Chapter 982 Educational Measures
"Chief Ning, please come this way." Fan Changyi, the headmaster of White Deer Academy, led the way for Ning Qi very respectfully. This is the highest-ranking guest that the academy has received in recent years. The distinguished guest who has been here before is Zhang Ning Qi is an official at the level of Xin and Yan Mingjun, but the official position of Haihan Executive Committee is obviously much higher. Moreover, Ning Qi is also the official in charge of culture and education in Haihan, and can be said to be the parent official of the academy literati. As mentioned earlier, these two people are now accompanying them as guests, so Fan Changyi naturally does not dare to neglect them in the slightest.
For safety reasons, Ning Qi and his party inspected the arrangements of the local academy. Fan Changyi only learned about it two days ago. The purpose of setting aside two days is mainly to allow the academy to clean up in advance, and to arrange for those who are an eyesore to go home temporarily, so as not to see something unharmonious when the chief comes. Of course, the most important thing is to gather together all the students in the academy who hope to be appreciated by the chief. If you are lucky, the inspecting chief will be pleased with him and appoint a few people to give them the opportunity to study at Sanya University. That is also the glory of White Deer Academy, and it will probably be recorded in the future history of the academy as the achievements of this president.
There are currently more than 400 students in Bailu Academy. According to their education level, they are divided into elementary literacy classes for children and teenagers, intermediate classes for the purpose of imperial examinations, and advanced studies for literati who have already obtained fame. class. Of course, after the change of ownership in Danzhou, the academy's teaching direction has also been adjusted. Although students can still choose to go to Guangdong to participate in the provincial examination organized by the Ming Dynasty, fewer and fewer people have chosen this path in the past two years. This is because Haihan's civil servant training has two exam opportunities a year. As long as he passes the exam, he can go to Sanya for further study. After a few months of course, he can be assigned to work in Haihan Yamen. It is much easier to enter the officialdom through this promotion channel than to take the Ming Dynasty imperial examination. Those who chose this path in the early years have now become cadres in the yamen. As long as students are registered as Haihan, most of them have made it their goal to work in Haihan Yamen in the past two years.
In order to meet this more realistic demand, White Deer Academy has also added basic mathematics, civic knowledge, current affairs analysis and other content involved in the Haihan Selection Examination in addition to the Four Books and Five Classics that were used for scientific examinations in the past. The original teaching quality of Bailu Academy was quite good. After adding these additional courses, many scholars actually passed Haihan's selection examination and got the opportunity to study in Sanya. When Ning Qi visited Danzhou this time, he specially arranged a trip to visit the college. This also represented the executive committee’s recognition of the cooperation and efforts made by the local college in this regard.
The first thing Ning Qi checked was the teaching materials used in primary literacy classes. According to the requirements of Haihan's Ministry of Education, all literacy teaching materials currently used in academies, private schools and other teaching places on Hainan Island have been replaced by "Haihan" published in 1632. Enlightenment" textbook. This textbook not only includes the "Three-Character Classic" and "The Thousand-Character Classic" that were previously used in basic education, but also adds the specially compiled "Haihan Citizen Code", "Haihan Citizen March" and other content, striving to At the basic education stage, the values advocated by Haihan are instilled in young children through reading textbooks.
The content of these newly added courses is indeed a bit obscure for teenagers, but Haihan executives do not expect them to fully understand its meaning at this stage. They will first use basic reading teaching to familiarize them. Keep it in mind and use various publicity methods to slowly let them digest it in the future until the values represented by these terms and conditions become part of their consciousness.
Fan Changyi introduced next to him: "Since the school received the new curriculum arrangement, it has been included in daily teaching, and it has never been interrupted for more than a year. The content in the "Enlightenment" textbook, the chief Feel free to ask questions to the students in this class.”
Ning Qi's eyes swept over the faces of the teenagers in the class, and when he saw that these students did not dodge his gaze, he seemed to have some confidence, so he pointed at someone casually and said, "Then this classmate will answer my question. Go! ”
The young man immediately stood up and bowed and said: "Student Liao Xiang, please give me some advice from the leader."
Ning Qi saw that he was neither humble nor arrogant, polite and courteous, and he liked him a little more. He casually asked: "In the "Enlightenment" textbook, there are ten norms that citizens should abide by. Do you remember them?"
Liao responded: "Reporting back to the chief, the ten norms are patriotism, law-abiding, etiquette, integrity, unity, friendliness, diligence, self-improvement, dedication, and dedication."
Ning Qi then asked: "What does dedication mean?"
Liao responded: "Dedication means that as a citizen, you need to be loyal to your duties, self-denial, and serve the society."
Ning Qi heard that he memorized every word, so he planned to test him with a flexible and difficult question, and continued to ask: "Then, which country does this patriotism refer to?"
When Fan Changyi heard this question from the side, he suddenly felt numb in the back of his head. Although Bailu Academy is teaching the textbooks designated by Haihan, these details are not explained to the students. The reason is actually very simple. From the standpoint of the academy, if you explain such a sensitive political concept, you are asking for trouble.
Danzhou originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty, but was actually controlled by Haihan. If patriotism is interpreted as love for the Ming Dynasty, wouldn't it mean that he is rebellious towards Haihan? Something happened in Danzhou a few years ago, and the monitoring of speech is much greater than elsewhere. It would be troublesome if someone reported it. But to interpret it as loving Haihan, Haihan has never officially established a country, this is also an unfair statement. Although the people have already acquiesced in the nationality of Haihan, and many people are even proud of joining the Haihan nationality, the executive committee has not announced the founding of the country, and your small academy has rushed to announce it first. This cannot be an act of overstepping. ?
Therefore, when the academies daily preach the "Enlightenment" textbook, they often only ask students to recite the content proficiently, but do not explain its details word for word. Ning Qi suddenly asked such a sensitive question, so it would be fine if the student couldn't answer it. Fan Changyi was even more worried that if he answered randomly, it would be difficult to offend Ning Qi.
Liao Xiang was silent for a moment before speaking: "You must show loyalty and die to repay the kindness of your country. Students believe that patriotism is nothing more than loyalty and righteousness. If you want to be loyal, students must be loyal to Ming Dynasty since they were born in Ming Dynasty. If you want righteousness, students must grow up in Haihan Under the rule, the whole family will be naturalized to enjoy the benefits of Haihan, and they should serve Haihan. How to be loyal and patriotic, please ask the leader for guidance." The two poems Liao Xiang read are from the poet of the Tang Dynasty. Li Xizhong's "Jimen Xing" talks about soldiers serving the country with their own lives, which means that dying for the country is the ultimate in loyalty. But Liao Xiang obviously didn't have a clear answer to the question raised by Ning Qi. Fortunately, his answer was quite clever and he didn't lean towards any side. Fan Changyi relaxed a little after listening to it.
Ning Qi smiled: "You suddenly read two lines of poetry..."
He turned to look at Zhang Xin, who smiled knowingly and said: "Fortunately it's not those two sentences, otherwise it would be a bit scary."
No one understood what these two people meant, and they all looked at each other in shock. Ning Qi did not explain the origin of this joke, and said to Liao Xiang: "At your current age, it is quite rare to have such an awareness. Haihan and Daming are not rivals, so there is no relationship between loyalty and righteousness. There is what you think is an antagonistic relationship. If you are in the Ming Dynasty, of course you love the country of the Ming Dynasty, but since you have become a Haihan citizen, you are a Haihan person. When you choose your nationality, it also determines which country you want to go to. The country is loyal.”
Liao Xiang heard every word clearly, but he still felt that his understanding of Ning Qi's words was limited. Ning Qi saw the confusion on his face, patted his shoulder gently and said, "It doesn't matter if you don't understand now. When you get older, you will understand naturally."
Ning Qi is still very confident in the Haihan patriotic education strategy that he personally led and formulated. After the founding ceremony, the relevant publicity will be rolled out in various places under the rule of Haihan. By then, young people like Liao Xiang will naturally Under the wave of publicity campaigns, one's own identity will gradually become clearer. On one side is a decaying empire, and on the other side are emerging forces that are flourishing. Smart people will definitely be able to make the right choice as to which country to be loyal to.
Ning Qi randomly asked a few people in the hall and asked questions, and the answers were basically in line with his expectations. These young students can basically recite the contents of Haihan textbooks, but their understanding is mostly limited, and they are still at the level of rote memorization. However, this already makes Ning Qi quite satisfied. After all, it has only been more than a year since the new textbooks were promoted here, and most of the teachers responsible for teaching the textbooks are locals. It is already good to be able to achieve this level. Although the teaching level is not comparable to that in Sanya, considering that the Ming Dynasty has ruled here for more than 200 years, and the Haihan people have only been here for a few years, it is indeed not an overnight success to change the deep-rooted ideas in the hearts of the people.
Fan Diemen listened to Zhang Xin's translation intermittently beside him before he understood what was going on. At that moment, he also admired the Haihan people's methods. After occupying the territory of the Ming Dynasty, they actually thought of using educational institutions to influence the ideas of the younger generation. . From this detail, we can also see that the Haihan people have a very complete plan for governing the country, and even these teenage boys have already become their pawns. Van Diemen felt that within twenty years, the people on this island would probably completely forget that they once belonged to the Ming Dynasty.
In comparison, the East India Company's educational work in Batavia could only receive a failing grade. According to Van Diemen's information, there was only one school in Batavia responsible for teaching the children of Dutch colonists. Literacy, while the local Han people will send their children to private schools run by Han people, while the indigenous people basically have no right to send their children to school. Because the cultures of the East and the West are different, the Dutch cannot force the descendants of Han people to study in the schools they run. Therefore, although the East India Company has been established in Batavia for more than ten years, there is still a cultural gap between it and the Han people and the indigenous people. But it has not been eliminated at all.
The East India Company's past inaction in the field of education also caused the local people in Batavia to have a serious lack of identification with the Dutch rule. As for the sense of belonging obtained through naturalization like Heihan's, it is even more difficult to talk about. Among newborns born locally, only pure Dutch ancestry can automatically obtain nationality certification, while those mixed-race illegitimate children can only get admission to school, but it is very difficult to obtain Dutch nationality. As for the Han people, it seems that the vast majority of the Han people have no intention of acquiring Dutch nationality. Although they are thousands of miles away from the Ming Dynasty, they still regard themselves as Ming people. This is also something that makes the Dutch feel very helpless. thing.
The situation that Van Diemen faced after taking office was very serious. Before that, he really didn't pay much attention to education. It was only after he came to Danzhou that he noticed that Haihan people attached great importance to popular culture and education. high. Haihan not only paid for all the teaching materials, but also spent a lot of money to reward those who excelled in their studies and gave them the opportunity to go to Sanya for further study. It goes without saying that after these students go to Sanya, they will naturally be impressed by Haihan's local construction achievements, and then gradually become Haihan's loyal fans in the process of further study.
But similar to the backwardness in other fields, Van Diemen once again found that Haihan's educational strategy was difficult to copy. There are several reasons for this. First, it is impossible for the East India Company to treat the education field as loosely as Haihan in terms of financial budget. It is even difficult to open more schools and increase the number of students. . Secondly, the cultural differences between the East India Company and the local people in Batavia were too great, and it was impossible for them to integrate with Ming culture as quickly as Haihan did. Thirdly, the Haihan people have very comprehensive plans in the field of education. It can be seen that they have made long-term plans early and implemented them with extremely high efficiency. However, the East India Company lacks professional talents in this aspect and It’s hard to have a decent plan.
Van Diemen recalled that when he visited educational institutions in Sanya a few days ago, he saw students from other countries studying in Haihan institutions, and there were even blond and blue-eyed European teenagers among them - it goes without saying that they must be Portugal, Haihan's ally. Students sent by others. The degree of brainwashing these foreign students received at Haihan Academy was probably not much worse than that of the academy in Danzhou. When these students returned to China after completing their studies, there would inevitably be a group of Haihan supporters. Twenty or thirty years later, many of these students may enter the upper echelons of political circles in various countries. Only then will the educational institutions that Haihan has worked so hard to manage truly show their influence.
It was difficult for Van Diemen to predict what kind of situation the East India Company would be in by that time, but thinking about the thousands of Han people living in Batavia, he suddenly felt a chill down his spine - since Haihan If you can use methods against the people of the Ming Dynasty, you will naturally be able to use education as a simple and easy method to win the hearts of the Han people in other places in the future.
(End of chapter)