Chapter 382: The Great Empress’ Duty
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Since she had become a Great Empress and enjoyed the superiority and respect brought by the position, she should do her duty as the Great Empress.
Bai Wutong undertook a drastic reform of the official system of the Imperial Court. She also set up an official report and arranged for daily civilization and perfecting the laws so that the commoners could understand the movements of political affairs at any time.
A society’s progress could not be separated from the development of civilization, the advancement of technology, the power of the military, the stability of education, and the guarantee of medical services and employment.
There were nearly 200,000 people in Carefree City, and the illiteracy rate was as high as 80%.
Without words as a mode of communication, it was very difficult to learn any skills.
Many children from Qinghe Academy and Qinghe Women’s Academy would often develop a rejection to learning because writing was boring and words were difficult to remember.
The families would think that they were not cut out for studying, so they simply did not let them go to school. Instead, they would directly help the family explore the land and work to earn money.
There were children who dropped out almost every day.
Bai Wutong suddenly had the idea of promoting simplified characters and pinyin.
She thought for a moment and called Yang Quanzi, Cui Lingyi, and the other teachers of the academy to ask about the progress of the students.
In the past, the acceptance to Qinghe Academy was extremely strict. Students with poor grades could not enter the school.
Nowadays, they accepted all kinds of children at all stages of life. Naturally, their grades were not of equal standards.
Bai Wutong wanted to learn about the basic situation and asked in detail, “Is it difficult for students to read and write?”
A teacher couldn’t help but shake his head and laugh. “It’s not difficult for students to read and write. Those who find it difficult have already dropped out of school.”
A teacher’s duty was to teach a student and clear his doubts. If the students wanted to give up, they would not force them.
If they did not force it, children who were not tenacious and were playful would naturally not take their studies to heart.
When children were determined as incapable of studying, parents would let them work hard and contribute to the family at an early age.
How could the illiteracy rate increase this way?
If students were forced to go to school, the teachers would not have enough energy to teach them all.
In the future, they would have to visit the parents to persuade the students to study and formulate the teaching content. There were not many teachers who knew how to teach, so there was no need to mention these additional responsibilities.
Students were the future of the country. If the young were strong, the country would be strong. If the young were educated, the country would be too. If the young were rich, the country would be rich.
Compulsory basic education was the foundation!
Bai Wutong thought for a moment and decided to lower the threshold for becoming a teacher. Just like in modern times, she would set up elementary schools, middle schools, and universities. If a person wanted to become a teacher, he or she only had to pa.s.s the teaching examination and undergo short-term training and internship.
Then, they would establish primary schools as compulsory education. Secondary schools were divided into vocational and general schools, same for universities so that students could be enrolled as long as their results met the standard.
This way, students who were still studying in Qinghe Academy with better results could take the teacher’s teaching position and form an education cycle.
As for adults, they chose to set up special adult cla.s.ses to prevent children from being influenced by the bad habits of adults.
A teacher suggested, “What if the child insists on not going to school?”
Bai Wutong smiled and said, “If everyone has gone to school, they naturally want to be with their friends.”
“The teachers have to spend a little effort to guide some specific children.”
Most children over the age of ten were very obedient. Even if they were disobedient, they would just be after getting a beating. When they grew up, they would understand that it was really good to have a chance to read and write for free.
After Bai Wutong’s suggestion was unanimously affirmed, they entered the discussion stage of the textbook content.
They had to carefully organize the content of the books according to the age and the publishing itself had acc.u.mulated a huge amount of work.
Bai Wutong asked Cui Lingyi to bring over the children’s introductory books. She took a closer look and raised her main thought for the day. “The words left behind by the ancestor have been changed generations after generations to form the words we are learning now.”
“But I think there’s still room for simplification in these words.”
“If we simplify the process of reading and writing, we can also save time in learning. After all, words are only a carrier of knowledge.”
After all, words were only a carrier of knowledge!
Everyone’s eyes lit up. They did not know why Bai Wutong had the ability to easily explain the core idea and convince them.
However, some teachers felt that the current characters were already simplified enough. They felt that if it was too simplified, it would cause confusion in everyone’s minds.
Faced with the senior teacher’s question, Bai Wutong did not refute. Instead, she flipped open a page of the sutra and wrote a large character.
After writing, Bai Wutong placed the word on the book together with the word she had just written.
In an instant, everyone sighed in surprise.
The words written by Bai Wutong looked very simple and were very different from the original version of the sutra. However, when looking at it alone, everyone still recognized every word at a glance.
Bai Wutong taught everyone the principle of replacing the words. After learning this principle, they could change words on the spot. After everyone understood it, they were immediately shocked. So words could be simplified like this!!!
Yang Quanzi said in admiration, “Your Majesty is unparalleled in intelligence!”
Someone suggested again, “Simplifying words can indeed increase the efficiency of children’s literacy, but won’t the words pa.s.sed down by our ancestors disappear forever?”
Bai Wutong smiled and said, “How can the ancestor’s inheritance disappear? It’s recorded in the book, on the stone tablet, and in history. In everyone’s hearts, it will become a milestone on the path of knowledge.”
“We can set up a specialized subject and let an endless stream of students focus on protecting the treasure left behind by our ancestor.”
When Bai Wutong said this, the senior teachers immediately felt their hearts burn. As long as the inheritance and development could continue concurrently, they had nothing to say.
After everyone accepted the simplification of the words, Bai Wutong guided everyone to mark each word with pinyin.
There was no pinyin in this world, but there was a p.r.o.nunciation method already introduced.
However, the p.r.o.nunciation method was too complicated and was far less convenient than pinyin.
When Bai Wutong suggested pinyin, everyone was stunned and couldn’t help but ask, “What is pinyin?”
Bai Wutong marked the pinyin on the word “oh”. After explaining, everyone finally understood. It turned out that when two different sounds were put together, one could obtain another sound.
It was quite convenient!
It was much more convenient than their p.r.o.nunciation method.
Everyone quickly accepted Bai Wutong’s idea and privately discussed how many pinyins to summarize.
After the meeting ended, Bai Wutong and Cui Lingyi wanted to go to the market to shop. They changed into a short-sleeved dress and held a fan. It was refreshing and comfortable. As they walked on the road, the scene immediately became a beautiful landscape.
Ah Duo was very excited to see this. “Did you see that? Your Majesty is wearing the clothes of our tribe!”
Your Majesty is really good-looking. Even though she’s pregnant, it’s difficult to resist her outstanding charm. The graceful Cui Lingyi beside her and her perfect figure was even more stunning.
The girls who were originally afraid of revealing their skin were also tempted in an instant.
Since the empress could wear it, why couldn’t they?
It was such a simple and graceful style. They would go home and make it now..