Chapter 902 – Golden Scales Academy (Part 2)
The outsiders nearby heard this and exclaimed, “What Golden Scales Academy?”
The vendor straightened his chest proudly and said, “It’s the academy built by our Governor!”
That outsider was also a humble scholar who came here with high hopes. He had already noticed the young girl in a red coat earlier.
After all, dyeing technology was quite primitive back then; the brighter the color, the more expensive it was. The family able to afford such a bright red coat must have been quite wealthy. Noticing the girl had no servants following her, his sense of justice kicked in, fearing someone might kidnap her, so he lingered for a moment.
The man asked the vendor in confusion, “When did the Liu Xi build another academy?”
Isn’t it just the Golden Scales Pavilion that was established?
“It was built about a month ago, a place for little ones to study,” the vendor replied.
Oh, so it was a private school for early education.
Little did he know, this private school was anything but ordinary.
The origin of Golden Scales Academy dated back several months.
Yuan Jing, Cheng Cheng, Feng Ren, and two other esteemed scholars formed the initial curriculum team.
However, the materials they compiled were too obscure for adults, not to mention for young children just starting out.
Jiang Pengji shot down their first draft right away and casually mentioned the idea of establishing a childhood academy, igniting the thought in the other scholars’ minds. They were well-educated and naturally thought those enlightenment materials were exceedingly simplistic, but children without any foundation wouldn’t understand them.
If the kids couldn’t grasp it, wouldn’t their enlightenment materials end up being useless?
After deep contemplation, they decided to find a group of young children to test the materials on.
In simple terms, they were like guinea pigs.
Jiang Pengji was thrilled to support this initiative; she waved her hand and allocated funds and land, converting several existing houses into an academy.
She didn’t even bother to come up with a name for the academy and just reused the name of the Golden Scales Pavilion.
As for the student body, Jiang Pengji wasn’t worried at all.
She directly selected age-appropriate children from the orphans of fallen soldiers, including both boys and girls.
This decision drew some criticisms from a few scholars, but Jiang Pengji silenced them with righteousness.
She said, “They are all orphans of heroes, what difference does their status make? Some soldiers died young, leaving behind only daughters. Their fathers fought for us; how could I treat their offspring differently due to their gender? Wouldn’t that be disheartening if it got out?”
With such a compelling argument, it seemed valid?
After a series of careful selections, the first batch of students for Golden Scales Academy was determined.
The average age ranged from five to seven years old, with one hundred boys and one hundred girls.
Feng Zhen heard about this and quickly went to Jiang Pengji, trying to throw his son into the mix.
He lived far in Chongzhou and hadn’t returned to Wanzhou in years; he couldn’t just leave his son to self-study forever, right?
And with peers his age to learn with, it might liven him up a bit, wouldn’t it?
Besides, the first batch of guinea pigs—oops, I mean students—was sure to be taught by venerable old scholars, like Yuan Jing!
As it turned out, Feng Zhen’s expectations were spot on; indeed, Yuan Jing was teaching!
Jiang Pengji seizing the opportunity suggested they should group students by age and learning progress.
They had already talked about subject division, and splitting classes by levels presented no challenges for Yuan Jing and others.
In fact, dividing classes and levels increased efficiency and targeted education far more than having all students learn together.
After all that fuss, Jiang Pengji suggested they should create standardized uniforms for the children.
Mr. Yuan Jing: “…”
How come he hadn’t noticed before that these students were such a handful?
When asked for a reason, she replied, “Uniformity looks nice and feels comfortable.”
An excellent and powerful reason.
Mr. Yuan Jing hesitated to voice his opinions but eventually went along with Jiang Pengji.
After all, she was covering the expenses for this part; why should he worry?
Jiang Pengji assigned Xu Ke and Feng Jin to handle the uniforms, finding a tailor to measure each student’s sizes.
“What else are we missing? What could it be—oh right, the school emblem!”
With a spark of inspiration, Jiang Pengji designed both male and female versions of the uniforms and personally drew a flower made of five scales.
Looking at the finished garments created by the embroiderers, Xu Ke could hardly contain the immense power raging inside him.
What is it like to have a spendthrift lord?
Just look at his current state for the answer.
The lord was not just spending money; she was throwing it around!
This set of uniforms plus identity badges was already worth two months’ supply for an ordinary four-person family.
But to be fair, the uniforms Jiang Pengji mentioned were quite good-looking.
The uniforms featured a blue-and-white color scheme, with the neatly embroidered emblem prominently displayed at the collar. Each student was also provided with an identity token.
On a propitious day, two hundred students bowed in front of the portrait of the sage teacher and officially enrolled.
They studied literature in the morning and practiced martial arts in the afternoon.
The boys and girls studied the same materials in the morning—enlightenment texts—while the afternoons differed.
Boys learned horseback riding and archery, while girls practiced body conditioning, grappling, and needlework.
The schedule was arranged as follows: morning classes started at 5:45 AM and ended at 10:45 AM; afternoon classes began at 1:15 PM and concluded at 4:15 PM.
For children who lived far away or faced difficulties, the academy provided dormitories and meals.
For this, Jiang Pengji specially transferred a temperamental sergeant from the barracks to train the boys as a martial arts instructor.
She also asked Jiang Nongqin to transfer some outstanding and patient female soldiers from the women’s camp to coach the girls.
The girls’ body conditioning training was the same practice Jiang Pengji tailored for the female soldiers.
The kids were still young, highly malleable.
By the time they all grew up and showed the results of their education, only then would the girls’ class at Golden Scales Academy firmly establish its position.
The blue-and-white uniforms these children wore gradually became a signature known to the common folks of Xiangyang County.
After a long day of duties, Wei Jingxian returned home. Upon entering the main hall, she spotted Feng Zhen’s kid lecturing Changsheng intently.
In her red clothes, Changsheng, with her head down, was sticking her tongue out to lick the bee candy coating over a hawthorn fruit, making it all moist.
What’s going on here?
“From now on, you mustn’t wander outside carelessly. There are more outsiders now, and our county’s safety isn’t what it used to be.”
“But I had Nurse with me.”
With that, she made another slurping sound, bright drool hanging at the corner of her mouth as she continued licking the candy off the hawthorn fruit.
“That doesn’t matter.”
Old and weak women and children can still be in danger during emergencies.
Changsheng pouted, her big watery eyes filled with tears, and before long, she started crying loudly.
Wei Jingxian chuckled and picked Changsheng up from the chair, turning to Feng Yi, she asked, “Changsheng has been clinging to you again, hasn’t she?”
Feng Yi shook his head.
“It’s only because Changsheng doesn’t understand and distracts you from your studies.”
Feng Yi replied, “The teacher’s lessons are very simple.”
It’s not really a distraction.
After all, it was just basic enlightenment taught by Feng Zhen himself.
Feng Yi had a solid foundation; what the teacher taught was not difficult for him, so he even sought additional assignments from the teacher in his spare time.
Feng Yi: [I love learning, and learning makes me happy.]
That’s probably the difference between a top student and a slacker.
