When Yang Fan came in, Song Yingsheng was having a meeting with the teachers to discuss the final draft of the textbook.
"This Chinese Pinyin program is really great. As long as you learn Pinyin, you can study by yourself with a dictionary."
"Yes, these dictionaries sent by Dongzhu Yang are also very good, and they also have explanations of words and words. Each student is given one, and they can study by themselves by comparing the pinyin. I don't understand the simplified and traditional Chinese comparison table. In this dictionary, The characters we commonly use are called traditional Chinese characters, and each character also corresponds to a simplified character. Some of these simplified characters are useful to the people and are called short-stroke characters, but I don’t recognize most of them," said Chen Guanya.
Yang Fan said: "The so-called simplified characters are simplified strokes of Chinese characters. They are used by those who farm and work. They don't have much time to study and they cannot remember complex characters. Complete characters are used by scholars. These missing characters are Let the common people use the pen and calligraphy. This also reflects the dignity of scholars."
When everyone saw Yang Fan coming, they all stood up and bowed. Yang Fan waved his hand to tell everyone not to be polite.
After Yang Fan sat down, he began to listen to Song Yingsheng's report on the recent school situation. He knew that Yang Fan came here to inspect the situation, and if there were any difficulties, he should try to raise them while Yang Fan was here.
Chen Guanya was a scholar. His family originally had a small amount of land, and they had always supported his studies. However, the imperial examination in the Ming Dynasty was too difficult. After he passed the examination and became a scholar, he could no longer make any progress.
Now that the family's property has been almost spent, he has been studying all year round and is not physically strong enough to work or farm. Moreover, he is already forty years old, so he has to give up the imperial examination.
I worked as a teacher in a private school run by my own family in my hometown, teaching fourteen or five children and barely supporting my family.
His classmate Chen Juren received a letter from Song Yingsheng and recommended him to work as a teacher at Xinghe Academy. The scholar was given three coins a month, housing, and free food and lodging for the whole family. Four sets of clothes are distributed in spring, summer, autumn and winter a year.
He was so excited about such good treatment. I quickly went home to discuss it with my wife. His wife also supports him to go. The money we earn now is too little, and as our children grow up, there are too many places to spend money.
He immediately resigned and rushed to Zunhua with his wife, three daughters and a young son.
When I arrived here, I found that the conditions were very difficult. New dormitories and classrooms were still under construction, so we could only live in cotton tents.
But Song Yingshengshan was a very kind man and eager for talents. He promised that the first one in the new house would be assigned to him.
Three months' salary was paid in advance to facilitate settlement. I also gave an extra one or two silver as settling-in fee. If you are not used to living in a tent, you can rent a house in the city.
He discussed with his wife that the tent was made of cotton and it was very warm to live in. He could also buy meals from the school cafeteria here, which would save money. In recent years, their family has many children and has little savings. They plan to save these two or two nine cents.
Mr. Song Shan saw that it was difficult for his family to have many children, so he arranged for his wife to work in the cafeteria, and she was paid one cent and five cents a month. Those children who should go to kindergarten go to kindergarten, and those who should go to school go to school. All the food and accommodation are free. , the family was well arranged, and he devoted himself to his work.
Although he could not pass the imperial examination, he found that he was very good at teaching. During this period, he assisted Master Song in managing various complicated affairs and achieved great results, and Master Song was also impressed.
"I came here this time to solve the problem. Everyone should mention the difficulties the school still has," Yang Fan said.
Chen Guanya hesitated and said: "Proprietor, the weather is getting colder and colder. Cotton-padded clothes have not been distributed yet. In addition, although the tents are made of cotton, they still need to be heated in the cold winter. The refugees who gathered outside the city previously wanted to make For food and heating, the nearby mountains and forests have been cut down, and now we have to walk a long way to collect firewood, which is very expensive now.”
"This is easy to handle. I asked the iron factory to cast 300 iron stoves and send them over. The recent experiment with briquettes was also successful. I arranged for people to install heating equipment in all the tents before winter. I will urge you to purchase cotton and cotton cloth. We have all arrived, and the quilt factory is sewing. There may be a shortage of manpower there. We will recruit people internally. If there are women or girls in the family who are good at making clothes, they can go to the quilt factory to work."
Song Yingsheng said: "That's great. It can also increase the income of the family members. But if we use female workers, we are afraid that the opinions will not be good and there will be gossip."
"This is easy to handle. Set up a special workshop for female workers. Women are also used for management. Men are not allowed to enter." Yang Fan said.
"That's great. The proprietor is very considerate." Everyone praised.
In this case, our wife and daughter will have an extra income. I saw that Chen Guanya came early and his wife went to the canteen to help cook and earned one cent and five cents a month. Everyone was jealous.
"By the way, how's it going at the girls' school?" Speaking of female workers, Yang Fan thought of the girls' school.
"The proprietor, all the female students are staying in the old factory area of Xinghe. Currently, the only female teachers are Master Song Gua's wife and three daughters. Currently, many families are very resistant to letting girls go to school. Only the proprietor's domestic slaves let their girls go to school. , there are not many sent by other families. Currently there are only more than 70 students." Song Yingsheng said.
"There's nothing you can do about it, just take your time." Yang Fan knew that customs and habits were very stubborn. Fortunately, a hole was finally opened for women's education, so let's take it slow little by little.
"If any of the teachers' wives and young ladies are literate, you can recommend yourself to Mr. Song to be a female teacher. The salary and benefits will be the same as yours. If there are those who are illiterate, you can take the lead and send them to a girls' school. "Yeah," Yang Fan said.
Everyone thinks this is a good thing. Anyway, everyone in the women's school knows that they are all women, and they are not in the public eye. They have no problem with their reputation and integrity. They don't have to spend money to study, and they are also given clothes and take care of three meals a day. You can make more money by becoming a female gentleman.
"The most lacking thing now is arithmetic teachers. Generally, those who know arithmetic are in imperial institutions such as Qintianjian. There are not many private ones, and there are no imperial examinations. Now so many students need arithmetic teachers, and it is difficult to find them for a while." A teacher named Li said.
"I don't have any good ideas for this. I have a maid here named Yao Guang. Let her be a teacher and teach teachers who are willing to learn arithmetic once every three days. I will provide a batch of teaching materials and let the teachers study on their own. If you don't know how, ask Yao Guang during class. Anyone who can pass the graduation exam will be rewarded with ten taels of silver. Those who serve as arithmetic teachers part-time after passing the exam will receive another salary."
Yaoguang Xiaonizi just got a thousand dollars from Yang Fan. How could she waste such a good educational resource? It was hard for her to refuse.
As soon as Yang Fan finished speaking, the teachers were shocked and all moved. They come here to teach just for the high salary and good treatment here. Ten taels of silver is a lot of money, enough to give his son a bride as a bride price. And if you receive another salary, your monthly salary will be six cents. That’s more than seven taels a year.
Suddenly everyone was gearing up and eager to break up the meeting and went straight to the maid named Yao Guang.
"But I have agreed in advance that this Yaoguang girl is not an ordinary maid. You must not neglect her. Remember not to get angry with her. She has a bad temper. Even I dare to hit her when she gets angry. If you learn to slack off, be careful when she uses the board. Hit you."
Yang Fan first inoculated these old gentlemen to prevent them from acting like scholars in front of Yao Guang and being beaten by Yao Guang.
"No, no, even though we are stupid, we still understand the principle of respecting teachers. It is only natural that we will be criticized by our master if we fail to learn knowledge. How can we get angry with you?" All the old gentlemen shook their heads. , assured Yang Fan that he would never disrespect this female gentleman.
This is more than seventeen taels of silver. How can you be so in trouble with money?
"Miss Yaoguang is very knowledgeable. In addition to arithmetic, she is also proficient in dozens of subjects such as chemistry, physics, geography, biology, medicine, literature, etc. If you have the ability and please her and be willing to teach you, you can learn every subject." I will reward students up to junior high school level with ten taels of silver," Yang Fan said.
The eyes of all the old boys and old scholars were almost wide-eyed. There were dozens of subjects, and any one with a preliminary level would be rewarded with ten taels of silver. If you learn all this, how much money can you make?
Yang Fan was all red-eyed when he saw them, and continued: "These subjects will be opened in schools in the future, and the teachers who teach these knowledge will have a monthly salary of five coins."
There was another buzz in the venue, and everyone was excited.
Yang Fanxin said, as long as you want to make money, as long as you are willing to study hard, there is nothing you can't learn. As long as you can learn it, I am willing to spend money.
I just sold my antiques and have lots of money.
