back to prehistoric savage

Chapter 260

There are 198 minors under the age of ten in the clan.

Adulthood in the tribe's perception is not completely equivalent to sexual maturity. Adulthood means more of a change in identity, from a bottomless pit that can only be entered into to a labor force that can contribute to the tribe.

To be more specific, the age of ten is a threshold. Before reaching the age of ten, one can enjoy the public resources of the tribe for free. Once this threshold is crossed, boys must go hunting and girls must go gathering.

The reason why it is set as ten years old is that on the one hand, the average life span of primitive people is short, the productivity of the tribe is extremely low, and the "unemployed population" that can be fed is very limited, so the tribesmen need to enter production activities as soon as possible; on the other hand, ten happens to be The number of fingers on both hands is convenient for memory.

Adulthood is also an important indicator of sexual maturity, but it is not the only indicator. Sexual characteristics such as morning erections, nocturnal emissions, and menstruation must also be taken into consideration.Reproduction is the top priority of the tribe. The primitive ancestors had a relatively deep understanding of this aspect. It is precisely because of this that they developed various reproductive worships and some cruel adult rites related to sexual organs.

The Rock Castle people's definition of adulthood is similar to that of the aborigines in the Northeast, but they have an ancient tradition: Men who are about to reach adulthood must go to the wild to experience alone. The longer the experience, the higher the status and prestige will be when they return.

Now that they are already members of the Sky Clan, they naturally no longer have to abide by the past traditions.

However, Zhang Tian plans to establish a new tradition: treating the school graduation examination as a coming-of-age ceremony for children. The higher the evaluation obtained in the graduation examination, not to mention a higher status in the future, at least the starting point will be higher.For example, those who achieve excellent results in pottery courses can directly serve as managers such as supervisors after graduation.

This can not only motivate children to study hard, but also guide the entire ethnic group to naturally produce social division of labor and social class differentiation. This is much more efficient than having Zhang Tian and Lin Yu personally "select talents and promote talents". Much more fair.

With the growth of productivity and the improvement of dietary conditions and habits, people's life span will increase year by year, and the standard of adulthood will also rise, from today's ten years old to 11 years old, to 12 years old, 13 years old...

Don't underestimate the age of one or two. The life span of primitive people is short. Environmental factors are one of the reasons. Engaging in high-intensity work too early and squeezing the human body's potential without restraint is also a very important reason.

Delaying the age of adulthood will in turn affect the average life span of the entire population and increase life expectancy.Starting to work at the age of ten and dying at the age of 30, and starting to work at the age of 12 and retiring at the age of 40, from the perspective of the entire group, the latter can obviously create more value.

From a personal perspective, reaching adulthood at a later age can avoid many root causes of disease and improve the quality of life.

School enrollment is undoubtedly the hottest topic this winter. Sky Priest can always bring unexpected major changes to people's daily lives!
The tribes immediately exploded upon hearing the news. After asking about the functions of the school and understanding what enrollment meant, everyone rushed to sign up.

Winter is long and idle is idle. If you have the opportunity to experience something new, why not?
Xiao, who came to announce the news, shook his head like a rattle and said loudly: "You can't go! The school only accepts minors! Even I can't participate!"

Someone immediately retorted: "How did I hear that you and Jing were both admitted?"

"Yes! I heard about it too, and Huang!"

"The vine of our tribe is also one of them!"

"It's not admission, it's recruitment!" Xiao raised his voice, "We are not going to be students, but we are going to be teachers, responsible for imparting knowledge to the children!"

Jing, Huang and Teng, among others, all came forward to confirm.

“What does hiring mean?”

This is the first time most people have heard this term.

Xiao explained: "Hiring means exchange, but it is not bartering, but exchanging things for our time and efforts. The sky priest said that we should rest in cold weather, and when everyone else is resting, we still have to Hard work deserves to be rewarded!”

Everyone suddenly realized that this arrangement was reasonable and fair.

Xiao returned to the topic: "Children over five years old must go to school. Classes will start officially tomorrow. Children aged five to seven will come in the morning, and children over eight will come in the afternoon!"

"Are the Sky Priest and the Master Wizard also teachers?"

"Of course!"

"Do you need to bring anything?"

"You don't need to bring anything, just come when people come!"

Mothers asked all kinds of questions, and they were generally more excited than their children.They are very aware of the importance of knowledge, especially the knowledge mastered by the sky priests and wizards. In their opinion, this may be the way for the sky priests and wizards to choose their successors, in case their children are chosen...

Thinking of this, the corners of the mothers' mouths raised unconsciously. In the eyes of every mother, their children are the best, and they believe that their children will definitely be chosen!

……

Early the next morning, after breakfast, the children, accompanied by their mothers, walked from the residential area to the school. There were also many good people who came with them to observe the "entrance ceremony".

Zhang Tian, ​​Lin Yu and a group of teachers were waiting in front of the school. An open space was cleared around the school, with simple entertainment facilities such as seesaws and swings.

Xiao yesterday counted the number of students, including 56 students in the small class (five to seven years old) and 39 students in the large class (eight years and above).

The courses in the small class and the large class are different. The common courses are mathematics class and symbol class. These two are basic courses and are taught by Zhang Tian and Lin Yu respectively.

The main content of the mathematics class includes number recognition, counting and simple arithmetic. The symbol class teaches children to identify and write various pictographic symbols and some abstract symbols existing in the tribe.

In addition, the small class also has to study three courses: painting class, handicraft class and game class, with He, Snake Dan and Xiao as teachers respectively.

Needless to say, there is no need to say more about the painting class and handicraft class. The game class is actually a puzzle class. Xiao Xiao takes the children to play puzzle games, including jigsaw puzzle, Luban lock called "Beast Trapping Lock", and "Trapped Beast Road". Huarong Road, and chess games such as Beast Chess and Backgammon.

Of course, most of the above games are still in planning, and only a small part of them have been produced and mastered by Xiaoxiao.

The small class focuses on basic education and interest education, while the large class provides vocational training in addition to basic education. Courses available include farming, pottery, fishing and hunting, herbalism, textiles, cooking, construction, breeding...the above courses The courses are taught by leaders from all walks of life.

Of course, not every course must be taken. Children in the upper class can choose three of the courses for further study. The courses last for one year. They learn theoretical knowledge in the winter. When the weather warms up, they will practice with adults. They will be assessed at the end of the course. The final evaluation will take into account the student's performance throughout the year.

In other words, when a child reaches the age of eight and enters the upper class, he will have two years to choose from a total of six courses. It is time to choose an industry that suits him and acquire a skill.

The teaching time of each class is based on half of the beeswax burning, and there is a few minutes of rest time between every two classes. The specific length of time is left to the teacher to estimate, and it should not be too outrageous.Zhang Tian has done experiments. According to this curriculum, from sunrise in the early morning to when the sun rises above the head at noon, five classes can be completed.

The owl counted, and all the children in the small class had arrived. The boys and girls were divided into two groups, chattering non-stop, loosely and noisily.

Nowadays, men and women have equal rights, and there is no such thing as the Three Obediences and Four Virtues. If boys can get into this school, girls can also get into it. In the eyes of the tribe, this is a matter of course.

Xiao Xiao shouted "Quiet", and the children fell silent.

Zhang Tian started to line up, with the taller ones standing on the left and the shorter ones on the right. It took a lot of effort to finally get the 56 children to stand in a queue of 7 by 8.

Facing the children, parents and spectators, he delivered a speech at the entrance ceremony.

It's nothing more than chicken soup like studying hard and making progress every day... He used to be annoyed by this kind of speech the most, but he didn't expect that one day, he would actually live like what he hated the most.

However, Zhang Tian's speech was very short, concise and concise, and was still fundamentally different from various leaders of later generations.

It was already the twelfth lunar month and it was freezing outside. Zhang Tian finished speaking quickly and called the children into the house.

The house has already been heated by floor heating, and everything in the house is illuminated by the beeswax on the wall and the oil lamp placed on the kang table.The oil lamp uses pottery as the lamp, tung oil and fish oil as the fuel, and rushes as the wick. Of course, the brightness cannot be compared with the incandescent lamp, but in this era, it is already considered bright.

The children were amazed, touching here and there, looking here and there, excited.The adults stood several floors outside the house, looking in curiously.

The first class was mathematics. Zhang Tian walked into the classroom, and teachers from other subjects followed him. They sat down at the back of the classroom to observe the lectures and learn teaching skills.

"Just find a seat and sit down. Parents can go back. Don't disturb our class. Come pick up your children after school."

Zhang Tian dispersed the crowd of people watching outside the house and closed the door.

The children were all seated, and the warmth coming from the floor made them relax physically and mentally. They looked around and discussed excitedly with their friends at the table. Everything was so novel and interesting, and they seemed to have endless things to say.

Zhang Tian walked towards the front desk. The desk was also a Kang table, but it was larger and taller than the one used by the children.

He sat down behind the lecture table. On the table were a pile of small sticks, small stones, small chalk made of chalk, a ruler made of bamboo strips and a square piece of gavel.

He raised the gavel and slapped it hard.

"Snapped!"

The children were shocked and immediately fell silent, looking nervously at their brother Tian. No, they should call the teacher now.

Zhang Tianban raised his face, glanced at the childish faces, and said in a very serious tone: "You are not allowed to whisper in class, let alone make loud noises. If you have anything to say, just raise your hand to indicate to me." , you can only speak after getting my permission. This is the rule of the classroom, if anyone breaks the rules..."

As he spoke, he picked up the ruler at hand and knocked on the table hard, making a terrible crunching sound.

"...I will hit his palm with this ruler!"

The children were frightened. Brother Tian had always been a gentle and kind figure in their eyes. Where had they seen such a severe and fierce side of him?But seeing that his expression was frosty and he didn't seem to be joking, the children couldn't help but sit up straight, shut their mouths tightly, and didn't dare to make any noise.

The classroom was so quiet that only the sound of breathing was left.

"The first class is mathematics. I know that many of you have already learned to read numbers. It doesn't matter if you can't. What I want to teach you in this class is exactly the knowledge about numbers. As long as you study hard, you will be able to learn……"

……

On the first day of school, the children had a great time and even had more to say.

The content of the first class is usually the simplest. The knowledge taught in the mathematics class and symbol class are the most commonly used and common knowledge. Most children have already mastered it, and today they will just review it.

The following painting classes, craft classes and game classes were even less stressful, and the atmosphere in the class was not as serious as the first two classes. The children all had fun.

When the sun rose above the head, parents flocked to the place. Even though they were only 200 meters away, they still rushed over eager to know what they had learned today and how their children were doing.

At the end of the last class, the children joking and playing with each other rushed out of the school and ran to their mothers, showing off today's learning results:
"Look! This is a painting I drew! Can you see what I drew? A pig? How could it be a pig? This is you, mom!"

"The stars I carved out of wood look great! The teacher praised me for my talent!"

"Can you play tangram? You definitely can't! The teacher said that only smart people can play!"

The mothers were all smiles, and they were more concerned about the other two lessons: "What did the Sky Priest and the Wizard teach?"

The children answered truthfully, then puffed up their little chests and said proudly: "It's very simple! I answered all the questions they asked!"

The mothers smiled from ear to ear and praised them repeatedly.

In the afternoon, it is the turn of the children in the big class to attend class.

Children over eight years old are already very mature. They often help adults with work and have strong independence and autonomy. When they come to class in the afternoon, they almost always come alone.

The first two classes are still mathematics and symbols, and then the teachers of each subject will give "lectures" to introduce the main content of the course, the methods of class, practice and assessment, as well as the scoring standards for the final evaluation.

The children in the small class happily continued painting, doing carpentry, and playing jigsaw puzzles after returning home; the children in the upper class were troubled by the choice of courses.

They know that going to school is not just about learning knowledge. The sky priest made it very clear that the evaluation in next year's assessment will be related to their status in the clan when they become adults, as well as their main industry in the future!
Thinking that today's choice is so important and may determine their lives, these older children suddenly feel stressed.

(End of this chapter)