Lin Yanchao denied the opinion of this etiquette member in his heart. The proposal put forward by www.biquge.info the other party was also opposed by other officials.

A man in his thirties said to the middle of the class: "Dare to ask this adult, a Confucian boy who has been reading for a year, not to mention that he can finish college, Zhongyong and other four books, I am afraid that he can only write his own name, and he can't write a thousand-word essay." ”

The officials thought to themselves, this makes sense in the matter, a Chinese Confucian boy does not say let him participate in the imperial examination, from not knowing a word and having no foundation to completing a thousand-character text, the three-character scripture These enlightenment books, it will take at least a few years to be able to read, read and write, what is the use of a year of hard work?

The teaching time is so short, most Confucian children only know a few words, and they are not very useful at all.

The member of the Ministry of Rites said: "It can not be achieved in one year, but it can also be two years and three years." ”

He shook his head and said: "There are clouds in the pipe, and the plan for a year is like a tree valley; A ten-year plan is like a tree; A lifelong plan is as good as a tree. I don't know enough to wait for a lifetime to study, let alone two or three years, two or three years will make Confucian children close to the sages and sages, and smell the way of the first king? ”

This remark made many officials present nod their heads together.

This continued: "Even if, as you said, you train 350,000 Confucian children every year, then I ask you, every county in the world has established a school of righteousness, and since the school of righteousness is set up by the government, the salary of the teacher is also funded by the government, and the cost of pen, ink and paper used by the Confucian children must also be borne by the government. The rich county is still good to say, but what about the poor county? Where does this money come from? Is it the local government that levies the people's endowment? Or is it under the imperial court? ”

Speaking of the word money, the officials present all sighed. In the year of Longqing, the imperial court's finances can be described as a deficit every year, and after Zhang Juzheng changed the law in recent years, this is better. However, if it is said that the central government gave money to the local governments to set up voluntary schools, eighty percent of them were embezzled by the local officials.

As for the local yamen raising money to run a charity school by themselves, then they must have raised their hands in favor, because there is an additional way to make money.

For example, in Houguan County, where Lin Yanchao is located, every expenditure of the yamen must be sent to the local program, under various names. What did the yamen apparatus, such as the money for the test papers and tea cakes used by the county, the oil candles used by the yamen, and the charcoal fire, all of which were skillfully set up to ask the people for money. Another righteous study of silver will definitely increase the burden of the people.

This foreigner quibbled: "You can also make local officials Ling Haoyou, good people fund righteous learning, which is conducive to cultural and educational matters, and there must be rich people who donate enthusiastically, and it does not cost the court a penny." ”

After saying this, the officials were even more disappointed, in the past natural disasters, the imperial court in order to let the local tyrants pay money to help the victims, all methods were exhausted. And now ask them to pay for this righteous thing?

Libu Langzhong, who originally held the view of expanding the number of recruiters, also couldn't stand it: "Even if you can do the uprising school, 100 people in a county can enter the righteous school, and since it is free to study, then how can you ensure that the local Haoyou family will not take advantage of the loopholes, but on the contrary, the children of the poor who really can't afford to study will be turned away." ”

"And even if the local government runs an uprising school, how can the imperial court supervise and inspect it, which is another difficulty."

Lin Yanchao was not disappointed when he listened to the opposition of officials to this national education policy, but took it for granted.

These courtiers are not corpses, and they understand how many affairs they handle. Before, Lin Yanchao only felt that the opinions put forward by this member of the Ministry of Rites were somewhat inconsistent with what he saw, but after being attacked by these officials, he really felt that it was really too difficult to implement national education.

The expansion of enrollment is an elite education, and the national and county-run voluntary schools are national education.

Since ancient times, China has always followed the route of elite education, for no other reason, education is a very expensive thing. After taking the imperial examination, I know that a poor family is often the strength of the whole family, and it takes several generations of hard work to cultivate a full-time scholar.

The Ming Dynasty, which valued the imperial examination throughout the country, was still like this, not to mention before the Ming Dynasty?

It is precisely because education is so difficult that the state has always followed the strategy of elite education, rather than the method of national education.

However, this does not mean that national education is bad, but that it is too difficult to implement. But as a traverser, Lin Yanchao knew that this was the road to the country's strength.

Under the Reformation of Martin Luther, the West put forward the idea of compulsory education for the first time. However, the first European countries to pioneer national education was the Kingdom of Prussia.

The idea of attaching importance to education is not only among the people, but also rooted in the upper strata.

For example, after Napoleon defeated Prussia, King Wilhelm I of Prussia, faced with a huge war indemnity of 1500 million francs, did not grit his teeth and tighten his belt to live, but took out the last bit of the country's money, used the royal palace as a university building, and founded the Humboldt University of Berlin.

And the university rewarded Prussia with twenty-nine Nobel laureates since its founding.

No matter how hard it was to educate and the whole country to try his courage, Prussia came out of the haze of defeat, and decades later, in the Franco-Prussian War, he defeated France and unified Germany.

After the defeat of France, Prussian Field Marshal Moltke did not give credit to the iron-blooded Prussian army, but said that the victory of Germany had long been decided from the rostrum of the elementary school teacher.

The reason why Moltke said this is that Prussia is the country that attaches the most importance to national education in Europe, and there is no one. Before the reunification of Germany, Prussia had an astonishing 97 percent enrolment rate of school-age children, a figure that is still proud of the rest of the world!

At today's court meeting, one policy is to set up a free school for the whole country, and the other is to expand the number of students.

The two theories are controversial, and Lin Yanchao knows that if he does not interfere in this court discussion, then the policy of expanding the enrollment staff may be passed. As for the establishment of a national school of righteousness, as long as the officials do not lose their brains, they will basically not support it.

Of course, there is also a theory that Ma Yushi, and at the same time opposes the establishment of a righteous school and the expansion of enrollment, believing that the policy of the imperial court, since the ancestors, has been continued very well, and should not be changed rashly. Lin Yanchao said in all fairness that this is the best result, of course, this is when he has not yet said his proposal.

The officials discussed for a while, and Pan Sheng looked at it and calculated that the time was almost over, and it was time to report the conclusion of the court to the court.

So after Pan Sheng chatted with Zhang Siwei for a few words, he said to Lin Yanchao: "Lin Zhongyun, if there is nothing else to discuss, I will wait and prepare to vote." ”

Pan Sheng, Zhang Siwei thought that Lin Yanchao was still as modest as before, and he was listening to him on the side.

But Lin Yanchao said: "Since it is a great uncle's inquiry, then the lower officials do have a little bit of superficial opinion. ”

Pan Sheng and Zhang Siwei were all stunned, is Lin Yanchao going back on his word? I didn't open my mouth before, how can I break my promise now?