The two children ate very well that morning, so Lin Lan thought that she would have to find a way to get some grains. She could not afford to be idly sitting any longer.
The children were going to eat up the adults’ share of food.
Lin Lan took out the school bag that she had worked so hard to sew and put the notebook and rolled-up pencil case in it. Then, she handed it to Dawang, “Dawang, carry it on your back, go to the classroom and give it to your younger brothers and sister. After school, put them back together. Don’t spoil them or lose them, a pencil is worth 3 cents.”
She said to Han Qingsong again, “You send the children there. The parents should send them over on the kids’ first day of school.”
It was also a sense of ceremony.
Han Qingsong glanced at her and nodded.
Lin Lan gave him the money again, “This is the tuition fee. In addition, ask the teacher to buy some books for the children. It’s enough for two children to share a book.”
After she thought about it, she decided that she would give some pocket money to Han Qingsong. A man definitely shouldn’t go out without bringing any money with him.
Han Qingsong didn’t have a penny on him, so he just held on to whatever his wife was willing to give. He glanced at the children; whether he was happy or not, he had to keep a cool demeanour first and bring the kids to school.
When they arrived at the school, Han Qingping was already there as there were still thirty or forty students in the classroom.
The school had one large classroom that consisted of three rooms. Equipped with blackboards on the front and back, there were three teachers in total.
Han Qingping was the principal, teaching Chinese from Grades 1 to 5. Another teacher taught mathematics from Grades 1 to 5, whereas Huo Yuan was responsible for teaching art, music and nature.
There were said to be five grades, but in fact, there were not many children. There were more 1st and 2nd Graders, but the total number of these two years weren’t even up to 20 students. There were about ten 3rd Grades, whereas there were also ten students altogether when adding the 4th and 5th Grade students.
At times like these, not everyone had the opportunity to study. Especially in countrysides, it was more common for people to only know of a few words.
In many local language classes, the poorer peasants were asked to tell family histories as they remembered the hardships and the sweet moments. Maths classes would consist of counting work points along with the production team, nature classes study the methods of cultivating land and compost, whereas music and art consist of reciting quotations and singing patriotic songs.
All this time, there were bound to be people who thought of studying as useless. Most of the students would return to the farm even after getting their education. The factories didn’t recruit workers and the universities didn’t recruit students, so it was really useless.
Therefore, the school still had its tasks. The teacher would lead the children to mow the grass once in the morning and once in the afternoon. When the farming was busy, they would also go to the ground to help harvest the crops.
In this way, children could learn to read and settle accounts while earning work points. The parents would also be willing to let them continue their schooling as well.
Han Qingsong sent the children over. Han Qingping was very happy and talked a lot to Han Qingsong, most of which was, “Qingsong, Lin Lan has made great progress now! Very good, very good! Humans don’t have to be afraid of being dense because the worst fear is not being able to change. Now that she knows what to improve on, she truly is a rare, good woman.”