Chapter 442 Brush Down

"Find the students who are teaching in rural areas!" Song Xuanyu felt unwilling after returning.

Master Liu called the student who was teaching in the supporting area over and said, "Sir!"

"Well. Thank you all for your hard work, gentlemen! I called you here today because I need your help with something!" Song Xuanyu invited the students to take a seat.

"Please speak, sir!" The students were terrified.

"I think you are also aware of the official girls' school, which was originally established for girls from poor families.

"I asked you to come here because you've taken the trouble to go to each village and survey the situation. Why don't the girls from poor families sign up?" Song Xuanyu said sincerely.

If we are to do something, we must do it well and never become a tool manipulated by local forces.

If he really couldn't recruit students, Song Xuanyu would rather change it to a boys' county school than compromise.

Officials, gentry, and merchants were fully capable of hiring teachers to teach at home. Whether there were official schools for girls or not, those girls would not lose the opportunity to get an education.

Official schools for girls were the only opportunity for girls from poor families to receive an education.

If they really don't want to study, then there is no need to set up official schools for women.

Song Xuanyu was a little angry at their lack of fighting spirit. He felt that the poor people here deserved to be poor. It would be better for him to write a letter back to his hometown and set up a government school for girls.

"Sir, why?" The students were puzzled.

They have never had such a good opportunity to study.

It was not easy for poor people to study. Some of them herded cattle for their masters in order to study and secretly sneaked to the teacher's house under the wall to eavesdrop.

He was so engrossed in listening that he didn't even notice the cows had eaten up his vegetable garden.

In the end, he was beaten by his master and almost beaten to death, but his master came forward to rescue him.

After taking a few tests, they felt that he had some qualifications, so he was exempted from the tuition and allowed to attend classes.

I was so grateful that I got up before dawn every day to work, and then went to class on an empty stomach. I didn't dare to slack off for fear that the teacher would dislike me.

Without paper and pen, I practiced calligraphy using tree branches on the ground.

I didn’t have a book, so I shamelessly borrowed one from a classmate for one night, wrote on the wall with a charcoal pen, and recited it every day.

In order to study, try every possible means and cherish the hard-earned opportunity.

At the end of the semester, I got an A in the exam. The teacher praised me highly and rewarded me with a set of pens, inkstone, paper and a book.

It’s not like this time. Lord Song built a school building similar to the one in the county school, provided food and accommodation, and waived all fees.

Teach girls to read and write, and learn skills that others want to learn but cannot.

You're not coming! Someone who refuses to learn shouldn't even come! They don't deserve this opportunity!

"Let's go and find out why. Is it that those girls don't want to come, or their parents don't allow them to?" Song Xuanyu didn't say anything else, he just insisted on knowing the truth.

If the girls refused to come, he would simply cancel the official school for girls. If their parents did not allow, he could find a way to solve the problem.

"By the way, let's also find out whether the boy has the same situation, including the reason, and check his family situation." Song Xuanyu added.

A place remains poor for hundreds or even thousands of years because it is isolated and backward.

Isolation and backwardness will inevitably lead to difficulties in studying. If people have difficulties in studying, few of them will be enlightened and most will be ignorant.

Ignorance and stupidity will lead to poverty, forming a vicious cycle.

Song Xuanyu needs to find those poor people who have awakened consciousness and are unwilling to live in poverty to enlighten them.

Receive education and slowly change the mindsets of more poor people.

"Yes!" the students bowed.

With the list in hand, the students and the yamen runners went to the countryside to conduct a thorough investigation.

Everyone will come back to report in a few days.

"What's the situation?" Song Xuanyu asked.

“Your Excellency, I have visited all the villages and asked the women, and I heard about this matter.

But what they heard was that only girls from wealthy families were eligible to study, and there was no mention that girls from poor families could also go to school.

When asked if they wanted to study, the girls nodded, but they were worried about having no one to work at home. Feeding the pigs and chickens, cooking, and washing clothes were all their responsibilities.

The students replied, "Boys are in a better situation. Many parents have asked if there are any free schools, hoping to send their boys to school."

This survey made them realize the huge gap in the level of attention men and women pay to education.

Everyone agrees that boys should study, but many people think it is against the will of heaven for girls to study. What kind of studies should girls study?

At the age of thirteen, you're already married and having children, reproducing offspring. What's the point of studying? In the end, you're still serving your parents-in-law, taking care of your husband and raising your children! All your studies are in vain!

There are even many villagers who think that educated girls are difficult to control, and would rather marry an illiterate girl than an educated one because her heart is wild and cannot be controlled!

The parents, who were originally tempted, changed their minds and decided not to let their daughter go to school. Instead, they insisted on sending their son to school.

He even offered to exchange his daughter's free opportunity for a boy, as if this girls' official school was run by his family.

The students were dumbfounded by the self-righteousness of these ignorant people. Being poor seems to be justified!

"Write a new enrollment summary and send it to each village!" Song Xuanyu said after pondering.

"Since the ladies are willing to study, then let's fight for it. This time, it's clear that only those from poor families are eligible to register. The registration period is limited, and no one will be accepted after the deadline."

"Sir, what about the registration we made before? Doesn't it count anymore?" a student asked.

"Well! It counts. Send out the registration form first. I will have my own explanation!" Song Xuanyu said calmly.

Afterwards, each village received the admission summary for the girls' official school again. After seeing the clear admission conditions, the villagers gave different responses.

He cleverly understood what it meant and secretly signed up his daughter.

Then, with ulterior motives, they persuaded others not to send their daughters to school, saying that it was useless for girls to study and that they would become stupid.

Some girls strongly demanded to study and made trouble with their parents. Some succeeded, while others were suppressed. In short, there was a lot of commotion in every village.

By the time the registration deadline came, a total of 83 girls had registered from various villages.

"That's right!" Song Xuanyu looked at the registration book and nodded with satisfaction, "All applicants will be interviewed in five days!"

On that day, all the girls who had registered came to the county government office. Including the first batch of girls who registered, there were a total of 122 people.

The women from well-off families, such as officials, gentry, and merchants, all dressed respectably and had slender fingers.

The girls from the country all wore coarse linen clothes. Occasionally, some of them were dressed a little neatly, but the rest wore patched clothes, and many even went barefoot.

The simple questions in the interview may seem like casual conversation, but they are actually about observing whether a person has intellectual impairments, physical disabilities, etc.

All the women who came for the interview, regardless of their wealth, passed this test.

The next step is picking mulberry leaves, which then asks about the basic knowledge of silkworm rearing. This question is very familiar to country girls, and rich girls pale in comparison.

Finally, it was silk reeling and weaving. The rough hands of the country girls could barely get through silk reeling and were stuck in weaving.

The girls from wealthy families had delicate hands, but none of them knew how to reel silk or weave.

Although these were the courses offered in the county school for girls, the girls from wealthy families did not think they really wanted to do these rough jobs in order to bring honor to their family.

I had no intention of learning it at all, and was shocked when I learned that I had to actually do these things in the interview. I wanted to be a manager in the future, not a laborer.

In the end, all the rich girls were eliminated, and the top twenty girls who registered later were admitted.