Chapter 111: A Visit to Fangcao Academy (Part 3)

“Sir, sir,” Huang Binkun called out urgently, seeing the dazed look on his face and fearing he would lose his composure.

“Oh, oh,” Instructor Wang snapped back to reality. He glanced around frantically, his face turning red.

“Seductress! To use such bewitching arts, her heart is punishable by death!” Huang Binkun exclaimed, providing a slight cover for Instructor Wang and dissipating some of the awkwardness.

The group settled into their stay at the Fangcao Academy. Dong Yizhi assigned them a few male and female administrators to act as campus guides, instructing that they were free to go anywhere as long as it didn’t disrupt the normal teaching schedule. The laboratories were an exception, not because there were any secrets to protect, but because the contents were too dangerous for inexperienced natives, and some of the equipment was too valuable.

Liu Dalin, along with Wang Ci, Huang Binkun, and the rest of the group, began their “inspection” of Fangcao Academy in earnest. The Australians’ way of receiving the inspection team was, for a time, difficult to accept: no welcome reception, no banquet, and no high-ranking officials to accompany them. Aside from a few “minor official” level male and female administrators as guides, there was nothing else. It was an attitude that clearly showed they were not taken seriously.

Fortunately, the main purpose of the group was to investigate the school, so they didn’t place much importance on the level of courtesy. Huang Binkun, in particular, had come prepared to “endure humiliation for a greater cause,” so the group didn’t complain too much.

Although the reception was ordinary, the freedom to move about within Fangcao satisfied some of the “interested parties” among them: they could attend any class they wished. Initially, Huang Binkun was a little nervous, fearing he might be “taken care of” by the short-haired bandits in the middle of the night. However, he gradually relaxed and began to wander around the campus, hoping to uncover some of their secrets.

Over the next few days, they attended a variety of classes, from the natural sciences and arithmetic they were most eager to hear about, to the language classes taught using the “popular reader” that Wang Ci had once scorned.

These classes ranged from small sessions with a few dozen students to large lectures with hundreds packed into a tiered amphitheater-style classroom. Huang Binkun was nearly overwhelmed the first time he entered one of these tiered classrooms. Hundreds of people filled the room, all staring intently at the four giant blackboards at the bottom, where Yuanlao Yuan was writing with a piece of chalk and lecturing simultaneously. In one class, he could fill half a blackboard.

Each student had a slate and a small box of chalk pencils. When they needed to do exercises, they would write on the slate and then wipe it clean with a cloth. This method of saving paper and ink received unanimous praise from the visiting group. The only point of contention was that the children’s posture for holding the chalk was incorrect; they pinched the chalk instead of holding it like a brush. However, compared to the prevalence of simplified characters used by the Australians, this was not a particularly shocking discovery.

“With so many people in one class, how can the teaching be clear?” Wang Ci, while impressed by the “education for all” scene, couldn’t help but worry about the quality of instruction in such a large setting.

The administrator guiding them simply smiled and did not answer. Wang Ci then thought to himself that he was being foolish. What could a few “imitation-short-hairs” know? It would be better to wait and ask a real Australian when he had the chance.

Unfortunately, the real Australians were usually very busy, although they could often be seen teaching students on campus. The Yuanlao teachers at Fangcao rarely taught ordinary primary school students anymore. Their students were now the advanced primary schoolers, student-teachers, and middle school students. A few classes of promising students had already been selected from those with a high primary school level of education to receive middle school training.

After taking office, Zhang Zhixiang, after some investigation, worked with Hu Qingbai to create a new education system. The goal was to promote universal education among the naturalized citizens as quickly as possible.

First, literacy education was separated from the Fangcao school system. A dedicated Literacy Department was established to handle basic literacy. The teachers in this department were partly student-teachers from Fangcao on rotation, and partly re-trained local intellectuals, including local and refugee scholars, students, merchants, and others with literacy skills. After being separated, they received simple training and served as literacy teachers in the purification camps. The textbooks were mainly traditional primers like the “Three Character Classic” and “Hundred Family Surnames”—although traditional, they were printed in simplified characters with modern typesetting. After leaving the purification camps, they could recognize two hundred Chinese characters, achieving a basic level of literacy—of course, they could only read, not write. This was classified as a “C-level diploma,” a necessary certificate to become a naturalized citizen.

Then, based on their performance in literacy education, they were streamed. Younger children or those with strong learning abilities entered Fangcao; those aged 13 and over with poor academic performance were sent to the labor allocation department and then to apprentice teams in various industrial and agricultural sectors.

Apprentice students could also attend night school for further training after their work. They could take the biannual diploma exams, which were open to all naturalized citizens and locals. If they passed, they could obtain B-level and A-level diplomas, equivalent to primary and high primary school education, respectively.

Upon entering Fangcao, students first entered primary school. They spent a year mastering two thousand characters, gaining basic reading and writing skills, and learning arithmetic and simple plane geometry. Those who passed entered the advanced class to prepare for high primary school. Those who failed entered the regular class for another year to get their primary school diploma, after which they were assigned to various elementary vocational education classes. After a few months of vocational training based on their specialty and abilities, they were assigned to various departments.

The top graduates of primary school entered the elementary teacher-training class to become primary school teachers. At Fangcao, being a primary school teacher was not a profession; they were themselves elementary teacher-training students, learning and teaching at the same time. These students had to complete high primary school to graduate.

Primary school was the compulsory education in the Yuanlao-led system. Whether they were children of naturalized citizens or local natives, as long as they were of the right age, they could enroll—the enrollment of naturalized citizens’ children was mandatory, and even more so for the orphans they took in.

Students entering high primary school were also divided into advanced and regular classes after a year of study. The advanced class prepared for middle school, while the regular class graduates went on to secondary vocational education classes or the secondary teacher-training class.

Only one group was exempt from the post-streaming destinations: the “self-funded students.” These were students who paid tuition to attend Fangcao. They came from two main sources: one was those under the “patronage” of a Yuanlao, typically the adopted children, students, or apprentices of a Yuanlao. There were also some children of ordinary naturalized citizens or locals who were “discovered” by a Yuanlao willing to cover their tuition and living expenses. The other source was the children of local prominent families, like Huang Ping and the young master of the Li family, who were sent to the school to build connections with the Australians. Whether they could attend high primary and middle school depended solely on their academic level and ability to pay tuition. Some children of naturalized citizens, even if their grades were not good enough for the advanced class, could enter the next level of schooling as long as their primary school graduation scores were satisfactory and their parents were willing to pay the tuition and living expenses.

Under such an education system, the demand for teachers was immense. In addition to fully utilizing local intellectuals as basic literacy teachers and training a large number of student-teachers, the Yuanlao education rotation system, which had been in place for some time, was further improved: Yuanlao from non-education departments had to complete a certain number of teaching hours for Fangcao each year. Except for Yuanlao from the industrial and agricultural sectors who could offset their hours by supervising practical work and farming, all other Yuanlao had to contribute teaching hours. However, these temporary Yuanlao teachers mainly taught students in the high primary and middle school divisions. Politically, this also reduced the concern that a few Yuanlao oligarchs could control the naturalized elite through education and threaten the other “soy sauce” Yuanlao—after all, the future naturalized elite would be taught by all the Yuanlao, not just the students of a select few.

The members of the Fangcao education inspection team would naturally not understand the complex system. For them, Fangcao had too many incredible aspects that were eye-opening.

During this time, Huang Binkun was unable to get in touch with his former book-boy, Huang Ping. They rarely even had a chance to meet, just a quick greeting in the hallway. However, when Huang Binkun spoke with Liu Dalin and Wang Ci at night, he had to admit that the Australians’ approach to education was truly remarkable. Students underwent a heavy load of study and labor at the school every day. Even at night, the classrooms were brightly lit as students engaged in their daily self-study sessions, which continued late into the night. At six in the morning, all teachers and students had to wake up for a morning run. Wang Ci even lamented that if these students were willing to apply such diligence to the “proper path,” he wouldn’t say they could top the imperial examinations, but passing the provincial exams to become a Juren would be no problem.

Jinshi Liu Dalin, however, disagreed. While the student management at Fangcao was strict and the students were diligent and hardworking, it did not exceed that of some famous academies on the mainland. But the sheer volume and variety of the teaching content were unheard of. Students not only had to study but also engage in various tasks both on and off campus, from cleaning and gardening to raising chickens, growing mushrooms, and doing all kinds of handicrafts. It seemed to have the style of the Mohist school.

As for the workload of the Yuanlao teachers, from the first class after morning self-study to the last class in the afternoon, any Yuanlao teacher from the education department taught at least six classes a day. Forget attending the classes, just hearing about such a high-intensity teaching schedule made Liu Dalin and the others feel exhausted. Moreover, after the day’s classes ended, there was only a short break before dinner. After dinner, each Yuanlao teacher had to take turns conducting teacher training, providing further education for the student-teachers—and this didn’t even include the time spent grading homework and exams every day.