The houses in the slums are densely packed, and there are occasional streets, but the width of these streets is less than two meters.
"This is called Hujia Street," said the general manager of Honglu Temple, pointing to the narrow stone street. "Three years ago, a wealthy businessman named Hu donated money to replace the dirt road with stone slabs. The magistrate named this street Hu
Home Street. The stones were bought by wealthy businessmen with donations, but it was the efforts of every household along the street to lay the stone slabs on the street.
There are also many stalls under the eaves on both sides of the street. There is no management fee for these stalls, as long as they are not placed on the street.
There are not many good things at the stall. There are home-made cloth shoes, home-made wonton wrappers, home-cooked jelly, etc. The customers are all poor people nearby. They pass by after work and go home, so they just buy some.
Most of the people guarding the stalls are old women, and their clothes are full of patches.
Cotton cloth is easy to wear out. It will break several holes in one or two years. It is not as strong as chemical fiber cloth. For civilians, clothes always need to be sewn and mended. After a few years of wear, they will become heavily patched.
Milton passed by a stall. The old woman guarding the stall seemed to have never seen the foreigners before, and looked at them with curious eyes. When his eyes met the old woman, the old woman immediately smiled and said, "Do you want to buy vermicelli?"
Not many people know how to make sweet potato vermicelli, and my daughter-in-law is in the city.
I learned it from (City Center). My vermicelli is very delicious. I stew it with Chinese cabbage in winter. After eating it, I feel full of strength. I can even carry a few more bags at the dock."
After Tongshi translated, Milton also laughed and actually bought a handful of vermicelli.
The old woman in the stall next door saw her and immediately shouted: "Pan Niang candy, Pan Niang candy. Concubine Pan in the palace (rumor) teaches you how to make candy, come and take a look!"
The panniang candy sold here is obviously not authentic. Because sucrose is very expensive, the old woman can't bear to put more, so she only uses a little brown sugar to fool around.
Milton bought a few pieces of potato candies and walked while eating them. He soon discovered that even in slums, the streets were very clean. Residents along the streets were assigned lots. The first thing they did when they got up in the morning was to sweep the streets.
.
This is in sharp contrast to the filth and chaos of the London slums!
Walking near the school, Milton discovered a cultural supplies store.
The printing quality of the books is very poor, and the paper and ink are also of the lowest quality. The writing brush is even more outrageous. There are even burrs on the bamboo pen holder that have not been scraped clean.
But in the slums of Nanjing, cultural supplies stores did appear, and there was more than one!
The school here is called "Xishan Primary School".
The school doesn't even have walls. There is a road up and down the hill, and you can walk up the mountain road to the school.
The house is also low and simple, but the classroom is very large. There are fifty or sixty people in a class, and the students sit closely together. Moreover, the students' school supplies are also very poor. There is no serious inkstone, and they all use small clay bowls to grind ink and write.
There are no uniform Confucian shirts. The students are all wearing patched and shabby clothes.
"Why are the teachers here so young?" Milton asked.
The principal is also very young, only in his thirties. He pointed to a teacher who was giving a lecture and said: "This teacher is called Yu Gui, he is only eighteen years old this year. He has not been admitted to the county official position, and he is unwilling to do it.
Apprentice, two years after graduating from elementary school, he came to our school as a mathematics teacher."
An eighteen-year-old teacher, and she just graduated from elementary school... Compared with the aristocratic school in the center of the city, she is a stand-in!
Milton turned around and asked the general: "Are the curriculum contents of this school and the school in the center of the city the same?"
The general manager of Honglu Temple replied: "Except for physical education, all other courses are the same. Students here, as long as they have good grades, can also take exams to advance to higher education and become officials."
As soon as these words came out, Milton felt strongly shocked, even the most shocked after coming to China.
British civilian schools only teach English reading and writing and accounting. To put it bluntly, they train migrant workers. British aristocratic schools, on the other hand, teach Latin and other courses. Only those who understand Latin are truly educated people and have the ability to read
Understand more advanced books and official documents.
I felt someone coming outside the window, and all the students in the classroom were sitting upright, listening attentively.
As soon as Milton and the others left, the students in the back rows immediately fell asleep on the tables. As long as they didn't make noises, the teacher didn't bother to care. Those who really loved learning would have been moved to the front.
The classroom here is too big to install translucent window glass, otherwise it will be difficult to see the blackboard clearly on rainy days.
The windows are just a few very large holes that let in wind and rain, and the students sitting next to the windows may catch a cold.
For the bastard students in the back row, they will be relieved after one year. They can write their own names and do addition and subtraction. This is called being able to write and do calculations. In the future, they will not be afraid of being cheated by the foreman when they work as coolies.
Three years of primary school graduation?
Stop talking nonsense, leave after one year of study, and work early to earn money to support your family! Although you are too young, you can still paste paper boxes for the shop.
The students sitting in the front two rows are all good children selected by the teacher. Even though they come from poor backgrounds, they all have a desire to learn. They stare at the teacher and the blackboard, for fear of missing a word.
The teaching conditions here are so shabby that there is only one dictionary for each class, and students have to queue up and take turns to look up the dictionary.
In fact, it's quite good. In a remote mountainous area, there is only one dictionary in the entire school. It is kept by the principal and must not be damaged in the slightest. When the students look up the dictionary, the principal is watching the whole process.
During the break, the children flocked out and ran to the dirt playground to play.
Milton stopped a student. This child's clothes were particularly baggy. They were probably worn by his elder brother at home. They were heavily patched and had been worn for an unknown number of years.
"What's your name?" Milton asked.
The student looked at the foreign Japanese with curiosity, listened to the general officer's translation, and learned that he was a foreign envoy. He bowed his hands and said: "My name is Yuan Zongru, and the school teacher helped me change it.
Milton asked again: "What do your parents do?"
Yuan Zongru replied: "My father is a cargo ship clerk on the Qinhuai River. My mother is paralyzed in bed and does some needlework on weekdays.
Milton asked: "How many years have you been studying?"
Yuan Zongru replied: "It has been three years and I graduated from elementary school this summer. Many students here cannot graduate. If they fail the exam, they can only get the elementary school exit certificate. The boy's family is poor and his parents are working hard, so he works hard and will definitely be able to graduate from elementary school."
Proof. If God bless me, I may be able to attend middle school at public expense, and my family will be able to get rid of poverty."
Today’s schools at all levels are lenient in admission and strict in exit.
Graduation exams are not organized by schools, but are organized and invigilated by government officials. The passing rate of primary school graduation exams is less than 50%, and half of the primary school students who participate in the exam can only get a diploma. The proportion of people who enter middle schools at public expense is
It’s not even 1/200. After getting a primary school diploma and not being eligible for public funding, I can only study at my own expense.
Therefore, children from poor families are not very motivated to study. Let alone go to middle school at public expense, they may not even get a primary school diploma.
For the imperial court, the primary school graduation certificate must be strictly guarded. Because with the primary school diploma, you are qualified to take the exam for county officials, and cats and dogs cannot get in.
If poor children like Yuan Zongru can attend middle school at public expense, they will skyrocket if they get a middle school diploma. Even if they only get a middle school diploma, they can find a job in Nanjing, and many businesses and factories will rush to get it.
"What is your ambition?" Milton asked.
Yuan Zongru replied: "You study in middle school at public expense, and after you graduate from middle school, you go to the military academy. It's too difficult to get into college, and it's also hard to get into government officials. It's easy for middle school graduates to go to the military academy. After graduating from the military academy, you can be assigned to be an officer. This is what the teacher said
of."
This kid is probably going to be tricked by his teacher. It’s easy to get into the military academy because middle school graduates all think highly of themselves. Even if they don’t get into college,
You can also take the civil service examination in the government, but very few apply for the military academy.
However, because the exams are so tough, more and more people are applying for military academies. By the time Yuan Zongru graduates from middle school, the difficulty may be second only to college entrance exams.
In the evening, Milton went back down the mountain.
Lighting an oil lamp at night, Milton began to write a paper titled "Revisiting the Problems of Education."
"Education is the cornerstone of a strong country, and public education for civilians is the inevitable direction of educational development..."
"China's education is undoubtedly the most successful in the world. Except for physical education, poor children here learn the same things as rich children. In terms of culture, as long as they are willing to learn, they can theoretically learn the same things as rich children.
People advance hand in hand. Moreover, Chinese officials obtain their positions through examinations. China's civil service system is a good system with mobility..."
"If Britain wants to become stronger, it must introduce China's civil service system. The prerequisite for introducing the civil service system is to carry out extensive civilian education
"Two hundred years ago, Britain broke the church's monopoly on education. But it was not enough. In the future, British education should be changed from charity schools to government schools. Charity schools are often run by businessmen. They only teach civilian children to read, write and do accounting.
These children are then recruited as employees. This education system cannot cultivate real talents and cannot even understand Latin official documents..."
"The British Revolution has killed the king and established the English Republic. The Republic has the obligation and responsibility to allocate funds to build more schools,
Let more civilian children receive real education. As long as we persist in running schools for 20 years and continue to expand the scale of schools, then in 20 years, Britain will become the cultural center of Europe, and Britain will have the largest number of scholars in Europe."
Milton wrote this article with great expectations, but it was obviously in vain. He was too naive.
When he returned to England again, he would find that his republic was gone. Cromwell dismissed Parliament and proclaimed himself Lord Protector.
The republic is gone, do you still want the government to fund education?
