Chapter 120 - The Students

Apart from a few glass instruments, furniture, and some simple equipment that were self-made, most of the items in the various laboratories were products from another time and space. This was especially true for things like balances and microscopes, which were definitely classified as first-level controlled items in the Planning Committee’s catalog. It seemed that the Executive Committee was extremely determined to invest in education.

“It takes a hundred years to cultivate a person. It seems that Chief Wen and Duke Ma’s vision is truly far-reaching,” Xiao Zishan complimented. This kind of behind-the-back compliment was much more useful than a face-to-face one.

“I was also shocked when I saw the design plan. They are really willing to spend,” Hu Qingbai said. “But I’m also worried about the many chemical reagents and other things needed for the chemistry laboratory. I don’t know if they can be solved.”

“In a few days, it will be the day the Bopu Chemical Plant is ignited. Once the three acids and two alkalis are solved, we won’t have to worry about anything—at most, we won’t be able to do organic chemistry.”

After leaving the laboratory, they visited the dormitories, toilets, and bathrooms. These basic living facilities were something Xiao Zishan paid considerable attention to—schools were high-density population concentration areas. If hygiene was not done well, the students would suffer enough just from a flu epidemic.

The Lin’gao Construction Company now had enough experience in the construction of such high-density residential areas, and the Bauhaus style was brought to its fullest expression. Water supply, bathing, garbage disposal, and sewage—all of these were solved one by one under the painstaking efforts of the people in the construction company.

In order to reduce the number of people in each dormitory and save land and building materials, Mei Wan had rebuilt the dormitories, expanding the original single-story dormitories into two-story ones, increasing the floor area ratio.

In this way, the capacity of each room in the original dormitory was reduced from one hundred people to thirty people—which was exactly the planned number of students in each class. According to Hu Qingbai’s experience, if a class exceeded twenty people, it would be difficult for the teacher to take care of everyone. Thirty people was just barely manageable.

Letting the students of a class live together, thoroughly implementing the principle of eating, living, studying, and working together, would make them very united in whatever they did, which would help to cultivate the students’ sense of collective honor and discipline.

Xiao Zishan was very surprised by the neatness and high degree of discipline in the entire dormitory. At the entrance of each dormitory, there were male and female students wearing “on duty” armbands. As soon as they entered, a loud “officer inspecting the rooms” command would sound in one dormitory after another. No matter which room he walked into, the students were already standing straight by their beds. Personal belongings and clothing were all neatly arranged, completely in the style of a military camp, and the girls’ dormitories were no exception.

“The discipline is very good!” Even a military and engineering illiterate like Xiao Zishan knew that the high degree of discipline of the masses was of great benefit to those in power: a brave and fearless army and industrial workers who could endure high-intensity, monotonous labor.

“This is the good effect of the military training in the quarantine camp,” Bai Yu said. “Even the most troublesome people have been disciplined. In addition, we also promote a student self-management system.”

Each class was divided into groups of ten, with a group leader. The class cadres included a class leader and three class committee members, who were responsible for study, culture and sports, and life, respectively.

“We require the teachers to only assign tasks, not to handle the arrangements themselves. Let them manage themselves as much as possible,” Hu Qingbai introduced. “Now it’s in the aspect of dormitory management, including hygiene and security. In the future, we also plan to have each class take turns helping in the kitchen, managing the campus environment, and organizing study mutual aid groups, to achieve the goals of student ‘self-governance,’ ‘self-support,’ and ‘self-study’.”

“Is the effect good?”

“It’s not ideal yet,” Hu Qingbai said. “This change in thinking is not something that can be achieved overnight. The students either don’t know what to do without the teacher’s orders, or they do the opposite: they simply become ‘class bullies.’ Yesterday, we dealt with one from the vocational school—this kid was even eloquent, saying that this was ‘self-management’—if a student in the class broke his, the ‘student official’s,’ rules, he, the ‘student official,’ would have to deal with them—’officials beating the common people’.”

“An interesting kid, a power-hungry one! How was he dealt with?”

“He and his subordinate class committee members were sent to the labor reform team. They ganged up and broke one student’s bone and injured several others,” Hu Qingbai sighed. “If this kid isn’t arrested, he’ll be an ambitious person in the future.”

“An ambitious person?”

“The General Administration of Political Security forwarded a document: a student reported that this person often said that when he was born, the room was filled with a strange fragrance; when his mother was pregnant, she dreamed of a big snake entering her arms; a fortune teller said that he was gifted and had a great fortune that ordinary people could not have, and other such nonsense. Later, when we questioned him, he admitted it himself and insisted that it was true…”

“Isn’t this mental illness? An old cliché,” Xiao Zishan joked. “But he’s quite imaginative. He might become a local tyrant or something in the future.”

“He won’t have this chance,” Hu Qingbai said. “The General Administration of Political Security’s verdict for this kid is ‘indefinite labor reform, not to be released without approval’.”

“So severe!” Xiao Zishan felt a chill down his spine. “A thirteen or fourteen-year-old kid, what does he know? Isn’t it a bit too much?”

“It wouldn’t be a big deal if he didn’t say those silly things about the strange fragrance filling the room. He said it and insisted it was true. This is stepping on the high-voltage line. Whoever touches it dies.”

Although Xiao Zishan felt that this matter was handled a bit too harshly, he essentially did not like this kind of low-level superstitious nonsense. Let this unlucky child pay the price for his delusional gift.

After a tour of the dormitories, Hu Qingbai invited him to his office for a chat. The office of the Education Committee was very in line with the image of an educational institution, a two-story pseudo-European-style building. Because the Education Committee and the school were actually one and the same, this office building also included the teachers’ offices. But it was empty, and there were few people to be seen.

Hu Qingbai invited him into his office. It was empty except for two desks facing each other and a few rattan chairs.

“I didn’t even get an application for an electric lamp!” Hu Qingbai complained bitterly. “Chang Kaishen insisted that this place was not within their wiring range!”

“There’s a great shortage of teachers now! There are few transmigrators who are willing to be full-time teachers. I don’t have the authority to recruit personnel. I’ve been begging everywhere, and now there are only twelve people in the Ministry of Education. And these twelve people are also responsible for the literacy education in the quarantine camps. They’re busy to death,” Hu Qingbai complained bitterly. “Everyone thinks that being a king of the children is boring. There are many who are willing to work part-time, but part-time people have limited time. We can’t all hold night classes!”

“Speaking of teachers, aren’t there a few scholars among the refugees recruited from Guangzhou? Let’s train these people to take up their posts first.”

“Few, really few. It’s a great achievement to be able to recognize a few characters. Even if there are a few intellectuals, they are intercepted by various departments as soon as they come out of the quarantine camp.”

“I’ll talk to the Executive Committee. In addition to letting the Ministry of Education give priority to recruiting native intellectuals, let’s also look at the women. We’ll transfer the suitable ones to you,” Xiao Zishan said. “Many of them have studied pure liberal arts. If they stay in various departments, they’ll just be secretaries, which is a waste. Fang Yijing, who is in charge of the dormitories in the General Office, the occupancy rate of the dormitories is much lower now. There’s no need to have a full-time dormitory administrator anymore. Let’s just transfer her to the school. She can be your dormitory supervisor.”

“That would be great. If there are women, it’s estimated that we can attract a group of liberal arts otaku to be teachers,” Hu Qingbai seemed to see hope.

“They all have boyfriends and husbands. You have to keep a close eye on them and don’t cause any trouble,” Xiao Zishan’s eyes rolled. “Actually, there’s a way to attract the otaku to your place.”

“What way?” Hu Qingbai’s eyes widened.

“Stupid, what do you have the most of here?”

“Students—”

“Aren’t there also female students…” Xiao Zishan said meaningfully.

Hu Qingbai suddenly understood, “Yes, yes!” Then he frowned again. “They’re all little kids, dusty and thin as monkeys, unless they’re loli lovers.”

“Didn’t the Viceroy want you to set up a simple normal school? You can select the girls who are over fifteen years old and have a decent appearance, and set up a simple normal school class. Give them slightly better food, make them stronger and fairer…” Finally, he added, “The sailor uniforms the female students wear are too rustic—the material is not good either. The tailoring skills of the commune’s clothing factory are much better now, and we can also buy good materials from Guangzhou and Macau. You can just ask an anime otaku to contribute his collection of Japanese high school girl uniform pictures for reference and have a set custom-made for them—the skirts should be longer. Then you can recruit teachers for the simple normal school. Hehe, won’t that group of otaku cry and shout to be… no, to be people’s teachers?”

“A simple normal school can’t recruit many students, about a hundred is enough. Are there that many classes?”

Bai Yu, on the other hand, said, “It’s just a promise to let them take the classes of the simple normal school, it doesn’t mean they can only take the classes of the simple normal school.”

“That’s right. Isn’t taking one class a week also taking a class?” Xiao Zishan said with a smile. “Also, it’s too few to recruit only one hundred for the simple normal school. We should recruit as many as possible—five hundred. Let’s first solve the problem of literacy teachers with the lowest requirements. Otherwise, you’ll all be tied down by low-level teaching and have no time for administration.”

“It’s probably not appropriate to recruit only girls,” Bai Yu said. “This is the 17th century, and there’s no such thing as gender equality yet. If you let a little girl teach a group of grown men to read, will they be convinced?”

“The working people are still very convinced by cultured people, regardless of whether they are men or women, and regardless of their status,” Xiao Zishan said. This was probably one of the traditional virtues of the old Chinese society.

“But what Bai Yu said also makes sense. Let’s also recruit some boys.”

It was decided on the spot that the first batch of the simple normal school would recruit five hundred people, three hundred and fifty girls and one hundred and fifty boys. They would be recruited from the teenagers and young adults between the ages of fifteen and twenty who had completed literacy education and obtained a C-level diploma. The Ministry of Education would concentrate most of its teaching staff to conduct a three-month crash course for the students of the simple normal school to bring their cultural level up to that of an A-level diploma.