Ang Lee did see this student that day. At that time, he did not pay much attention to him. Now that he thought about it, it was really interesting. It could also be considered a kind of fate!
The reason why he gave so many examples was to tell the doctorates, assistant professors, and advanced students present that there were many people with extremely poor qualities in the Tang dynasty. The reason why these people were so poor was that they did not receive good education since childhood. Therefore, it led to such a result. If this situation was allowed to develop, it would inevitably bring a lot of unstable consequences to the Tang dynasty. Therefore, it was imperative to promote universal education. "You are all scholars and outstanding scholars of the Tang dynasty.
"Everyone here is a learned scholar, a talent of the Great Tang, so naturally you won't do the things that this official has just mentioned. But the Great Tang has as many people as the hairs on an ox, and unreasonable unruly people are everywhere. Thus, when we learned scholars talk to them, we often feel like we're playing the lute to a cow, and we often feel that these unruly people are unreasonable. But if we educate them a little and let them know propriety, justice, integrity, and shame, they won't stand on a high place and casually throw stones. If they can learn a few words, they won't be misled by others and won't do things like butchers. Not teaching children is the fault of the parents, but allowing the situation to worsen is the fault of the Imperial Court. Children begin to remember things at the age of five or six, and they can barely work at the age of thirteen or fourteen. There are at least seven or eight years in between. In these seven or eight years, the children do nothing all day and are very likely to cause trouble. If they are misled by someone with evil intentions, it is extremely easy for them to embark on a path of no return. But if we ask Teacher to educate them, we can greatly prevent such things from happening. We can also let these children know propriety, shame, and benefits. If everyone in the Great Tang knows propriety, shame, and etiquette, our Great Tang will definitely prosper."
Ang Lee said a lot in one breath. Although he was belittling the poor, he also wanted to make the people in front of him feel better. They understood that Ang Lee did not make this suggestion to oppose them, but to think about the stability of the whole society and the future of the Tang Empire. He was definitely not selfish.
After listening to Ang Lee's analysis, the doctorates, assistant professors, and many students somewhat agreed. However, there were also some who did not quite agree with Ang Lee's words. They seemed to have doubts or concerns in their hearts.
How could Ang Lee not know the doubts in these people's hearts? Therefore, Ang Lee would give them a chance to speak. Then, Ang Lee would answer all the doubts in these people's hearts one by one. They had no choice but to support Ang Lee's decision and work together with Ang Lee to promote the popularization of education in the Tang Empire.
"If you have anything to say, just say it. Don't hide it. Say it all."
Ang Lee said.
"Assistant Minister Li just said that children start doing nothing from the age of five or six until the age of thirteen or fourteen. I'm afraid this is not necessarily true. In many poor families, children learn to do housework from the age of five or six. When they are a little older, they have to work every day. How can they be doing nothing?"
A doctorate said.
"Yes! Yes! Children from poor families take charge of the house at an early age. After all, those who have nothing to do are in the minority. Most of them work very hard. If these children are allowed to study in school, they will definitely delay their work. "
"Yes! Yes! Let all children study in school. There has never been a precedent since ancient times! "
After a doctorate spoke, many other doctorates and teaching assistants also spoke.
Why don't you go to the poor residential areas outside the city to take a look and see how many children are fooling around with nothing to do, and how many eleven or twelve-year-old children have become street thieves. Some of them only have one hand, and some have no hands at all. Their hands were chopped off when they were stealing. This could have been avoided. If someone had taught them that poverty cannot change, that even if a person is poor, they must have a backbone. As long as they rely on their own hands, even if they can't become rich, they can still support themselves. But no one told them this truth, and so they ended up losing their hands. How much work can a child do? In order not to affect a small number of children doing housework, it is not appropriate to prevent the children in the world from learning the principles of being a person and learning basic knowledge. "
Hearing Ang Lee's words, a doctorate said, "Ordinary poor people have low aptitudes. Even if they enter the school, they may not be able to learn much and will delay their work. In this way, their hometown may not agree. If they are forced to enter the school, it will stir up conflicts. In this way, things will not go as planned."
"Yes! Yes! Ordinary poor children are mostly stupid. Their families may not agree to let them enter the school. It seems that it is useless for them to learn knowledge. "
Another person spoke up.
Ang Lee said, "Ordinary poor people are poor. If you ask them to pay for their children to enter the school, they will definitely not agree. They also have no money to raise their children. However, if the imperial court pays for their children's education, ordinary poor people will certainly not stop their children from entering the school. These poor people love to take advantage of small things. How can they miss such a good opportunity? Your worries are really unnecessary."
Hearing this, everyone agreed. Ordinary poor people were indeed in such a situation. They really loved to take advantage of small things. As long as the imperial court paid for their children to enter the school for free, their hometown would not object. It would be a waste if they did not take advantage of the opportunity. Whoever did not take advantage of it would be a fool.
However, Ang Lee's suggestion surprised all the doctorates, teaching assistants, and students present. Since ancient times, there had never been such a precedent. All the people who went to school did so at their own expense. They had never heard of the imperial court paying for the education of all the children in the country. This was simply unimaginable and also a huge financial burden.
"Assistant Minister Li, although the treasury of the Tang dynasty has been getting more and more abundant in recent years, there are also many places where we need to spend money. If we run a large-scale school so that all the children can enter the school, the tuition fees and all the expenses will be paid by the imperial court. This pressure is really too great. I'm afraid that if the pressure is too great, it will seriously drag down the imperial court. There will be a lot of resistance!"
A doctorate said.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "My original intention is not only to let the children enter the school for free and let the imperial court pay for everything, but also to give a certain amount of money to the schools that do well in learning. This money should also be paid by the imperial court."
"In this case, won't the pressure on the national treasury be even greater?"
"Assistant Minister Li is not in charge of the household. Not only are the necessities expensive, although the school is only for reading and writing, the cost is really not small! The cost of running a large-scale school in the country is really unimaginable! "
"If all walks of life spend money like this, no matter how abundant the national treasury is, it will not be enough."
Everyone did not quite agree with Ang Lee's view. Obviously, they were quite worried that the national treasury would be too expensive. In their view, it was a waste of resources to spend so much money just to let poor people enter the school.
Li An smiled and said, "Everyone, don't worry too much. Although all the expenses of running a school will be borne by the imperial court, it doesn't necessarily have to come from the national treasury. Other than the mobile schools in the remote villages that will be borne by the imperial court, the fixed schools above the county level and in populated areas will have a Merit Monument built in the school for the students to worship every day. The Merit Monument will record the great benefactors who donated to the school, and their names will forever be engraved in the school. This way, the burden on the national treasury will be greatly reduced. In addition, for a large-scale school education, there's no need to learn so many classics and histories. We only need to let the students learn some things that will be useful in the future. Literacy is a must, and they naturally have to learn some arithmetic. In addition, we also need to teach them how to conduct themselves and how to be a good person. Finally, we need to cultivate the children's love of labor. We'll open up a place to grow vegetables, fruits, and grains in the open space outside the school and let the students take care of it. The harvest from the fields can be used as rations for the teachers."
"Growing vegetables and grains in the school, is it still a place to cultivate talents?"
A pedantic scholar could not bear to listen any longer and said.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "To cultivate the pillars of the country and the talents who can rule the world, there will naturally be schools such as the Imperial College and the Imperial College. For ordinary schools in the countryside, it is enough to teach the children how to read and understand. If there are really great talents, they will not be useless just because there are vegetables and grains in the school. For ordinary schools, the requirements should not be too high. It is enough to educate the children."
"This old man understands. Assistant Minister Li's original intention is to use the Merit Monument and the financial resources of some merchants to popularize schools throughout the country, so that all the children can receive education, understand the principles of being a good person, and be able to read. This is not impossible, but this old man has a worry that I have to say!"
The Imperial College frowned and said.
"What is your worry, Imperial College Chancellor? Just say it."
Ang Lee said.
The Imperial College Chancellor frowned and said, "This old man completely understands Assistant Minister Li's painstaking efforts. However, does Assistant Minister Li know enough about people's minds? These poor children, if they are illiterate, may be able to peacefully farm and work when they grow up. However, once they can read and read some sage books and understand a lot of principles, I am afraid that their minds will be different. Even if they can't achieve anything in their studies, they will not be willing to be a farmer or a craftsman! There were so many scholars in the world. Some of them were successful in their studies and had successfully become officials, but there were also many who were not successful in their studies and could not pass the imperial examinations for their entire lives. However, there were a few of them who gave up the imperial examinations and went to work in peace. Most of them did not do anything and stayed at home all day studying. There should be a lot of such scholars, but the total number of scholars was not that many, so it was not that important. However, once the entire country went to study, would there be more and more people who had such fantasies in their hearts? If so, is it a good thing or a bad thing? "
As soon as these words were said, several scholars next to him nodded in agreement. They were all scholars, and they were the best among the scholars. Naturally, they understood this very well. Scholars had higher aspirations. This was a very simple truth. And people with higher aspirations were naturally unwilling to engage in low-level work. In their eyes, even if they stayed at home and studied every day, it was better than farming or being a craftsman by a hundred or a thousand times. This was the pride of scholars. It was very awesome and also very unreasonable.
This problem was naturally also considered by Ang Lee. As long as basic education was universal, it would more or less lead to this situation. However, they could not give up eating for fear of choking. They could not not not cultivate talents because of this result. Moreover, this old man's worry was a bit excessive. Although this result would be caused, it was definitely not as serious as he imagined. The large-scale universal education in the future eventually led to many people being arrogant and unwilling to engage in low-level work, but most people were still working. Moreover, because a large number of talents were educated, it led to faster and faster development of society and people's lives became more and more prosperous. It was just that the gap between the rich and the poor was a bit big, which was a big pity. If there was no such problem, the large-scale universal education in the future would be very successful. In short, it was absolutely impossible to not popularize the most basic education because of these consequences.
Ang Lee frowned and said, "This is also a problem that I am extremely worried about. I have seriously considered this problem before. Therefore, in the universal school education, we must strengthen the education of ideology. We must let the students get rid of their arrogance through education. We must tell them that going to school to learn knowledge is not necessarily to become an official. It is to let them be literate and understand some principles. As long as the education is in place, I think there shouldn't be too big of a problem and there shouldn't be too many arrogant students."
Obviously, Ang Lee felt that as long as the education of ideology was strengthened, many problems could be easily solved. Ideological education was the best way to solve the current problem. As long as the education of ideology was in place, this problem could be solved very well. Even if the children of the poor wanted to learn knowledge, they would not bite off more than they could chew to become an official. Instead, they would be willing to do what they should do honestly.
"Why don't you all imagine that one day, when the butchers on the street, the peddlers who sell vegetables on the street can understand words, the men who pull carriages know how to be polite to pedestrians, and the children of five or six years old can recite poems? What kind of scene would that be? Then, would there still be unruly people? "
Ang Lee said.
Obviously, Ang Lee's words were a little too idealistic. Even if the education was really universal, it would not have such a good effect and it would be difficult to form a completely warm social atmosphere. All kinds of criminal activities would still continue to appear. However, only by drawing a big enough pie could it be better to persuade people and let them support Ang Lee's idea.
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