Making money, taking exams and supporting the family

chapter 85: Entrance Exam 2

Although Lin Ze didn’t care much about socializing with the literary circles in town, if he had the opportunity to deal with these people, it would save a lot of trouble in the future.

So, taking advantage of today’s private school entrance exam, he planned to set a trap for these people and remove the obstacles early, so he could have easier days ahead.

The entire open class was not only for the children coming from the countryside for the exam but also for the young sons of merchants who had already received some education.

In Lin Ze’s view, the children’s worldview and values were far more important than their basic knowledge and intelligence.

Just like his previous concern when accepting Li Sheng as a disciple, he didn’t want to accept a student with improper intentions and conflicting values, so today’s exam focused heavily on testing their worldview.

As for the knowledge being tested, of course, it was pinyin!

*official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese

The children of merchants had money to hire tutors for early education, so it was hard to gauge their specific level with standard questions. Moreover, his private school’s future teaching methods would differ greatly from ordinary ones, with a significant infusion of modern knowledge.

Therefore, Lin Ze needed children who could accept his advanced teachings, not just smart ones.

The simplest way to test which children were suitable was to directly teach modern things. While he couldn’t reveal core concepts publicly, pinyin was very appropriate.

After all, learning pinyin couldn’t be done in just one lesson. This open class was just to teach the children to recognize and write pinyin, which would be useless for others even if they listened.

To make it easier for the children sitting at the back to hear, since there was no blackboard in the simple marketplace facilities, Lin Ze had Zhang Xiu, accompanied by Second Uncle and the ‘Four Kings’* of the He family, hold large wooden boards with pre-written pinyin, serving as mobile blackboards.

*4 brothers

This method of teaching, which resembled a performance, added some entertainment value and immediately captured the children’s interest. They all listened and watched intently, learning to read and write in their prepared sandboxes as they went along.

Lin Ze didn’t have high expectations for them at this stage; he only taught reading and writing without delving deeply into meanings, observing how much the children could remember and accept in such a short time.

The children didn’t understand much, but the rhythmic nature of reading pinyin letters aloud made it fun, like learning a nursery rhyme.

Lin Ze was very satisfied. Most children have a strong ability to accept new things, and the conflict between ancient and modern knowledge wasn’t as severe as he feared.

Of course, this was only true for the children from the countryside, who were like blank slates.

For the young sons of merchants, who had been steeped in ancient literature for several years, the new learning methods and knowledge were not as easy to accept and digest.

As for the old scholars and aspiring scholars, deeply ingrained in ancient culture, listening to pinyin was like hearing an incantation, and they regarded the letters as gibberish…

“Nonsense! This is not teaching students; it’s sheer trickery. This Lin Ze is simply misleading the children!”

In the teahouse, some old scholars, unable to contain their frustration upon seeing what Lin Ze was doing, couldn’t help but slam the table and shout in anger.