novelraw Chapter 424 - 0405 Treating Students Who Don’t Listen (2)
Chapter 424 - 0405 Treating Students Who Don’t Listen (2)
"Sun Yuanjiu!" Prince Luling said in a deep voice, "Although what you said is not unreasonable, words and paintings are not the same! With paintings, we can change the appearance of characters according to our thoughts, but the words we use every day cannot be changed at will. These characters have existed for more than two thousand years. Everyone writes them this way; if you add or remove a stroke, others won’t recognize them."
Sun Yuanjiu blinked his bright eyes, staring blankly at Prince Luling, "Can’t I just tell the teacher and everyone, saying this is a ’wu’ character?"
He pointed to the teacher and the other students sitting in the room.
Prince Luling, "..." He suppressed his temper and said patiently, "Sun Yuanjiu, but there are not only us in the world. There are other people, like those from other villages, people from the county town, people from the State Mansion, and even people from other nations. There are millions of people in the world. Are you going to tell everyone? Can you manage that?"
Sun Yuanjiu said, "Can’t we put up a notice to tell everyone in the world?"
Prince Luling, "..."
Li Yuzhu, listening outside, couldn’t help but laugh. How stubborn is this child? Do you think you’re the Emperor, putting up a notice just to change a character?
"No way! This is a very common character, which appears extensively in all kinds of existing books. If the writing of this character is changed, then all the books in the world will have to be altered. This is a very troublesome thing. Moreover, changing the writing of characters is the court’s business, ordinary people should not change it at will," Prince Luling said sternly, "Those who violate it will be punished."
Speaking of the punishment, it scared Sun Yuanjiu.
It turns out changing a character is so troublesome?
Better not change it then.
"Understood, teacher," Sun Yuanjiu nodded.
"Then, the character you wrote is a typo, write it thirty times as punishment! You must hand it in to me before going home today." Prince Luling’s finger pointed at Sun Yuanjiu’s typo.
Sun Yuanjiu took back his homework and returned to his seat dejectedly.
Then, Prince Luling called up another child.
This child’s homework was also writing.
Without exception, there were typos.
Then, it was on to checking an older child’s arithmetic homework.
After checking, Prince Luling frowned and said, "You heard the question wrong, I said the length is three feet two inches, not three feet four inches."
This child was sent back to recalculate.
Another child also brought their homework for correction. When Prince Luling looked at it, well, it was wrong again, "You also heard wrong, it’s three feet two inches, not twelve inches. Go back and redo it!"
This child was Song Baoshun, who was the boldest and had even contradicted Prince Luling.
Today was no exception, he said, "Teacher, I didn’t hear wrong, you clearly said three feet twelve inches." After speaking, he pointed to a few other children, "They also said it was twelve inches."
"Yes, teacher, it was twelve feet," a few of the older children said.
Prince Luling frowned. He had casually read the question just now; he remembered it was two inches, not twelve inches?
But, since these older children all said it was twelve inches, did he report it wrong? Or not pronounce it clearly?
"In that case, just calculate according to what you heard. I will focus on your calculation process. Write it out line by line, do not just write the result," Prince Luling said.
He reviewed Song Baoshun’s arithmetic problem again, calculating based on the three feet twelve inches. Indeed, it was calculated correctly.
"Not bad, it’s correct," Prince Luling was strict with students but was not stingy with praise.
Song Baoshun grinned, took his homework, and happily returned to his seat.
Outside the window, Li Yuzhu furrowed her brows in thought.
Prince Luling recited the question, and the students wrote it down after hearing it.
If Prince Luling has a heavy accent, it is inevitable that the children will not hear it correctly.
Such a teaching method, for the older children, can train their listening skills, but there are many young children in the school, whose listening skills are not strong and they are prone to misunderstand.
Furthermore, when teaching, it is also spoken aloud, so the teacher does not know where the children’s eyes are looking.
Several children were looking at the ground.
Some were playing with their fingers.
The reason these problems occur is because there is no blackboard.
Children can look up at the blackboard, and there will be no chance of playing secretly with their heads down.
Li Yuzhu decided to make a blackboard for Prince Luling.
She walked to the door, called out Prince Luling, and shared her idea.
Aware that Prince Luling might ask how she knew of this method, she used an excuse, saying it was heard from the county town.
Prince Luling indeed did not ask further.
Prince Luling had long discovered that the children easily became distracted and was worried about finding a way to correct them. Li Yuzhu offered a great solution, and he was overjoyed, "Good, good, excellent. Go find your elder brother at once and tell him to immediately get black paint and white chalk."
"Alright." Li Yuzhu smiled, she lifted her skirt and ran towards Mu Yuanxiu, "Mu Yuanxiu, you take these three little ones to play. I’m going to take care of something else."
"Little aunt, where are you going?" Li Jing shouted to her.
"Shh, keep it down, don’t disturb Grandpa and the students." Li Yuzhu waved her hand.
Li Jing immediately covered his mouth with both hands and nodded vigorously, "Okay, I’ll speak softly."
He lowered his voice.
"Alright, I’ll keep an eye on them." Mu Yuanxiu smiled.
Li Yuzhu patted the heads of the three little ones and ran back into the house.
The left side of the door of the house is an inverted room, and the right side was originally a vacant lot. After Guoguo’s first birthday banquet, Li Xingmao invited Liu the bricklayer to build a bamboo pavilion on the vacant lot.
The bamboo pavilion is simple in design, with six sturdy bamboo poles as the pavilion’s pillars. The pavilion roof is supported by bamboo strips, covered with thatch on top.
The pavilion’s small fence is made of relatively fine bamboo strips.
Economical and attractive.
As long as there are no strong winds, it can last for three years.
At this time, Li Xingmao and his two brothers were accompanying Qin Lizheng from Taohua River Village and several village elders in the pavilion drinking tea and chatting.
Li Yuzhu walked over and called to Li Xingmao, "Big brother."
Li Xingmao nodded to her and smiled, "What’s the matter, third sister?"
He stood up, excused himself to Qin Lizheng, and walked towards Li Yuzhu.
Li Yuzhu smiled and said, "It’s not a big deal, I can say it in front of everyone." She told Li Xingmao about repainting a blackboard in the school.
At that time, all writing was done with brushes, so the concept of a blackboard was unknown and unheard of.
Qin Lizheng and the village elders all looked at Li Yuzhu with curiosity.
"A blackboard? What kind of pen do you use to write on it?" Li Xingmao was surprised, "Ink is black, the board is black, can you see the writing on it?"
Li Yuzhu explained the method of making it and how to use it, "We use lime blocks used in constructing houses to write, the white lime against the blackboard is easy to see."
Upon hearing this, everyone suddenly understood and found the method intriguing.
"Miss Li, what’s the purpose of this?" Qin Lizheng asked.
Li Yuzhu shared the children’s performance in the school and the convenience of using the blackboard with everyone.
A blackboard can display the day’s teaching content for the children to focus on the lesson. Students can also come to the blackboard at any time to answer questions for review, saving paper and ink. It allows teaching multiple children at once. Previously, with oral teaching, teaching thirty-two children meant thirty-two separate sessions, which was extremely time-consuming.
In the school, children are divided into three levels, so with the teaching content on the blackboard, it’s only necessary to teach three times.
Overall, it’s much more convenient than using paper.
With her explanation, everyone understood.
Qin Lizheng said, "I have some black paint at home that I can give you. However, there’s only half a jug, leftover from painting the hair of the Earth God statue, not sure if it’s enough."
Li Yuzhu smiled and said, "Thank you, Uncle Li Zheng, we’ll use whatever you have, it’s better than nothing."
Li Xingmao also thanked him and instructed the swift Li Xing’an to fetch it immediately.
Li Xing’an led out the family’s big black horse and rode quickly to Qin Lizheng’s house.
He spoke to Mrs. Li Zheng, who cheerfully handed over a jar of black paint and even gave him a brush, "Take it and use it, it would go to waste if stored for too long."
Li Xing’an thanked her and hurried back home.
For trivial tasks like painting black paint, both Li Xing’an and Li Xingsheng volunteered.
This pair of brothers argued when they met but still missed each other when apart.
Li Xingmao frowned, "Stop arguing. Third Sister just said that writing on a blackboard requires two items, one is the blackboard, and the other is lime blocks. Third Brother will paint, and Second Brother will make the lime blocks."
Upon Big Brother’s orders, the two brothers stopped fighting.
They exchanged glares and walked away.
As for how to make solid lime powder blocks, Li Yuzhu explained the process to Second Young Master Li Xingsheng.
The family had some lime left over from building a house recently, so Li Xingsheng followed Li Yuzhu’s instructions to make them.
The method wasn’t difficult.
Add a small amount of warm water and some clay into the hydrated lime powder, mix evenly, and pour the lime slurry into several tubes made of thick oiled paper, leave them still overnight, and then dry them in the sun.
Adding water to lime will produce intense heat, improper handling can injure the eyes.
Li Yuzhu repeatedly cautioned Li Xingsheng, "Be very careful, Second Brother, when adding water to the lime, quickly avoid the heat, and wait until there’s no heat before stirring cautiously."
Li Xingsheng chuckled, "Don’t worry, Third Sister, if Old Third does this, he surely won’t do it well, but I’m different. I’m the most meticulous person."