Farm Girl's Manor
Chapter 961 The School Starts Classes and Another Freeloader Arrives (2)

Chapter 961: Chapter 961 The School Starts Classes and Another Freeloader Arrives (2)

This kind of thing had been seen by the two Masters many times over and was an unspoken rule of their profession. After thanking the villagers profusely, they accepted the gifts. As for those villagers who had forgotten or hadn’t brought any gifts, the Masters didn’t show any displeasure. After all, it depended on the individual’s willingness, and to demand more would be in bad taste.

Seeing the Masters accept the gifts, the villagers did not feel the pang of loss, but rather heaved a sigh of relief. Once they had successfully registered their children, they sent them off to the spacious and bright schoolhouse and went back home cheerfully.

Watching this whole process, Mo Yan, who had been brought in to help, could understand the villagers’ mentality quite well. In his past life, many parents would give gifts to teachers during holidays to secure extra attention for their children. Initially, there was nothing wrong with this practice, but as time went on, it became corrupted. Many teachers with degraded ethics exploited it for personal gain, resulting in numerous problems.

However, after spending several days with them, Mo Yan had come to understand the characters of the two Masters to a certain extent. They took their moral cultivation seriously and would not engage in extracting money from their students.

When initially choosing the Masters, the village elders all agreed that the character of the teacher was of the utmost importance—without moral integrity, how could they possibly educate others! Mo Yan noticed that almost a hundred children, mostly aged between six and ten years, had signed up; there were seldom children over ten years old. After giving it some thought, he realized the reasons behind this.

Children over the age of ten were already capable of working and could bring income to their households by staying at home and working in the fields. Thus, it was unlikely that their families would allow them to attend school.

Another reason was that most families could not afford the education expenses for two children simultaneously. Although the Wen Money was not high, only five hundred Wen per year, the cost of ink, paper, brushes, and books was extremely high, amounting to at least three to five ounces of Silver annually.

If two children were sent to school, the cost could easily reach around ten taels of Silver a year. Considering that many people in the villages were poor, working hard all year long without necessarily saving up five ounces of Silver—a sum of ten taels seemed astronomical to most.

For families of ordinary means, sending two children to school at once was a decision they could not boldly make. Even managing to send one might have required long consideration before making the final decision.

Parents knew that education might not necessarily enable their children to become Scholars or score high in the civil examinations and become officials who could transform the family’s status and bring glory to the ancestors. Most simply hoped their children would not be illiterate; if they could read and write and later become a Mr. Accountant in the city instead of toiling in the fields like their parents, they would be satisfied.

Furthermore, many people believed that having a literate person in the family would add a touch of culture to the household. Even if their son did not succeed, exposing their grandson to the environment might be beneficial. Who knows, given enough time, their family might even produce a Wenchuxing?

The two Masters were very responsible. While Mo Yan handled the registration on one side, they conversed with the children on the other—seemingly small talk, yet with just a few sentences they could grasp the children’s temperaments and their ways of thinking. This initial understanding would allow them to tailor their teaching methods to the children.

It took them an entire morning to sort out the registration for school. After tallying, there were a total of one hundred and twenty-three children signed up from the various villages, all of whom had paid their Wen Money in full, amounting to sixty-one taels and five pieces of silver.

This Silver, after setting aside enough for the two Masters’ Wen Money, would almost suffice for the daily maintenance of the schoolhouse.

When they had originally set the registration date, the village leaders unanimously requested that Mo Yan manage the finances. Firstly, because the Mo Family had no need for that small amount of Silver and wouldn’t covet it; secondly, since the Mo Family had contributed the most to the construction of the schoolhouse, there was no opposition to Mo Yan taking charge.

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