Just after the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, the Shuangqi School in Shuangqi Township is about to start.

On this day, Chen Youjuan wore a set of brand-new clothes and carried a brand-new schoolbag that her brother bought for her. She was brand-new from head to toe.

The schoolbag only contains the Four Treasures of the Study, because the books will not be distributed until they arrive at the school and after the school fees are paid.

Chen Tianhua rowed his little awning boat and personally sent his little sister to school. He also helped pay tuition and miscellaneous fees and handle other related matters.

Shanyin County Shuangqi Academy is actually a private school.

The reason why it can be called a school and carry the official name of Shanyin County Shuangqi certainly means that its scale, teachers, teaching quality and other aspects fully meet the Qing government's basic requirements for a formal school.

Shuangqi School is under the jurisdiction of Shanyin County Yamen School. It is a formally registered and approved county-owned junior school. The school has a seal and can also issue graduation certificates.

The school has a formal syllabus, courses and book requirements.

This is equivalent to the government-run junior high school in later generations.

After graduating from here, you can go to a high-level school in the county, such as Jingming Academy.

This is different from some pheasant private schools, the ratio is: a teacher teaches seven or eight students at home to start a class, or the teacher teaches at the landlord's house and so on.

It is said that Shuangqi Academy has a long history. It was first established by the Liu family. In Liu Wenjie's generation, he himself taught classes and served as a school inspector.

Now, Shuangqi Academy is owned by three families: Liu family, Fei family, and Fan family, and three representatives from each family serve as school directors.

The annual expenses are shared equally among the three companies.

The Fan family started when Fan Mingzhong’s father became a shareholder.

I heard that this old man is very strange. He has no education himself, but he respects his husband very much, looks up to scholars, and requires that his descendants should be educated.

He runs a side business and is usually stingy with money, but he is very willing to invest in school.

In addition to the children of Liu, Fei, and Fan, Shuangqi Academy also allows children from towns with other surnames to study.

Of course, the charging standards are different.

The scale of Shuangqi Academy is not large, with only four brick-and-tile classrooms, complete with blackboards, desks, chairs and benches.

Each classroom can accommodate twenty or thirty students, which is equivalent to one grade.

As you can see from the classroom, Shuangqi Academy is divided into four grades, from low to high.

There is a library built in the school, which still has a certain amount of books, including some translated foreign books.

Mr. Liu Wenjie attaches great importance to books. He will purchase all officially published books and put them in the library for teachers and students to read.

The school also has student dormitories, and students who are far away from home can choose to board.

When Chen Tianhua came to the Xuetang Courtyard, he seemed a little familiar. There were memories in his head, indicating that Tu Gen studied here, and after graduation, he went to the county foreign school for half a year.

He saw many students in several classrooms. They were wearing very thin clothes, and their clothes were patched one after another and were extremely shabby.

These poor students breathed in to warm their hands from time to time in the classroom and huddled up to listen to the lectures.

The first lunar month is not over yet, the weather is still very cold, and it is unbearable to wear too thin clothes.

"Third father, can the poor children in this school be exempted from tuition and miscellaneous fees?" He couldn't help but ask his third uncle Fakang who was accompanying him.

Chen Fakang nodded and said:

"For the very few children from poor families who are aspiring to study hard, with the consent of the school board, they can be exempted from tuition and miscellaneous fees, but they need to bring their own books, pens and ink. If there is a prodigy, the school board will also sponsor him to obtain merit."

When Chen Tianhua just paid the fee, he learned that since last year, Chen Fakang had been appointed by the school board as the school inspector, equivalent to the principal in future generations.

There are five teachers in the school who are officially starting classes, and five teaching assistants.

In the land of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the literary style is extremely prosperous, the teaching is widely spread, and the literacy rate is relatively high compared to other places. Especially it is known as the birthplace of "Shaoxing Master". Is it possible to be illiterate?

The people here, whose families are the poorest, will scrimp on food and clothing, and even borrow money to send their children to school.

Even if you don't get the honors, you can start a business in the future, be a bookkeeper, a clerk or something like that. It's better than farming.

Anyway, the wages of literate clerks are much higher than those of blind whiteheads.

Chen Tugen is an example. His parents sent him to Shuangqi Academy and then sent him to the county town. However, the county town also required boarding, so the cost was definitely not low.

Of course, parents here send their children to study, but they are all boys, not girls.

There are less than ten girls in Shuangqi Academy, accounting for less than 10% of the total number of students.

And these girls are all children of the school director's family, or girls from wealthy families.

It is rare for ordinary people like Youjuan, who is older and has a foreign surname, to come here to study. The whole school looked at her strangely and sighed.

The course schedule of Shuangqi Academy is roughly as follows:

Morning reading: Teacher leads reading, group reading, selected people to read, teacher comments.

Learning calligraphy: Practice more than 100 characters in Cunkai.

Meaning of the Classics: The teacher explains the Four Books and Five Classics.

Lunch.

Recitation: Students review textbooks and recite chapters, sentences and texts.

Dictionary: Mr. talks about poetry, couplets and ancient Chinese prose.

Dinner (referring to boarders).

Evening self-study (referring to boarding students): Review what you have learned today and occasionally explain exercises.

In Chen Tianhua's mind and memory, the order of learning the Four Books and Five Classics is as follows.

Four books: "The Great Learning", "The Analects", "Mencius", and "The Doctrine of the Mean"

Five Classics: "The Book of Songs", "Shangshu", "Book of Rites", "Book of Changes", "Spring and Autumn"

The Four Books and Five Classics are the core carrier of Confucianism and the main content of traditional Chinese learning.

The class that Youjuan studied in was naturally the lowest grade, so she had to learn from scratch, starting with literacy.

Although she pestered Chen Tianhua to teach her how to read and practice calligraphy for more than ten days after she decided to study, at least she knew the names of her family members.

I can write the words "Chen Youjuan" crookedly, but I can't stand up straight.

There are more than twenty students in their class, all of whom should be no more than ten years old. There is only one little girl in the class, who is obviously a child of a wealthy family.

After the new year, Youjuan's actual age should be fourteen years old. She is really in a state of development. She is a head taller than all the classmates in the class and she is really tall.

She was a big silly girl sitting in the last row, studying alone, fresh and uneasy.

Her classmates looked at her curiously and whispered to each other from time to time, which made her very uncomfortable.

Fortunately, this class is mainly taught by Third Father Fakang, so he will naturally receive some care.

Chen Tianhua stood by the classroom window and observed for more than ten minutes before leaving. He moved to a higher-grade class and prepared to observe quietly.

He was very curious, what was rural teaching like in the late Qing Dynasty like?

This class should be a senior class, and the students are all boys, aged between thirteen and fifteen or sixteen.

The lecturer standing on the podium is over fifty years old, wearing a coarse cotton robe, with a fair and thin face. He is probably an old scholar and scholar.

His eyes seemed a little short-sighted, but he didn't wear glasses.

I guess I can't afford it.
Chapter completed!