As globalization brings world communities closer together, it also exposes many differences and distinctions that mark eastern and western societies. The world of education is no different in this regard. As western education establishments begin to take a hard look at redefining the very foundations of their industrial education model, they are becoming more open to incorporating many inherently eastern characteristics. Every research study conducted over the past twenty years, writes Nair, confirms that learning is not about memorizing content but about developing skills for living, a concept contradictory to the emphasis placed by schools on subject matter, according to the school planner and educator. By extension, the school building itself is frequently a mass-production "factory" designed to indoctrinate children with facts and figures so they can do well on standardized tests. Nair advocates that school design itself should be evolving to reflect the significant changes in the world of education. It does not, says the author, because of rigid programs that architects inherit from school establishment, a lack of imagination on the part of the designers themselves and a fear of failure with "outside the box" solutions. Because everyone has a preconceived idea about what a school should look like, architects are reluctant to experiment with innovation. Despite such setbacks, Nair advocates that ideas of respect for the individual learner and development the whole person be incorporated into educational architecture, concluding that "All of us, in the end, are stakeholders of education. What happens in education today will affect the world in which our children will live tomorrow--and that world will not be about east or west but about the things that unite as all as people."