Chapter 109: A Visit to Fangcaodi (Part 1)

Upon entering the school gate, they saw a stone pedestal half a person’s height, on which stood two statues over a person tall. Most of the delegation members were well-read, but none could identify which deity or Buddha was enshrined on this stone pedestal. They could only see that they were stone statues of two young people, a boy and a girl. The boy’s and girl’s attire was the uniform worn by the students of Fangcaodi—what the short-haired bandits called a “uniform.” Both were standing with their chests out, striding forward with their heads held high. The male statue pointed forward with one hand, while the female statue held a scroll.

Wang Ci looked and looked. Unlike the other scholars from Lin’gao who had only seen a few temples in their own county and prefecture, he had come from the mainland and was more experienced. He had visited at least one or two hundred temples and monasteries, but he had never seen such a statue. Not to mention that he couldn’t understand the meaning of the statue, the statue itself was very different from what he had seen before. The lines of the clothes and the faces of these two stone statues were very sharp, but their appearance and expressions were very vivid, which made Wang Ci click his tongue in wonder.

As he was engrossed in looking, someone suddenly tugged at his sleeve. Wang Ci was startled and found that it was Huang Bingkun.

“I wonder which demon or god of the short-haired bandits this boy and girl are?” Huang Bingkun whispered. “Since they claim to be descendants of the Great Song, why do they worship this unorthodox demon?”

Wang Ci shook his head and said, “This is definitely not an orthodox worship!”

However, there were no sacrificial vessels under the statue: no altar table, no incense burner, or the like. When the students in the school walked by, they did not show any “awed” expression, and there was no sign of any sanctity to the statue. Moreover, the Elder Dong who was guiding them just walked past it. It should be known that when the Elders visited the county school, Wang Ci wished he could tell them the life stories of all seventy-two disciples of Confucius.

He had doubts in his heart, but it was not convenient to ask, lest he reveal his ignorance. Most of the delegation members walked inside with this kind of suspicion. However, Liu Dalin asked Dong Yizhi what kind of deity these two statues were.

“These are not gods or Buddhas—” Elder Dong said.

“Then they must be some of the Australian sages?”

“Nor are they.” Dong Yizhi thought to himself that these two statues were nothing, just a sculpture created or “copied” by an Elder who had studied art. The blueprint was probably the statue of a male and female Young Pioneer in front of some youth palace, which was then “localized.”

“These are not sages. They represent the image of the young students of our Great Song’s Australian administration,” Dong Yizhi explained. “It can also be said that it is the image of the students of our Fangcaodi.”

Although the delegation did not quite understand the specific meaning of his words, they roughly understood that this was what the Australians thought the ideal young students should look like. Wang Ci looked at the two statues. Both the male and female were tall and strong. In particular, the bulging muscles on the boy’s rolled-up sleeves and the sturdy calves and a pair of huge, unbound feet exposed under the girl’s skirt made him curse inwardly, “The short haired bandits are really a bunch of ruffians!”

People who looked like this had no trace of scholarly elegance; they were just like ordinary workers and farmers. And the expressions on their faces, their gestures, and their movements all exuded a kind of arrogant and forward-moving spirit of the short-haired bandits—like brave warriors, yet they were the models for the young students in the eyes of the short-haired bandits. The short haired bandits’s insight was really ridiculous! No wonder the gentry secretly discussed that the short-haired bandits were “indiscriminate of high and low” and “crude and uncultured.”

Everyone had their own thoughts, but they did not show it on the surface. They just politely said “please, please” to each other and followed the two Elders, Dong and Tang, into the school.

Walking along the cinder road into the school, there were trees planted on both sides of the road. After a few years, although they were not yet tall, they were already lush and green, interspersed with various flowers and trees. Under the spring sun, they vied to show off their beauty. There were also a few stones and long benches dotted around, arranged simply and elegantly, with great ingenuity. Walking among them at this time was quite refreshing. The unpleasant feeling of “crudeness” from before dissipated a lot. Everyone couldn’t help but think to themselves, “These short-haired bandits really know how to enjoy themselves!”

At the end of the paved path was the large playground with a 400-meter circular track. It was the time for the end of Fangcaodi’s daily morning exercises. After completing the last few movements of the formation exercises, each class gathered their formation and returned to their classrooms.

The students, wearing uniform student uniforms, marched in neat steps, their formations orderly, towards the teaching building. Although there were dozens of columns marching at the same time, and the playground seemed chaotic with formations crisscrossing, the complex columns marched in an orderly manner under the leadership of the class leaders. In a short while, they had all evacuated the field and returned to their respective classrooms.

“The Australians govern their studies as if they were governing an army. They are truly formidable,” Liu Dalin said, half in compliment and half in admiration. The others were speechless. This was too much of a shock for them. Were these still students? They were first-rate strong soldiers! Just the way their formations deployed and retracted freely, and the way the students acted as one upon hearing the command, was something that few armies in the Great Ming could do.

They had all seen the reviews and drills of the Fubo Army and deeply felt that the Australians not only had “excellent equipment” but also had a set of methods for governing the army. They did not expect that it was the same in this school. If these students were a few years older and were sent out to form battalions, they would instantly become a strong army!

“The short haired bandits have ulterior motives!” Huang Bingkun thought to himself. He looked at the faces of the people around him. Their expressions were all different. Some were grave, some were expressionless, and some showed joy. He couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. The hearts of the people in this Lin’gao County had already been half-deceived by the short-hairs!

Dong Yizhi saw that the delegation from the Jasmine Pavilion was a little dazed. He coughed and said, “Gentlemen, the daily assembly is over. Please follow me to the rest area for a short break, and then come and listen to our classes.” He then made a gesture of invitation.

Tea had already been prepared in the rest area. The delegation sat down for a short rest. Dong Yizhi first gave a brief introduction, including the general setup of Fangcaodi Academy, the school system, and the number of students.

After several years of development, Fangcaodi School had expanded into a comprehensive school with seven major educational departments: primary school, upper primary school, middle school, normal school, study institute, professional training department, and literacy department. According to the Fangcaodi school system, primary school was two years, upper primary school was two years, and middle school was divided into junior and senior levels, with a 2+3 system. The four stages could be flexibly combined for study, and diplomas could be obtained separately. To complete the entire program would take nine years. This was roughly the basic school system of the nine-year school system that the Yuanlao Yuan would implement in the future.

Except for the middle school department, which had not yet officially started operation, all other departments were operating effectively. There were more than six thousand students in the school.

By the standards of the old world, a middle school with six thousand students was only the level of an ordinary comprehensive middle school, and it could not be compared with some huge monster-like county middle schools. But in this world, this number, once reported, shocked the entire delegation.

In the schools of this world, whether they were government-run or private, except for the highest institution of learning like the Imperial College, the number of students would not exceed two or three hundred at most.

Suddenly hearing that this school had six thousand people was too shocking for the natives of this world who were not used to the numbers of the industrial age. It should be known that…

“There are actually as many as six thousand people?” Liu Dalin asked in disbelief. He had long heard that the Australians taught without discrimination and thought it was an exaggeration, but he did not expect it to be true.

“Indeed there are,” Dong Yizhi nodded. “But this is far from enough to meet the needs of education. At present, there are still two or three thousand children who should be in school but are not. So we are preparing to open another school in another place to meet the demand.”

“Elder Dong, what is the use of the Yuanlao Yuan admitting so many children to school?” a gentry member asked. “I have heard that most of these children are provided with food and clothing by the Yuanlao Yuan, and their tuition is free. But in my opinion, most of the students who have graduated from Fangcaodi in the past few years are still workers. Since they are just craftsmen, why bother to provide them with education? Isn’t the Yuanlao Yuan doing something superfluous?”

“Universal education is our basic policy,” Dong Yizhi said. “Educated laborers can play a greater role.” He knew that it was difficult for the gentry to understand this issue, so he did not say more. Just then, the bell for class rang, so he stood up and invited them to the classroom to listen to a lesson.

According to the requirements proposed by the delegation and the instructions of the school, the program arranged by the school was rich and colorful. However, for an in-depth visit to the school, listening to a lesson was an indispensable part. Therefore, it was the first course of the day.

Liu Dalin, Wang Ci, and the others were led into a primary school classroom and were arranged to sit at the back of Dong Yizhi’s classroom, listening to his lecture with dozens of school children. Huang Bingkun finally had the opportunity to sit in the Australians’ great school and listen to a real Australian lecture.

The teaching building did not cause too much of a strange feeling for the delegation. Buildings of a similar style were already common in Lin’gao. As for the large glass windows in the classroom, they were less shocking—glass windows were also common in Lin’gao. However, the classroom with its densely packed desks and chairs left a deep impression on them. The blackboard at the front, the big red slogan above the blackboard, the blackboard newspaper with pictures and text on the back blackboard, and the colorful propaganda posters on the white walls on both sides all created an atmosphere completely different from the traditional dim and quiet study-style school. It seemed that there was a more intense and more vigorous atmosphere in the classroom.

Sitting in the classroom, you could hear the sound of unison reading from other classrooms. Wang Ci listened. It was not the traditional enlightenment readings like the Disciple’s Guide, the Thousand Character Classic, or the Hundred Family Surnames, and he couldn’t help but be secretly disappointed. Sometimes there were strange sounds like “ah,” “wo,” “e,” “yi.” Wang Ci was, after all, a well-read scholar, and he soon realized that this was most likely the Australians teaching some kind of Australian “phonology.”