Chapter 57: Elementary School Math Teacher Zhao Xuan

  In ancient times, acting as a temporary math teacher at elementary school, teaching a local little girl simple arithmetic skills, which is also a technical job.

  Qing Jie is eleven years old this year, in modern times she should be a fifth-grade elementary school student and can do primary and secondary equations. However, Qing Jie can't even master the most basic addition and subtraction, nor can she use an abacus, it's really frustrating.

  Qing Jie's education was basically taken care of by Shen, Zhao Xuan was very affirmative, the Zhao family, especially the clan, were completely useless in terms of educating their children.

  The Zhao family was originally just a relatively wealthy small landlord family in Fengxian County. Decades ago, the second house produced a low-ranking military officer, and the third house produced two surveillance officials and a newly minted scholar. These three book-smart individuals seemed to have promising prospects for development and growth, but then they encountered war. The war turned the second house's small military officer into a founding merit noble, but it also severely damaged the third house of Chongwen, greatly damaging the Zhao family's ambition to become a local aristocratic family through imperial examinations. Later, although there were some who came from outside and attached themselves to the ninth house, among whom there were also sons who aspired to read books and take imperial examinations, with the support and protection of the old county duke of the second house, the lives of the clan members were comfortable and rich, and no one in the countryside dared to provoke them. They naturally lost their urgent motivation to study hard and improve their status. Most of the clansmen indulged in comfort and were content with being a local landlord, those who wanted to be officials asked the old county duke to recommend them to join the military from the lowest rank of small military officer, and those who loved money even went into business, not being too enthusiastic about reading books and taking imperial examinations.

  The Zhao family had few bookworms, and even fewer who could make a name for themselves. Including the three houses of the eight old gentlemen, only two scholars emerged - actually just the father-son duo of the eighth old gentleman, plus three children's students. Moreover, some people read books for a few years, got some ink in their bellies, and didn't want to continue on the imperial examination path, slowly enduring it, would rather take a detour, enter the county government as an official, grasp that little bit of power, and make beautiful dreams of dominating the countryside.

  It's good that the old county magistrate prohibited the clan members from doing evil, and now with Zhang watching, the Zhao clan members haven't caused any major problems, at most they just embezzle a little money, and instead have a pretty good reputation in the county.

  Of course, the family's neglect of Zhao Jia's education also had to do with the intentional suppression of the third house by the main house. In the Zhao clan, the first house was the landlord, the second house took the military route, and the third house was a farming and reading family. This was their respective positioning. The master of the main house, Zhao Wei, was not a clever person. He saw that the third house had a grudge against his own family. The eighth old master strongly supported and encouraged young people in the clan to study, so he worried that the power of the imperial examination system would rise greatly, affecting his position as head of the clan, so he secretly tried every means to suppress it. He even forbade his own son from listening to the eighth old master's lectures, forbidding him from participating in the county exams, resulting in Zhao Jia not having a single honor or title. If it weren't for his mother, Madame Lu, who had saved the life of a woman from the Shen family of Songjiang, and gave her daughter to his son as wife, perhaps Master Wei would not have thought of giving his son a daughter-in-law from a scholarly family.

  Zhao Yun is now very capable and has taken over almost all the family affairs. Shen Shi, as the head of the family, is also doing a great job. The couple has a clear understanding of the worrying situation of their children's future and had personally asked Zhang Shi for advice, and also invited the three old men to discuss the matter. They decided that they must produce a few more xiucai (scholars) and if possible, a jinshi (a successful candidate in the imperial examination), which would have a great motivating effect on the family members. At that time, they could prepare to establish a family school. The old county magistrate has passed away for many years, and the Zhao family still has some prestige in the local area. However, their influence outside is much weaker than before, and their impact on the imperial court is almost zero. If they cannot cultivate a few excellent children to support the family, the Zhao family will decline soon. Therefore, not only is Zhao Yun squeezing time to review his lessons and planning to take the county examination again, but also the old men are taking in more young students, and Zhang Shi has been providing financial assistance to the younger generation of the family to study for many years. However, their efforts are all focused on the path of civil service examinations, except for Zhao Wei, no one else is practicing martial arts, and girls are being directly ignored.

  In the Zhao family, the level of education a girl receives depends entirely on her mother's level. Generally, they are only taught etiquette and basic skills like needlework, just enough to not lose face when going out in public, and can be considered a respectable young lady. Those who are more capable will also teach them social skills and household management, and can be called an outstanding lady. It is rare for someone like Shen to teach their daughter to read and write, and even rarer for someone like Zhang to teach their granddaughter music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

  The Shen family taught girls, teaching them the traditional knowledge of a scholarly family, including the Three Hundred Thousand and the clan's rules and regulations. The girl's education included learning the Four Books and Five Classics by heart, and Shen also roughly explained the famous passages to her daughter, requiring her to practice good handwriting. As a mother, she was already quite competent. Zhao Qing's current academic level is absolutely unmatched among all the girls of the same age in Fengxian County - note that this does not include Zhao Xiu, who is four years younger and not in the same age group.

  Unfortunately, in Shen's view, arithmetic is a specialized knowledge that is not valued. Girls only need to know how to keep accounts, and they don't even need to learn abacus because that's what the daughters of merchants learn. Daughters from scholarly families who learn it will lose value - she only taught her daughter to keep accounts, remember the usual expenditure items should have a certain amount and reasonable fluctuation range, income items are also the same, specific calculations can be left to the accountant.

  Madam Shen was quite skilled at arithmetic herself and thought her daughter would be the same, but unfortunately, Qing Jie let her down. In other aspects, Zhao Qing Jie was a little genius, but she lacked that one thing - no mathematical foundation, no accounting talent, and no matter how hard she studied, she just couldn't get it right. Simple accounts looked like heavenly books to her, and all she could do was memorize them by rote. Madam Shen was too busy and didn't have the time to slowly teach her, otherwise, she wouldn't have asked seven-year-old Zhao Xuan to be her teacher. Of course, in Madam Shen's eyes, letting Zhao Xuan become Qing Jie's teacher was just an excuse, it was actually just to get Zhao Xuan to agree to come and accompany Qing Jie every day.

  However, since Zhao Xun had promised, she would definitely use her heart. Qing Jie didn't have a foundation in math, so she started teaching from the simplest addition and subtraction methods, converting Arabic numerals to text, copying down the addition and subtraction formulas, and letting Qing Jie memorize them! The multiplication and division were too difficult, and she didn't dare force it, but addition and subtraction were the basics, and couldn't be skipped. After Qing Jie had memorized them, Zhao Xun employed her "ocean of questions" tactic, writing out 100 addition and subtraction practice questions for Qing Jie to do every day. After doing this for ten or eight days, she increased it to 150 questions. Qing Jie was so bewildered that even when eating and sleeping, she was reciting math formulas, and finally, after a month, she reached the average math level of a second-grade elementary school student.

  Zhao Xun really couldn't help but shed a tear for his own hard-won achievements.

  Zhao Qing covered her face with shame on the square table, completely losing the elegant demeanor taught by her mother Shen. Because of the one hundred addition and subtraction exercises she finished last night, fourteen were calculated incorrectly. In fact, she should have gotten them all right, but she carelessly made mistakes! That was the result of two hours of homework! Little sister Zhao Xuan is four years younger than her, yet she can finish these questions in half an hour with all correct answers. She did it for two hours and still got fourteen wrong, what face does she have to call herself a talented woman?!

  Zhao Xun carefully reviewed her homework again: "It's okay, I got 86 out of 100 questions right, the score is pretty good, there are people who are worse than you, don't feel embarrassed. The sea of learning has no end, and hard work is the boat that sails through it. Just keep working hard and you'll be fine."

  Zhao Qing's sister blushed and stood up straight. She respectfully replied: "Yes, I will follow your teachings, Auntie."

  Zhao Xuan felt a little thrilled in her heart. Now, with the appearance of a seven-year-old Douding, she had a four-year-old little girl who respectfully called her "Auntie" and looked up to her like a teacher, this feeling couldn't be any better - although as soon as she thought about her soul's actual age, this refreshing feeling would immediately burst like soap bubbles.

  She put aside the math problems in her hand, took out a stack of white paper, and began her daily calligraphy practice. Although her grandmother was not at home, she persisted with her daily homework, not daring to slack off - at most, she just didn't increase the amount of practice. If she doesn't practice for three days, her hands will become clumsy, and she has also been lazy for three days before, but soon discovered that if she continues like this, when her grandmother comes back, she will definitely find out, so she can only continue with this bitter practice.

  To be honest, these homeworks are heavy, but they also make her life more fulfilling. Otherwise, after managing the household, she would have nothing to do except reading and embroidery. It's impossible for her to spend half a day watching Qing Jie doing math problems every day, it's too boring. She simply stopped doing needlework and continued with book painting homework, memorizing ten pages of books every day, and spent other time on other small hobbies.

  Zhao Qing looked at her younger sister practicing calligraphy, and a look of admiration appeared in her eyes again. The elder generation is indeed the elder generation, although she was several years younger than her, but whether it was literature or martial arts, whether it was the Four Books and Five Classics or painting and arithmetic, her younger sister was more excellent than her. In the past, she thought she was already a talented woman, but her younger sister was obviously more talented than her. When others praised her younger sister as a child prodigy, her younger sister would modestly say that she wasn't, in comparison, she was really too arrogant! She should learn from her younger sister and be more humble, striving to improve herself.

  Zhao Qing's sister secretly made up her mind, pulled over her own homework again, wanting to redo the wrong questions. Suddenly, she found a draft paper that Zhao Xiu used to calculate the answers placed beside her. She unintentionally glanced at it twice, feeling curious: "Auntie, what are these characters you've written? I seem to have seen similar ones somewhere before."

  Zhao Xun finished writing a character and looked up: "What character?" She leaned over to take a look, only to discover that Qing Jie was referring to the Arabic numerals on her draft.

  She dryly laughed a few times: "This... I unintentionally found it in a book collected from my grandmother, it seems to be a symbol used by some country on the other side of the ocean to represent numbers. I saw that it's written quite simply and is easy to recognize, so I borrowed it..."

  Zhao Qing's sister smiled and said: "Looking at the twisted and turned, like a worm, it's really fun. Auntie, teach me how to recognize it?"

  Zhao Xuan wasn't sure if this was a good idea or not, so she deliberately changed the subject: "Where have you seen something like that before?"

  "It was at the house of Yuan's younger sister, outside the sixth room. Her father, Qi Xuan Shu, wasn't doing business abroad, was he? One time, he brought back several books and said they were also foreign things, unexpectedly obtained, originally intended to be given to the Eighth Elder of the Third House, but the Eighth Elder looked down on them and gave them to Qi Xuan Shu instead. No one in his family could recognize them, so Yuan's younger sister used them as shoe pattern cutouts." Zhao Qing Jie wrote a symbol on the paper, "Look, it's this kind of thing."

  Zhao Xun took a look and found it was an "L" shape, her eyelids twitched suddenly. Could it be that Qi Xuan Shu had obtained a foreign language book?