Chapter 961 The School Starts Classes and Another Freeloader Arrives (2)
This kind of thing had been seen by the two Masters many times over and was an unspoken rule of their profession. After thanking the villagers profusely, they accepted the gifts. As for those villagers who had forgotten or hadn’t brought any gifts, the Masters didn’t show any displeasure. After all, it depended on the individual’s willingness, and to demand more would be in bad taste.
Seeing the Masters accept the gifts, the villagers did not feel the pang of loss, but rather heaved a sigh of relief. Once they had successfully registered their children, they sent them off to the spacious and bright schoolhouse and went back home cheerfully.
Watching this whole process, Mo Yan, who had been brought in to help, could understand the villagers’ mentality quite well. In his past life, many parents would give gifts to teachers during holidays to secure extra attention for their children. Initially, there was nothing wrong with this practice, but as time went on, it became corrupted. Many teachers with degraded ethics exploited it for personal gain, resulting in numerous problems.
However, after spending several days with them, Mo Yan had come to understand the characters of the two Masters to a certain extent. They took their moral cultivation seriously and would not engage in extracting money from their students.
When initially choosing the Masters, the village elders all agreed that the character of the teacher was of the utmost importance—without moral integrity, how could they possibly educate others! Mo Yan noticed that almost a hundred children, mostly aged between six and ten years, had signed up; there were seldom children over ten years old. After giving it some thought, he realized the reasons behind this.
Children over the age of ten were already capable of working and could bring income to their households by staying at home and working in the fields. Thus, it was unlikely that their families would allow them to attend school.