitors who test our skills by providing a challenge.

And then there is golf.

Golfers follow a strict honor code that places the burden of following the rules on the player. Players are expected to call penalties on themselves. Golfers also have duties that require them to show courtesy to their opponents and act in ways that best allow their opponents to maximize their own opportunities to play well.

Golfers stand still when opponents are playing shots and must learn to show respect and courtesy to competitors. There is no trash talking in golf (with perhaps the exception of teasing among friends in recreational play).

While there have been cases of gamesmanship even at elite levels of competition, they stand out because of their rarity and relative mildness when compared with those that occur in other sports.

While other sports also prohibit competitors, even at the highest levels of competition, from cheating and attempt to require them to show courtesy and respect to opponents, golf achieves it.

Thus, it is hardly a coincidence that golf organizations donate more to charity than any other sports associations.

The PGA Tour alone donated more than $124 million to charity in 2008. The PGA Tour, the satellite Nationwide Tour, and the senior Champions Tour have donated an all-time total of more than $1 billion in charitable donations. Add the additional millions donated by the LPGA and donations from local and regional amateur tournaments in which golfers all over the biwa pearl country participate, and the impact of golf on charity is impressive.

Is golf an elitist sport?

To be sure, golf in the US has a historical association with exclusive country clubs. And although some golf organizations did not act quickly enough to remedy discriminatory practices in the past, and still may not have done enough to criticize remaining ones, there has been much progress in eliminating discriminatory barriers throughout the sport.

Today, most golfers play on public facilities. And many private courses, especially those away from large urban areas, are affordable to relatively large segments of the population.

Of course, golf still needs to become more diverse. But consider this: Golf originated in Scotland and was originally played by shepherds and artisans – not the elite. Today, organizations such as the First Tee introduce golf to thousands of young people from diverse backgrounds, and often combine golf instruction with innovative educational programs. More good news on that front: Asian golfers from countries such as South Korea and Japan have enjoyed tremendous worldwide success, including many recent major winners on the LPGA from Asia and, of course, Y.E. Yang, who recently defeated Tiger Woods in the PGA Championship to become the first Asian winner of one of the men's major professional championships.

As a young golfer growing up on Long Island and learning to play in the late 1950s and early '60s, I often played with men and women, some of whom were three times my age. While my community was not racially diverse, my playing partners ranged from fellow students to physicians to owners of pizza stores to professional caddies.

Golf provided an education on how to get along with many different kinds of people with different political and social views, which we had plenty of time to akoya pearl discuss between shots. These conversations helped me learn to appreciate that I could disagree with my competitors politically while still respecting them as people and conducting our disagreement in a civil, reasoned manner. Because angry, distracted golfers tend to hit poorly, golf almost forced civility upon us.

If respect for our opponents, for the rules and spirit of the game, and for development of moral virtues such as civility and self-control are important values, then golf is an ethical model we should cherish. Golf should really be considered an ethical model for other sports.

We should try to emulate it, not only in athletics but perhaps also in education, where honor codes need to be respected, and especially in politics, where the practice of respect for our opponent seems to be in danger of extinction.