The learning activity systems of disabled children attending local public school in Japan were analyzed within the framework of activity theory. The children participated in several different activity systems at the same time, all which have certain structural features in common. These include Subject child, the presence of adults who guide the child's learning, the goals that those adults have, and the ontogenetic history that constrains the goals. In this study, two systems, family and special education classroom, and their relationship were analyzed. The data was from my experience as an advisor of parents and teachers of disabled children who attend special education classes in local public elementary and junior high schools in Japan. When both systems are mediated by the same Subject child, two kinds of contradictions became visible, both of which are the possible moment of the development of each system : intra-systemic and inter-systemic contradictions. The latter occurs because the adults in each system envision the future of the same Subject child based on the different ontogenetic history of the system, and the former occurs because the possible future of the child has to be envisioned based on the existing past. The possibility of the resolution of the contradictions and the development of the systems when they experience a shared ontogenetic history is discussed.

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Belfast school riots were happened last year (2001). Troubles between Protestant (Loyalist) and Catholic residents (Nationalist) have continued for about forty years and many peoples were killed and injured in Northern Ireland. But everybody are surprised in this case, because grown men and women are hurling missiles at schoolgirls. It seems by television that very young children are shockedand psychologically hurt. And it is obvious that hostility may be reproduced and continued thorough generations. I studied the mechanism of mental hostility. Holy Cross Catholic primary school islocated in the Loyalist area. The Protestant residents of the Ardoyne in north-Belfast are angry that Catholic parentsare walking their children to school past their houses. Why are the Protestantsso angry? The Ardoyne is area with a small Protestant enclave. Members of theloyalist community claim that Catholicsare intimidating them to force them to leave the area. The attacks are fundamentally about territory. Protestants arerefusing to allow Catholics to walk on "their" streets and Catholics insisting on the right to do so. For the third consecutive day, Wednsday, September 5 2001, a blast bomb was thrown at police lines while Catholic children passed by them on their way to the Holy Cross primary school. Several children, some as youngas four, immediately burst into tears and terrified. And some of the kids havesuffered an immediate traumatic response. Holy Cross Girls primary school (Catholic) and Wheatfield primary (Protestant) school are separated by only a few paces, Ardoyne road. The schools have a longand successful history of working together. But over ten weeks many students of-Wheatfield school with their patents attacked schoolgirls of Holy Cross school. How can we find a good educational way-to resolve mental conflicts?

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In the present paper, the author considered a very important problem on understanding of Vygotsky's developmental theory of higher mental functions. It is the problem on the relationship between instruction and intellectual development. Analyzing concretely the relationship between the formation of scientific concepts and the development of conscious awareness and voluntary control in school-age children, Vygotsky clarified that the instruction of systematic scientific knowledge in a school is indispensable for their development of higher mental functions. According to Vygotsky, conscious awareness and voluntary control on mental functions come along with scientific concepts.

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