Chapter 110: Teaching students in accordance with their aptitude is also arrogant
Hu Dahai sneezed loudly.
He rubbed his nose and praised his two sons, "Biao'er looks spoiled, but I didn't expect him to be so resilient. I thought he couldn't hold on."
Hu Guanzhu said, "Father, the young military advisor is still young. What if you hurt him by training him like this?"
Hu Deji nodded. He felt that his father was just asking for a beating.
Hu Dahai said, "There are many children of Biao'er's age in our army. I know what to do. His training is not heavy, he eats and lives with us every day, and there are doctors checking his pulse every day. What could happen?"
Hu Deji said, "Father, the young military advisor is a scholar. General Chen Guorui probably hasn't thought of letting Biaoer join the army. If you do this, General Chen Guorui might be unhappy."
Hu Dahai said, "Biao'er is so young, what decision can he make? His father must have deliberately left him in the military camp to let him temper himself. Who knows, his father might think that Biao'er is too bookish and has been dissatisfied with him for a long time... Achoo!"
Hu Dahai sneezed three times in a row, rubbed his nose and said, "Did I catch a cold? I'll go down and run a few laps too."
Hu Dahai took off his outer robe and went out shirtless to practice jogging with the soldiers.
Hu Guanzhu and Hu Deji looked at each other, sighed, and ran after him.
Chen Biao had blisters on his feet. After picking the blisters and bandaging them, his training volume for the day was naturally halved and halved again.
Chen Biao followed the soldiers in training this time, not only wanting to infiltrate the soldiers and find out their real needs, but also taking advantage of this rare opportunity to take a good look at his own limits.
Surrounded by military generals, even if Chen Biao didn't want to go into battle and kill the enemy, he still wanted to learn martial arts so that when he encountered the same misfortune as Hongdu again, he would not drag others down.
Unfortunately, the people around Chen Biao doted on him too much, and he was unable to challenge his own "limits".
After experiencing the feudal-era military training in the military camp today, Chen Biao finally knew his own worth.
These few pounds and ounces are probably just trash.
Chen Biao sighed and thought that he had to quickly come up with a more accurate firearm and replace the musket with a musket.
With his "high concentration of mental power" golden finger, as long as he keeps a distance, it shouldn't be a problem for him to be a sharpshooter.
While sitting outside to rest, Chen Biao took out a small notebook and a charcoal pencil that looked like a pencil from his pocket and recorded his thoughts of the day in the notebook.
The soldiers who passed by Chen Biao looked at him and couldn't help but smile kindly.
When Chen Biao joined the army as a private, he didn't hide his identity. If other privates slacked off during training, the surrounding soldiers would have despised them. But Chen Biao, despite not completing the required training, trained alongside them, and they all respected him greatly.
In feudal society, people’s status and position were strictly defined by class, so it was only through “respecting the wise and humble” and “condescending” that so many people were moved.
Compared to other generals' sons, Chen Biao had the added distinction of being a formidable scholar. His presence in the military camp was even more moving. Therefore, it was now much easier for him to chat with others and gather information.
Chen Biao finally found out why it was so difficult to implement basic education in reading and literacy in the military camp.
As he had guessed, this incident was indeed caused by the teacher.
Although Chen Biao set the curriculum , all teachers did not follow his method.
It wasn't that the teachers hired in the military camp were deliberately doing bad things, it was because of the times and reality.
In feudal times, reading was a sacred thing, and the learning process was naturally very serious.
Studying while having fun like Chen Biao did was certainly not serious enough and was disrespectful to scholars in the eyes of them.
If we are talking about great scholars like Song Lian and Ji Renshou, they are no longer bound by the situation. They will choose the teaching method that is most effective.
However, the lower the level of knowledge and status, the more scholars paid attention to the situation of reading and teaching. They did not have the confidence of the great scholars, and they felt uneasy if they did not follow the rules.
At the same time, following the rules is also their way of maintaining self-esteem.
In prosperous times, scholars are generally more valued than warriors, but in troubled times, whoever has the strongest fist survives. Scholars who are weak and powerless often lead a miserable life.
If there were talented scholars, they could seek refuge with the warlords who controlled a certain area. Unfortunately, there were too few such scholars, and most of them could only read a few books and learn a few words.
In prosperous times, they might pass the examination to become a scholar, or even a juren if they were better. But in troubled times, they would be useless scholars.
The Ming King's army hired these useless scholars to teach. Even if they did not intend to make things difficult for the students, their long-standing resentment towards the soldiers and their own arrogance as scholars would prevent their teaching from going smoothly.
Even children can’t learn from a teacher who acts arrogantly, let alone these veterans with knives in their hands?
Chen Biao closed the notebook and couldn't help sighing.
Even if Zhu Yuanzhang issued an order, or even beheaded a few people, these problems could not be solved. This was the current state of society, and it would take many years of education to subtly change customs and habits.
In this society where everything is divided, it is difficult to promote anything.
Chen Biao rubbed his temples and continued to think about how to solve this problem.
It would probably be ineffective to have orthodox scholars come to the barracks to teach the soldiers how to read. Perhaps he should find people in the army who can read and write, teach them how to teach firsthand, and then let these people teach more disciples.
To further exploit the labor reform camps and refugees, teaching soldiers to read and count was included in the "points-based task". When teaching was linked to the teachers' personal interests, they might abandon their unnecessary "self-esteem" and teach as quickly as possible.
Is the end result still to use the performance appraisal method that should be hung on the street lamp? I am really a complete profiteer.
Chen Biao rubbed his temples again and sighed.
As he was sighing, a shadow appeared above his head.
Chen Biao looked up and saw Zhu Wenzhen wiping the sweat off his face and taking out a huge taro leaf from somewhere.
Chen Biao hugged the rhizome of the big leaf and said, "Thank you, Brother Zheng."
Zhu Wenzheng grinned and said, "Have you figured out the answer to the problem you want to solve?"
Chen Biao nodded.
Zhu Wenzheng said, "That's good. Can you go back now? If you don't go back, Fourth Uncle will probably send someone to abduct you back."
Chen Biao raised his chin: "He doesn't dare!"
Zhu Wenzheng said: "That's not necessarily true. Why, you still don't want to go back?"
Chen Biao said, "I want to try to change the teaching methods here. Only after I try it can I write a memorial to the lord."
Zhu Wenzheng said , "If you need me for anything, just tell me, but don't ask me to teach students."
Chen Biao laughed so hard that he couldn't straighten his back: "No excuses, I asked you to teach students, but I insisted on having you teach students!"
Zhu Wenzhen rolled his eyes.
If his adoptive father had done this, he would have already made a scene. But at Biao'er's request, he could only hold his nose and do it. Who made him Biao'er's best brother? Li Wenzhong and Chen Ying were shit!
Chen Biao was in charge of basic education in the military camp. He ruthlessly gave up all the teaching qualifications of the teachers in the military camp and dismissed them.
Although they received the money, the teachers still had many complaints.
Chen Biao didn't care about their complaints. After all, his reputation among orthodox scholars was already bad enough. He wondered how many people cursed him, saying, "A brilliant child may not be a great adult," waiting to see him "run out of talent."
As Zhu Yuanzhang's trusted minister, Chen Biao was prudent in not doing anything to enhance his reputation.
After dismissing the teacher, Chen Biao had a large stage set up, and like a mobilization meeting, he spoke to the soldiers using a large loudspeaker that had no amplifier and could only serve as a decoration.
I already know why you're having trouble learning. It's not because you're stupid, it's because the teacher isn't teaching well. Now I'll teach you, and you'll learn it in no time. Let's try it today!
Hu Dahai almost tore his beard off: "Is Biao'er so arrogant?"
Zhu Wenzheng said angrily, "General Hu, be careful with your words. Even if it's you who says bad things about Biao'er, I will beat you up."
Hu Dahai immediately said: "It's not a bad thing, it's just..."
Hu Guanzhu and Hu Deji saw that Zhu Wenzhen was clenching his fists. In order to prevent Zhu Wenzhen from fighting with his father and triggering the anger of His Majesty Mingwang who was in Yingtian City, one of them crossed their arms and the other put their arms around his shoulders to tell their father to shut up.
After a brief mobilization, Chen Biao began to call out names.
These names belong to the literate soldiers, roughly a dozen or so.
The illiteracy rate in this world is really too high.
Chen Biao turned around and saw Zhu Wenzhen touching his nose and walking onto the stage with his head hung down.
Okay, okay, there aren’t enough people, I’ll fill in.
The twenty Chen family servants brought by Zhu Wenzheng also came on stage. They were illiterate, but they had protected Chen Biao for so many years and were Chen Biao's first batch of students.
Chen Biao waved to Hu Dahai, his father, and his son: "Uncle Hu, you come too."
Hu Dahai pointed at his nose and said, "Me too? I don't know many words!"
Chen Biao smiled and said, "I don't have many words to teach you. Come quickly!"
Hu Dahai, his son and his two sons walked up to Chen Biao nervously.
Chen Biao flipped through the booklet in his hand and called another group of people. These people included the families of the accompanying generals, the village women who occasionally came to help with cooking, and the old gentlemen from the nearby villages...
After Chen Biao finished writing the teaching booklet, he had it taken to the Chen family printing workshop to print hundreds of copies. He distributed these booklets to the temporary teachers, first giving them a brief instruction for an hour, and then the next day he had them teach the soldiers in their respective classes.
The blackboard was erected, the sand table and branches were distributed, and the temporary teachers took up their posts.
"Master Chen counted the surnames of our soldiers, and the most common one is Li. So today we'll start by learning the character 'Li'. Those with the surname 'Li' should study it carefully. Even if you don't have that surname, you should learn to write the surnames of your brothers around you."
At the beginning of the class, the soldiers still had the usual headache expressions on their faces. But after listening to the temporary teacher's words, their headaches immediately stopped, their eyes became rounder than the pancakes they had eaten today, and they began to write on the sand table with the rustling of branches.
…
"This character is 'Ming', the same as the 'Ming' in our lord, 'King Ming'. Look up at our flag, and don't tell me you don't recognize it. Those who don't recognize it have probably already run away with the enemy on the battlefield."
The soldiers all laughed, and then wrote the word "Ming" on the sand table without any learning.
Some people even said that they could write not only the character "Ming" but also the character "Zhu" because we used to be the "Zhu Family Army".
There was also a sergeant who said that he could write the character "马" (horse), because the logistics and transportation were basically handled by the women led by Madam Xiuying. He recognized the character after seeing the flag many times.
…
"We've learned ten characters today. Let's learn ten more numbers. The thief Yuan forbade common people to have proper names, so our names and those of our parents are all numbers. I think everyone knows the numbers from one to ten. But this time we'll also learn the corresponding capital numbers and the numerical symbols."
The soldiers' eyes became more serious when they remembered their own names and those of their fathers.
Even though capital numbers are difficult, their enthusiasm for learning remains undiminished.
…
At the end of the day's class, Chen Biao gave people an exam.
The pass rate of these sergeants for today's teaching content reached 100%, and several of them scored full marks.
Chen Biao said, "See, learning isn't that difficult, right?"
The soldiers were stunned by the result.
They had been studying for half a year but still couldn't learn how to write, so how come they suddenly became smart today?
Chen Biao said, "Let me tell you how I teach everyone to read in Hongdu."
Chen Biao began to tell a story and the soldiers listened attentively.
Generals such as Hu Dahai also sat on the ground like the soldiers, watching the young boy on the platform talk about Hongdu attentively.
Although they knew about the Battle of Hongdu, they did not know the details.
Chen Biao started by talking about why he wanted to teach the soldiers to read, and then talked about the teaching materials he had compiled on the spur of the moment.
He compiled the soldiers' surnames into nursery rhymes and incorporated objects that would be used in daily life into the stories. The soldiers were very motivated to learn and did not feel tired even when guarding the city gates.
At that time, he taught the soldiers to read, which became a way for them to rest and entertain themselves after fighting.
Hu Dahai became fascinated as he listened.
The stories told by Chen Biao are more interesting and exciting than those told by storytellers. They are so exciting that they don’t seem like true stories.
"So that's how it is. It's not that we are stupid." A soldier whispered.
Many soldiers and generals began to nod in agreement.
They thought they were stupid and didn't want to learn, but today they happily learned a lot of words.
Learning doesn't seem that difficult?
Chen Biao explained, "Learning to read and count is a tool we all need daily, so it's not difficult if you find the right method. However, if you want to read more books, or even study the Four Books and Five Classics, that becomes more difficult. It's not that the teachers themselves are poorly educated, but rather that the material they teach is too difficult and not something you can use right now, which is why you can't learn it well. I will teach you to read and count first. Later, when the world is at peace and you're interested in reading more, you can find opportunities to do so."
The soldiers nodded one after another.
They understood what the young master said.
Just like studying and military training, you have to start from the basics.
Run one lap first, then two laps, three laps... If you ask people to run three laps at the beginning, most people will not be able to persist.
Chen Biao smiled and said, "Are you relieved now? Can you learn now?"
Someone started to make a fuss: "If we have a little teacher to teach us, we can learn!"
Chen Biao said, "I'm just one person, how many can I teach? I will print more teaching materials and syllabi, and choose those who are good at learning to be your teachers. Teachers are like brothers, and you will definitely learn quickly."
Someone else started to stir up trouble: "What if the teacher is someone I don't have a good relationship with?"
Chen Biao said, "Wouldn't that make learning faster? Let's start our apprenticeship quickly, or we'll be ridiculed by those we don't have good relationships with."
Everyone laughed, and Chen Biao laughed too.
Hu Dahai listened to the laughter of the people around him and sighed, "It's rare to hear everyone laughing in the military camp."
Most generals lived in isolation from their soldiers, with only a few able to eat and live with them. Naturally, they couldn't laugh together.
Chen Biao is an "outsider" in this military camp, but he can actually make everyone laugh happily. This ability is even more powerful than his teaching ability.
Hu Dahai couldn't help but feel worried.
Chen Biao has revealed a terrifying personal charm at such a young age. It is hard to say whether this will be a blessing or a curse in the future.
The lord will definitely tolerate Chen Biao, but no one knows what kind of personality the future prince will have, and whether he will be jealous of the overly perfect Chen Biao.
Hu Dahai could guess his lord's thoughts. The higher Chen Biao's reputation was, the more likely it was that when the crown prince returned to the throne, Chen Biao would become his deputy, and Chen Biao's reputation would become the crown prince's reputation.
But only in this way can Chen Biao and the prince be convinced of each other's suspicions and the lord's wish be achieved.
Will Chen Biao's fame lead him to become ambitious? And is the Crown Prince magnanimous enough to accommodate such an outstanding person as Chen Biao?
No one can predict what will happen in the future.
Chen Biao experimented with the new teaching method for a few more days and found it to be very effective.
In fact, he had developed similar teaching materials at the beginning, but orthodox teachers were unwilling to teach according to his teaching materials and still started teaching from "Three Character Classic" and "Thousand Character Classic".
In his letter, Chen Biao reflected on his assumptions to Zhu Yuanzhang.
To achieve what Chen Biao did, it was necessary to "teach students in accordance with their aptitude" and compile different teaching materials for the soldiers in each camp so that they could be taught the content they most wanted to learn on demand.
But Chen Biao was able to rewrite textbooks for the soldiers of Hongdu, which was unlikely to be done by other teachers.
It's not just knowledge and ability. The scholars of this era attached great importance to compiling books. Asking them to write books based on a group of illiterate soldiers was simply flattery, and the level of the objects of flattery was particularly low.
If they do so, they may alienate themselves from the orthodox literary community.
When Chen Biao left the military camp, he also conducted self-examination in order to prevent the soldiers from blaming the teachers who had left.
It’s not that the teachers are unwilling to teach, but that he takes things for granted.
He was just a child, no one would rebuke him no matter how absurd his actions were. Moreover, he was of noble status, so even if someone was dissatisfied with him, they could do nothing about it.
But that's not the case with teachers.
After this news spread, those teachers who left indignantly or anxiously felt much better.
Although they felt unhappy and had no way to deal with Chen Biao, they finally had a way out, so they followed the way Chen Biao gave them. They also praised Chen Biao for his sensibleness and said that he was indeed worthy of the title of "little military advisor".
The soldiers felt much more complicated than the teachers who left.
Late at night, they couldn't sleep and whispered with their roommates.
"The young master said that in this era, only the deeds of famous people can be included in books, so those teachers dare not act recklessly."
"Not only that, studying is such a noble thing, and it's people who beg to learn. But the young master, he begs us to learn. I've never met anyone like him."
"I used to work as a farmhand in the household of the thief Yuan. The magistrate spent his fortune hiring a scholar to teach his children. The teacher was quite dedicated, but I've never heard of anyone so dedicated as to compile a textbook for their students."
"After listening to what the young master said, I only had one thought: what merit and what ability do I have..."
Yes, what have we done to deserve this?
Not to mention the soldiers, even the generals who were sure to be knighted in the future thought so.
Even the emperor read those same books during his enlightenment.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Chen Biao's letter and couldn't help but sigh: "Even if the emperor is studying, there won't be anyone who specially compiles a few textbooks for the emperor, right? Biao'er is really..."
Many scholars and military generals were silent.
Before Chen Biao pointed this out, they hadn't thought about it either. They just sighed that Chen Biao was very good at teaching students.
However, they encountered problems in promoting basic education in military camps. They wondered why none of the teachers they had hired with money squeezed out of military funds met their requirements. Chen Biao found the reason in less than half a month.
This reason surprised them and made them sigh.
That's true.
Even though the emperor did not have textbooks written specifically for him, Chen Biao was willing to tailor-make teaching materials for soldiers whom he did not know at all, who would not be able to provide him with help in the future, and whom he would never meet again.
With this state of mind, does Chen Biao really believe that "all beings are equal"?
Is this the "god"?
"Biao'er...sigh." Zhu Sheng sighed, "My Lord, you need to send more people to protect Biao'er. Also, don't let Biao'er go to the military camp anymore. It's tiring in the military camp, and what will happen if Biao'er gets sick?"
Ji Renshou frowned: "My lord, there are so many people who can fight. Even if Biao'er has the ability, he should not be allowed to go."
Zhu Yuanzhang said depressedly: "Do you think I want him to go? But what can I do about what Biao'er has decided?"
Everyone was speechless.
They just don't believe that even if "Chen Guorui" is useless, if "Zhu Yuanzhang" issues an edict, would Biaoer dare not obey it?
Their own master was reluctant to even give an order, leaving Biao'er to suffer in the military camp. This kind of bizarre doting really made them at a loss for words.
