It was not easy to arrange for the officials to go down, but the problem of education became prominent.
Previously, due to the chaos in society and the lack of food for the people, Nie Wenzhou chose not to reform education for the time being.
Now, with the army's suppression of bandits and the stability of society, a large number of jobs were created and a large amount of food was transported in. The entire province began to stabilize. As more and more scholars came to Shaanxi, everyone was actively discussing the problems here. At present, the problem that they were most critical of was education.
Since the society here was stable, the politics were clear, and the finances did not seem to be difficult, why did education not improve after so long? The better ones were saying that Nie Wenzhou did not take any action for the time being in order to ensure the defense of the country. The fiercer ones were scolding Nie Wenzhou for his warlord habits. He had invested all his money into the arsenal and the army and turned a blind eye to the education problem that concerned the country's fate for a hundred years. In short, it was a fierce argument.
This was the first time that Nie Wenzhou had encountered the power of the scholars of this era. These people were really like steel knives, scolding people with every word.
He didn't mind scolding people, but scolding without any basis or reason was something he couldn't tolerate. If he had really done something bad, he would have been scolded. However, many of the insults had nothing to do with education. They even extended to personal attacks, saying that Nie Wenzhou had a dark heart and lived a luxurious life.
Nie Wenzhou had a headache. He couldn't use force, but he couldn't compromise completely. He could only imitate the establishment of the News Administration. I don't object to you scolding me, but you have to have evidence and reasons. You can't scold me for no reason, right? And if I sue you for slander, you'll use the excuse of freedom of speech to brush me off. Do you really think I'm not a warlord?
Nie Wenzhou was very angry, and the consequences were very serious. He first gathered these intellectual and social elites to modify the existing laws and then issue new trial laws. Then, those who liked to curse would be banned from speaking for more than a year. For this reason, they worked tirelessly to collect evidence of everyone's abuse.
......
After Nie Wenzhou dealt with these troublesome matters, he directly used his identity as the Overseer to issue an announcement. All children of the right age in the area were entitled to five years of free compulsory education. Not much, only elementary school level.
However, there was no need to pay tuition fees for these five years. The textbooks were distributed uniformly, and the school had covered a lunch. Everyone only needed to buy pen, ink, and stationery. Stationeries were sold at a low price by the government's newly established stationery factory. Schools at all levels could receive the relevant quota according to the number of students in the school.
Nie Wenzhou didn't really want to care about such specific stationery, but it was a little too expensive at this time. An imported Parker fountain pen, which most people could not afford, could be used as a valuable gift between scholars. The production of pens was limited, and they relied on imported products. The ballpoint pen had not yet been invented, and the traditional writing brush was not easy to master. Therefore, he directly set up a large-scale stationery factory. He couldn't possibly buy expensive imported goods, right?
After this announcement was made, the entire country was in shock. He was too cruel. Everyone had just scolded him, and he had already slapped everyone's faces until they were swollen. Couldn't he just follow everyone's wishes?
Nie Wenzhou expressed that he couldn't! Nie Wenzhou couldn't bear to watch the education system become too chaotic. The intersection of various cultures and the collision of various ideas produced all kinds of opinions. Ordinary people were really at a loss.
Firstly, the traditional scholars expressed that they wanted to learn the Four Books and Five Classics and the words of the saints. Next were the Japanese students who wanted to learn from Japan. Those who came back from Europe and America were divided into two factions. One faction believed that elite free education should be carried out, while the other faction demanded comprehensive compulsory education.
In any case, both sides were right. Everyone thought that they had found the truth, and the others were heretics. Therefore, it was common for scholars to argue at this time. However, Nie Wenzhou couldn't argue with them before doing anything. He could use his power to settle it directly.
However, he still left some room for them to show off. He was only going through compulsory education in primary school, and they were going to conduct elite education in secondary school and above. Otherwise, Nie Wenzhou would probably not have a peaceful life.
Although the reform measures had been issued, it was another matter to start implementing them! This matter involved school buildings, teachers, textbooks, funds, and so on. It was not something that could be done overnight. More importantly, it was the problem of the students.
Indeed, most people wanted their children to be educated and become talented, so that they could get rid of the fate of farmers and become superior. However, there would always be some strange characters. For example, Nie Wenzhou had read a story before: A reporter asked a child who was picking up cow dung,""Why are you picking up cow dung?"
"In order to sell for money"
"Why sell it for money?"
"Marry a wife!"
"Why marry a wife?"
"Give birth to a child."
"What for?"
"Picking up cow dung!"
This story was filled with a bowl of poisonous chicken soup at that time, but it was very common in the villages at this time.
Many children in the countryside had to help their families with work after they grew up. Even if the family could afford to send their children to school, some families were unwilling to do so. In their eyes, going to school would not make them a high-ranking official, and it would be a waste of time and money. As long as they helped out at home, they would be able to earn money and marry a wife in a few years. Then, his son's son was the same.
If you said that they were negative, it wasn't that. It was just a difference in values. In their values, going to school was not beneficial to them. If their children had the ability to help with the work, then it was natural for them to work. As for his children, they would definitely have to start a family in the future. Now, he was saving up the capital for them to start a family.
On the contrary, those who supported going to school felt that the saying " there are golden houses in books, and there are beauties in books " was very appropriate. Generally speaking, people who weren't smart were more flexible. In the future, whether it was doing their own things or working, they would be better than now.
Of course, there were also some people who wanted their sons to take the examination to become officials. This was a thousand-year-old tradition that could only be slowly forgotten with time and events.
Therefore, even though the compulsory education method had been promulgated, Nie Wenzhou did not dare to expect it to be implemented smoothly. He had already thought of the corresponding enforcement measures.
That was to establish a boarding school in each city. If the children over the age of seven did not send their children to school, they would be forced to send their children to the boarding school. All the expenses of the students in school were collected through tax increases or penalties on the family.
If it was someone else, they probably wouldn't be able to do such a thing, but who asked him to be rich? There wasn't a lot of money in the government's finances. It was usually enough for the government's expenses. However, not to mention the money he could withdraw from the system, he also had many private factories. Other than the arsenal, which was not profitable, the other factories were profitable.
As for the textbooks, it was a comprehensive matter. In primary school, they began to learn the traditional three-character classic, thousand-character text, rhythm enlightenment, and the four books and five classics. Mathematics used ready-made textbooks. Nie Wenzhou felt that cultivating these skills from a young age would be beneficial to the inheritance and development of Chinese culture. He did not see that the later generations could only write modern poetry, and the ancient poetry was almost left with the ability to appreciate.
In middle school, other than Chinese, he started to learn modern subjects such as physics and chemistry. As for music, art, sports, and so on, he would leave it to those masters and professors to arrange.
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