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“The Period for Integrated Studies” in Japanese elementary and secondary education tends to be conceived as an implementation of child-centered progressive education into schools. But the utility and significance of this time slot can also be explained from a little bit different angle, considering that; 1. Not all the students (: prospective electorates) go on to university. 2. Some important matters are only too actual, delicate, or ongoing to be written on textbooks as fixed truth. 3. In some cases the teachers might be unable to approach the truth and therefore just able to hand over to the students some tools of knowing and thinking. Accordingly, as a solution to above, “the Period for Integrated Studies”, in terms of the better future of studentsʼ lives and of the nation, had better touch upon, or repeatedly make use of; 1. basics of logical thinking, which serve as a virtually universal tool of checking the appropriateness of various statements, 2. some basic ideas of academic studies that are not usually taught until in higher education but actually rather easy to acquire and useful for comprehending the world, 3. clues to civic wisdom, etc., so as to relativize, qualify, (and thus make a synergistic effect with) standard knowledge taught in other subjects.

The story of “an uncelebrated magician”, written by a former teacher and education supervisor Teruo Ebashi, is a standard material of morality lesson in Japanese primary schools, in which the magician, a moral hero, fulfilled his promise to meet and amuse a lonely boy, at the cost of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of making his debut at a metropolitan theater. And its unwritten backstory was once told by the author in an interview: the magician had been deeply influenced by his tender-hearted parents who were always ready to help vulnerable people. In this paper, I discuss the merits of disclosing such a backstory to the students of a moral lesson, showing a suitable way of proceeding with the class. The points are as follows; (1) Merit 1: It helps the students identify the true components of a moral conduct (such as the doerʼs courage or the surrounding social milieu), and think concretely on what conditions they could do the same, thus feeling a proper sort and degree of reality in the story (or sympathy for the hero), while, on the other hand, discussing objectively how they can realize a societal milieu which makes it easier for individuals to behave morally. (2) Merit 2: It gives the students ①the recognition (which may enhance the cultural level of the people) that a conclusion is relative to term definitions, assumptions, preconditions, etc., and ②an experience of fallibilism, in which their conclusive opinions often change as they incrementally come to know the circumstances. (3) In order to avoid an irrelevant or far-fetched discussion, a story as a material of a moral lesson should be used not to learn a single virtue but to discuss a virtue and its “peripheral” such as other virtues (or moral values) or related political, economic, legal, literary, psychological, ethological issues, etc.

An 83-year-old man under warfarin therapy presented for assessment of prolonged prothrombin time and cough. High-resolution computed tomography findings of the chest showed diffuse alveolar hemorrhage. His international normalized ratio (INR) was 11.89. He had been treated with rifampicin for a persistent infection, but this had been discontinued about two months before admission. Rifampicin suppresses the anticoagulant activity of warfarin, which can lead to a need for increased doses of warfarin to achieve and maintain a therapeutic INR. More frequent INR monitoring is needed even after discontinuing rifampicin.