It's more complex than that. It usually is, with this kind of thing, though.
The older teenagers of a 21st-century-Earth stripe probably already have a solid background in most of what you'd push for - math, science, history, literature, the works. American schools are kinda crap at handling teaching foreign languages, but the Japanese kids probably at least have some background in English, if not also languages closer to home for them. I've tried, but I can't get anything to stick if it's not a programming language. [If there's one thing she kinda misses about Nova Venezia, it's being genuinely multilingual.]
Granted, the solidity of that background depends on the location and the school, but most of us have tried things we're not particularly interested in, or weren't at first. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, taken five unnecessary tests on it. I think your original source of information on this topic was... a little underinformed.
[Which, yes, gives her a good idea of who it was. There are only so many younger kids around here who'd end up talking about school systems.]
Now, with the younger kids, it certainly can't hurt to give them the extra ballast. But the best teachers are always the ones who make their topic sound interesting, and like I said, if you're going to the trouble of giving some of these lessons you might as well focus on their practical applications.
no subject
The older teenagers of a 21st-century-Earth stripe probably already have a solid background in most of what you'd push for - math, science, history, literature, the works. American schools are kinda crap at handling teaching foreign languages, but the Japanese kids probably at least have some background in English, if not also languages closer to home for them. I've tried, but I can't get anything to stick if it's not a programming language. [If there's one thing she kinda misses about Nova Venezia, it's being genuinely multilingual.]
Granted, the solidity of that background depends on the location and the school, but most of us have tried things we're not particularly interested in, or weren't at first. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt, taken five unnecessary tests on it. I think your original source of information on this topic was... a little underinformed.
[Which, yes, gives her a good idea of who it was. There are only so many younger kids around here who'd end up talking about school systems.]
Now, with the younger kids, it certainly can't hurt to give them the extra ballast. But the best teachers are always the ones who make their topic sound interesting, and like I said, if you're going to the trouble of giving some of these lessons you might as well focus on their practical applications.