Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 195 Trainee Teacher
With the arrival of new immigrants, the once deserted Qiming Island gradually became a little "bustling and lively". Cities and settlements, with Shixing Fort as the core, soon spread to the southeast of the island.

More than 90% of these newly added populations are young and middle-aged people in their twenties and thirties, making the population structure of the entire island extremely young.

In this age of extreme entertainment scarcity, people with families seem to have no other pastimes except the "making babies" sport.

Especially when they have enough food and clothing and there is no unrest or disaster, they are more willing to "create" more offspring to continue their bloodline.

Through large-scale cultivation of corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes, as well as abundant fish catches along the coast, Qiming Island basically achieved food self-sufficiency as early as three years ago. Coupled with improvements in medical and health care and advances in obstetrics and gynecology (the use of forceps), it soon ushered in a baby boom. The number of newborns increased year by year, allowing the entire island to maintain a relatively high population birth rate.

This year, the number of births far exceeds that of previous years.

By the end of August, a total of 380 babies had been born in the three small towns of Shixing, Guangfeng, and Xinning (now the small town of Oak Bay east of Victoria).

By the end of the year, it is highly likely that the number of newborns will exceed 400.

In addition to providing a fixed amount of free milk, eggs and other nutritional products to mothers and infants, the Xinzhou Huaxia Decision-making Committee also opened several nurseries and maternity and infant mutual aid stations in the name of the government to take care of the daily lives of a large number of infants and pregnant women, thus relieving many families of certain worries and allowing them to devote themselves wholeheartedly to the vigorous construction boom.

Of course, as the number of children increased (including beggars taken in from the Ming Dynasty and children brought by immigrant families), the necessary basic educational facilities also expanded and increased simultaneously.

Of the first group of children who completed primary school education, except for more than 50 who were selected to attend the Army and Navy School for military and navigation training, the rest were all retained in the school.

Some of the most talented students among them will enter a higher stage of study and receive elite training across many directions, disciplines and dimensions in order to inherit and master the many "high-end" knowledge that is enough to change the world.

Those students with average qualifications were all retained as junior substitute teachers to increase the corresponding teaching staff, so that the time travelers can free up more energy to train students at a higher level.

While they are responsible for teaching enlightenment and primary school courses, they also use their spare time to continue to improve their professional knowledge and teaching skills in night schools established by various institutions.

In other words, these students who have just "graduated" from the basic primary school stage have turned into the first batch of trainee teachers to teach basic courses in various subjects in lower grades.

These young trainee teachers, the oldest of whom was only eighteen or nineteen years old, and the youngest was only fourteen years old, stood in front of the podium, holding the elementary textbooks compiled by the time travelers, and taught a group of children who were not much younger than them with a serious look on their faces.

Xu Risheng, who was only sixteen years old, would feel a little panicked and dazed for a moment every time he saw the students in the classroom.

How could I go from being a street beggar to becoming a respected teacher in just a few years?
Come to think of it, God really favored him and gave him a chance to turn his life around when he was wandering on the streets of Guangzhou, most helpless and on the verge of death.

He was first gathered at the Xinzhou Huaxia warehouse in Guangzhou. After recuperating for a while, he followed hundreds of refugees on a boat to the Xinzhou continent.

Here, he lived in a warm and comfortable house, ate three full meals a day, and wore soft and fitting clothes.

What surprised and delighted him even more was that he went to school with dozens of other children, learned to read and write with the teacher, and acquired various cultural knowledge.

When he wrote the first word in his life on a piece of white paper, he was extremely excited.

You know, their ancestors three or four generations ago were all illiterate farmers.

For a child like him, wanting to go to school and study is nothing but a pipe dream.

Throughout the year, we can’t even get enough food to eat or clothes to wear. How can we have extra money to send our children to school?

Therefore, Xu Risheng is full of gratitude for everything he has obtained, and regards the time travelers as his reborn parents, vowing to do his best to be loyal to them and protect them.

However, after four years of study, he found that he was not cut out for study.

I can still understand the slightly simple knowledge, but I find it very difficult to understand the more complex courses.

So, after completing four years of primary school courses, he naturally "graduated" and became a glorious trainee teacher.

The students in the school generally come from three groups. In addition to some locally born children and Indian children, a considerable number are orphans like him who were taken in from the Ming Dynasty, and many are children of immigrants.

These students come in all ages, speak different languages, and have vastly different abilities. As a teacher, my first priority is to teach them the "correct" accent, enabling them to speak standard "Mandarin" as quickly as possible and understand the lessons I teach.

Pinyin, Thousand Character Classic, Three Character Classic (Song Dynasty edition), Newly Compiled Four-Character Couplets and other pronunciation textbooks and enlightenment reading books on character recognition constitute the teaching materials for the early stages of primary school.

All children will need to master 1,000 to 1,200 common characters in the first year and have basic reading and writing skills.

As for Confucian classics such as the Four Books and Five Classics, they are not taught in schools.

Well, in addition to the fact that the time travelers themselves lack the corresponding knowledge of Confucianism, another important reason is that Confucianism does not seem to have a significant role in promoting and enhancing current science and education.

It should be noted that whether in a country or a region, all individual development depends on society.

For the government or a local power, education has no other purpose except to meet social needs.

More importantly, the results or effects of education are measured by the extent to which social functions are exerted.

At present, what Xinzhou Huaxia needs most are a large number of teachers, craftsmen, artisans, grassroots officials and technical officers who can read and write.

They don't need too much profound knowledge, and they don't need to write the kind of flowery essays that the top scholar writes.

The main purpose of reading and writing is to be able to communicate accurately and effectively and to understand the various policies and laws issued by the government.

Instead of picking out sentences and spending your whole life studying those obscure and difficult to understand eight-part essays.

"So, reading this book is of no benefit to you," Xu Risheng said with a smile when he saw his companion Liao Zhixing holding a copy of the I Ching that he had obtained from somewhere. "We in Xinzhou Huaxia don't have the imperial examination, so reading these books is a waste of time. Instead of that, you'd be better off auditing one or two useful classes at the middle school. That would be much more effective!"

"I found this book in the school library. I'm not really looking to study it in detail or ponder things like the imperial examinations or the eight-legged essay." Liao Zhixing closed the I Ching and shook his head. "I just wanted to see what the Ming Dynasty scholars read when they took the exams for the rank of scholar and jinshi, and how they differed from what we learn."

"What's the difference?"

"It's not very useful!" Liao Zhixing sighed slightly and said with a smile: "Even if we read and memorize the entire "Book of Changes", it will not help us improve what we want to do. It's really like you said, a waste of time."

"I'm afraid your words are a bit extreme," Xu Risheng said. "Our teacher once taught us that when the granaries are full, people learn etiquette; when they have enough food and clothing, they understand honor and disgrace. When our Xinzhou Huaxia people enjoy a prosperous material life in the future, perhaps people will study and explore ancient Chinese texts like the I Ching based on their personal interests and preferences. After all, these are things left by our ancestors, so they must have some value and significance."

"Well, Brother Xu is right." Liao Zhixing nodded, "However, we really don't have the leisure and elegance to study these things left by our ancestors right now."

"By the way, is your teaching going well in class? Are there any particularly active students who aren't paying attention? Oh, every time I teach a class, I feel like I'm losing a layer of skin. I'm worried that the students won't obey, and I'm also afraid that I'll make mistakes. It makes me so nervous."

"I was just trying to hold on," Xu Risheng said with a wry smile. "Looking at those students who weren't much younger than us, I was a little scared, worried that I wouldn't be able to control them. But fortunately, they were all in the same situation as we were back then. They all had a natural fear and trust in their teachers."

"Besides, if we really encounter undisciplined children, simply making them stand in the corner or slapping their hands can help them behave a little better. Oh, and by the way, during recess, it's best not to play around with them, lest we lose the teacher's dignity and composure. And..."

"Teacher, teacher..."

As they were talking, a student of seven or eight years old suddenly ran over, panting, his body covered in dust and his face covered in sweat. He reported in panic, "Teacher, the students are fighting on the playground! Gou'er, Yungen, and the others are bleeding on their faces..."

"Huh?" Xu Risheng stood up immediately after hearing this. "What's going on?"

"When Gou'er and his friends were playing war games, they insisted that Goyle and the others pretend to be Western barbarians. The argument got a little heated, and a fight broke out..."

“…” Xu Risheng’s heart suddenly skipped a beat.

Oh no, those Hispanic kids must have been beaten up, right?

(End of this chapter)