The Marquise: I Earn My Own Worship

Nanyang is a good example.

Nanyang women are good at knitting. Many women open shops and do business outside, so the status of women here is higher than that of women in other areas of Da Chu.

Therefore, among the girls' schools, Nanyang Girls' School was relatively open, but basically only girls from wealthy families could attend.

The status here simply means that women are worth more. A woman in Nanyang who can knit can be sold for one gold, while an ordinary woman can be bought for one tael.

Although silver and money transactions do sound unpleasant, the value of women is real.

In this era, we cannot talk about respect, we can only talk about value.

The value of women from aristocratic families is relatively high. Therefore, if a woman from an aristocratic family has enough strength and capital, even her husband's family cannot beat or scold her at will.

If women want to become stronger, the first step is to improve their own value.

As for how far women can go on the road to self-reliance in the future, there will be those who come after them to work hard. All she can do is set an example for them.

Women still have a long way to go in terms of reform and self-reliance, and it cannot be changed overnight. Perhaps hundreds of years later, future generations will follow this path and find a path to self-reliance that suits them.

Besides, she is old and might die one day. She won't have much time and energy to protect this girl.

She planted a strong seedling, hoping it would grow into a towering tree and protect the smaller seedlings beneath it.

Learning some skills is a great thing for ordinary people. Women's education is popular among the upper class. When the people become rich and learn from others, the development of women's education will be even smoother.

In this era, these are family-inherited skills. Learning a skill can keep an ordinary family from going hungry.

Song Shengfu took advantage of their mentality: a girl from one family is sought after by hundreds of families, let alone a girl with skills.

Those who do great things plan for the long term. Song Shengfu stared at the booklet in her hand in a daze.

Who knows what will happen in the future?

Instead of worrying about it so much, why not start now?

Song Shengfu wrote and drew for a long time, and devoted herself to it for several days in a row, before she wrote out a preliminary model.

The preliminary model of the women's school has come out, but the problem is that the college must have a dean, and choosing the dean is a big problem.

Song Shengfu thought for a long time but still couldn't choose a suitable candidate.

The drawn-up drawings of the girls' school construction and the implementation design plan were given to Duan Jing'an for his review.

Duan Jing'an took it back and revised it for a few days, then took out the final draft to discuss with Song Shengfu.

"In addition to the liberal arts and technical courses that every student must take, the remaining courses are divided into five categories: accounting, women's engineering, food, agriculture, and medicine. These five categories are further subdivided into different subjects."

Initially, the girls' school only recruited the daughters of the family's farm or servants. Those who were good at accounting could go directly to the shop in the mansion when they graduated.

The women's engineering courses are divided into needlework, hairpin making, and perfume courses; the food course is divided into departments according to local cuisine; the agricultural course is divided into planting and breeding, and the two departments are further divided into courses; in medicine, Song Shengfu mainly teaches obstetrics and gynecology. It was difficult for women to give birth in ancient times, and the so-called midwives were just women with experience in giving birth.

At that time, there was a female doctor who specialized in treating wealthy families. She only knew how to diagnose and treat simple colds.

"Each student will major in a skill and can take elective courses for half an hour each day. Mid-month assessments are conducted monthly. Students who fail three or more assessments within six months will be given a warning by the academy. Students who fail the comprehensive assessment within a year will be expelled from the academy."

Duan Jing'an was still amazed when he read it again. When his mother handed it to him, it was already a very complete college system. He just added some content.

Song Shengfu took a look and found that the specific content was much more detailed. It was obvious that Duan Jing'an had put his heart into it and did not just give a perfunctory response to her, an old woman.

"Okay, I see that many of the additions have been made. Thank you for your hard work."

Duan Jing'an was pouring a cup of Shoumei tea and took a sip slowly.

Hearing this, he quickly put down the teacup in his hand and said, "Mother, why are you so polite to me? I have raised me up, and I always feel that I cannot repay you. I will definitely take care of the girl's education for you. If you have anything else, please tell me."

Song Shengfu felt relieved when she saw Duan Jing'an, who was not yet 20 years old. He looked like a teenager two years ago, but now he looks much more mature.

"Silly child, parents love their children, why should you repay them much? As for the girls' school, I think it's almost ready. The next step is to choose a location for the academy and a teacher... Oh, I thought about this teacher. Didn't the village accommodate many refugees who sold their bodies? There was a special book to record people back then. I think we should first evaluate if there are any suitable teachers here, and then look for others outside."

Duan Jing'an thought for a moment and said, "This is a good idea. The village is quite tight on resources. If the women's school is established, the teachers and others in the academy won't have to hire people from outside. The people in the village will be enough."

Song Shengfu nodded. "That's right. We've just started, and we're only teaching girls from the village. We'll start by exploring first. We can slowly find a good teacher. There's no need to rush. We'll just start with whatever courses we have."

"By the way, where do you think we should open the first girls' school?"

"The first one?"

Duan Jing'an was a little surprised, but after thinking about it, he understood.

Song Shengfu touched the booklet, every word and sentence on it was her hope.

"Yes, we have them in the suburbs of Beijing, Dongyang, and Xiyang. But we can't eat a big fat man in one bite. We will take it step by step. We will open the one in the suburbs of Beijing first. If it is really successful, we will open a few more."

The two discussed it again and finally decided to locate the girls' school at the foot of Qingyun Temple Mountain outside Beijing.

The first step of the formal implementation was to build the college. In the design drawings by Song Shengfu, the entire college had a square structure.

Entering through the gate is a spacious courtyard, with a three-story tower opposite and houses on either side. The main roads on either side lead to the back.

Behind the tower are two two-story courtyards, one for teaching literature and the other for art. Further in, there are rows of houses, each divided into different areas by corridors and stained glass windows.

The houses surround a two-story tower corresponding to the first tower, where the teacher's office building is arranged.

Finally, the backyard, separated by landscaped grounds, houses the cafeteria and accommodation. For privacy, the accommodation is designed as a ladder-shaped structure, with a central veranda separating the two. Students on either side can hang their clothes to dry.

Small huts were built every fifty steps around the entire academy, which could be used for servants to rest and also serve as security and defense.

The entire system would take at least a year to build, and at most two to three years. Since the disaster had just passed, the cost of hiring someone to do the work was low, so if we hired more people, we could probably finish it in about a year.

Duan Jing'an analyzed and remembered something.

"By the way, the girls' school still needs to be registered with the Ministry of Rites and approved by the Ministry of Works before it can be built."