Comments by "Christian Baune" (@programaths) on "Why Is Japan So Cheap Now? - Japanese interview" video.

  1. Basic budgeting was taught in primary school in Belgium, even compound interests. But most people forget about that after a few years of secondary school. Obviously, it's taught more simply, and we don't solve for x^^ We used to learn to compute simple expressions and do introductory algebra where we wrote complete sentences like "Let B be Bernard, Let C be Charlotte." Then, the first two years of secondary school were a review of the previous years and formalization. But I know it changed a lot, and usually, pupils don't even know introductory algebra anymore when they enter secondary school and even struggle with the language. While mastering the language was a prerequisite to leaving primary school. I still have a book containing problems for 10-year-olds that I can give to adults and stump them because the vocabulary is too advanced. And that evolution is normal. People did stop school after primary school, so it was important that by age 12, you were fully functional and able to teach yourself. Hence the emphasis on "preparations". Then, school was mandatory until age 18 (Since 1983), so there was more time to learn the subject and prepare pupils. "Preparations" became "homework," too. It's also why some people from the '80s and '90s got an "advanced" education: schools were slow to adapt. So, we ended up with a mixture of pupils with almost nothing to learn and pupils drowning under the material. I came from a school that didn't adapt, and I thought people were downright idiots and didn't understand why we were taught the same stuff again. And I was not alone. And teachers knew that, too. That was a transition period. The downside of the old system was that you had your childhood stolen. School was a serious thing. We were made adults too soon.
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