I

The slums are densely packed with houses and occasionally have streets, but these streets are less than two meters wide at their widest.

"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 Family 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 stalls. There are home-made cloth shoes, home-made wonton wrappers, home-cooked jelly, etc. The customers are all poor people in the neighborhood. They pass by after work and buy something casually.

Most of the people guarding the stalls are old women, and their clothes are full of patches.

Cotton cloth is easy to wear, and 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 mended and mended. After a few years of wear, they will become patched again and again.

Milton passed by a stall. The old woman guarding the stall seemed to have never seen the foreign Japanese before, and looked at them with curious eyes. When her eyes met the old woman's, she immediately smiled and said, "Do you want to buy vermicelli? Not many people know how to make sweet potato vermicelli. My daughter-in-law learned it in the city (city center). My vermicelli is good." I eat very much, and even stew it with Chinese cabbage in winter. After eating it, I feel full of strength, and I can even carry a few more bags when I go to the pier."

After Tongshi translated, Milton also laughed and actually bought a handful of vermicelli.

When the old woman in the stall next door saw her, she immediately shouted: "Pan Niang candies, Pan Niang candies. Concubine Pan in the palace (false rumors) teaches you how to make candies, come and take a look!"

The panniang candy sold here is obviously not authentic. Because sucrose is very expensive, the old woman couldn't bear to put more, so she only used a little brown sugar to make a fool of herself.

Milton bought some sweet potato candies and ate them while walking. He soon discovered that even in slums, the streets were very clean. Residents along the streets were assigned lots, and the first thing 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 poor, and the paper and ink are of the lowest quality. The brush is even more outrageous. There are even burrs on the bamboo pen holder that have not been shaved off.

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 are no serious inkstones, and they all use small clay bowls to grind ink and write.

There are no uniform Confucian shirts. What the students wear are all 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 18 years old this year. He was not admitted to the county official position and did not want to be an apprentice. He came to our school two years after graduating from elementary school. Became a math teacher.”

An eighteen-year-old teacher, and she only 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. The British aristocratic schools will teach courses such as Latin. Only those who understand Latin are truly literate and have the ability to 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 next few rows immediately fell asleep on the tables. As long as they don't mess around and the teacher doesn't bother to care, those who really love learning will have long been moved to a higher position.

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 students by the windows may catch a cold.

For the bastard students in the back row, surviving a year is considered a relief. If you can write your own name and do addition and subtraction, you are called being able to write and do calculations. In the future, you will not be afraid of being cheated by the foreman if you work as a coolie.

Three years to graduate from primary school?

Stop talking nonsense, leave after one year of study, and work early to make money to support your family! Although I am too young, I can still paste paper boxes for the store.

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. Their eyes are fixed on the teacher and the blackboard, for fear of missing even a word.

The teaching conditions here are so shabby that there is only one dictionary per class, and students have to queue up and take turns to look up the dictionary.

It's actually quite good. In a remote mountainous area, there is only one dictionary in the entire school. Moreover, it is kept by the principal and must not be damaged at all. When the students look up the dictionary, the principal is watching the whole process.

During recess, children flocked out to play in the mud playground.

Milton stopped a student whose clothes were particularly baggy. It was probably worn by my brother in the family. It was heavily patched and had been worn for who knows how many years.

"What's your name?" Milton asked.

The student looked at the foreign Japanese with curiosity. After listening to the general officer's translation and learning that he was a foreign envoy, he bowed his hands and said, "My name is Yuan Zongru. 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 a certificate of graduation from elementary school. The boy's family is poor and his parents are working hard, so he works hard and will definitely graduate from elementary school." Certificate. 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 entry and strict in exit.

The graduation exam is not organized by the school, but by government officials who organize and invigilate the exam. The passing rate of the primary school graduation exam is less than 50%, and half of the primary school students who take the exam can only get a certificate of graduation. The proportion of students going to secondary schools at public expense is less than 1 in 200. If you have obtained your primary school diploma and are not eligible for public funding, you can only study at your 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, primary school diplomas must be strictly enforced. Because he has a primary school diploma, he is qualified to take the exam for county officials, and cats and dogs cannot get in.

If a poor kid like Yuan Zongru can attend middle school at public expense, he will be able to skyrocket after getting a high school diploma. Even if you only get a high school exit certificate, you 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: "Study in middle school at public expense. After graduating from middle school, you can go to the military academy. It's too difficult to go to college, and it's also hard to go to the government office. It's easy for middle school graduates to go to the military academy. After graduating from the military school, 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 very highly of themselves. Even if you can't get into college, you can still take the exam to be a civil servant in the government. There are very few people who apply for military academies.

But because the exams were so tough, more and more people were applying for military academies. By the time Yuan Zongru graduated from middle school, it would probably be second only to college entrance exams in difficulty.

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 keep pace with the rich. . 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 so that more civilian children can receive real education. As long as it persists in running schools for twenty years, it will continue to expand the scale of schools. Then twenty years later, 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, but you still want the government to fund education?