Chapter 470 St. Frick's Primary School
As the bell ringer rang the bell to represent noon, the workers at several construction sites in the town put down their hammers and axes and walked towards the shade of the trees and the thatched huts with their arms around each other.

Unlike the past life in the fields, time on Qiumu Island is strictly and clearly divided.

For most farmers, they only have three time points: early morning, noon and evening.

Working at sunrise and resting at sunset is not just empty talk.

The monks in the monastery must strictly adhere to the time for chanting to perform daily morning prayers, noon prayers, evening prayers, and bedtime prayers.

Anyway, I feel uncomfortable if I don’t pray.

In the old days, strict observance of time was a privilege reserved for monks, but in the Papal States of Salvation, a country of monastics, everyone enjoys the same treatment as a monk.

Although they are all monks, there is no difference between sitting in a study writing documents and pounding stones under the scorching sun, both of which are contributions to the Holy Father.

What time to start work, what time to eat, and what time to finish work all depend on the temporary bell ringer at the city hall.

After all, only with clear time can there be clear working hours, fair wage payment, efficient working mode and production efficiency.

The fast progress of the Salvation Army's civil engineering projects has a lot to do with Horn's precise time efficiency from the future.

Today is Saturday, normally we can have a rest.

However, since each construction site was paid on a daily basis, in order to complete the main construction before the rainy season, everyone worked hard when it rained lightly, worked lightly when it rained heavily, and worked day and night on sunny days.

You have to know that many projects were outsourced by Witt to the local beastman king, who brought in a large number of citizens to do the work, and a one-day delay would result in a considerable expense.

So at the edge of Frick Elementary School, Horn could still see the beastmen with shaved tails and ears, hiding in the shadow of the eaves, making potato root bread and then falling asleep.

"I'll have to set up a labor department under the Court of Truth in the future." Horn muttered to himself, "At present, the number of people is not large, so it's easy to manage. When the territory is larger in the future, I might become a dragon."

"Your Majesty?"

"Nothing." Horn raised his head, looked at the Frick Elementary School sign in front of him, and walked inside.

In two days, the Kush noble youths and new middle school students from Jinhe Township would arrive, so Horn planned to go to Frick High School to check out the situation.

Passing by Frick Elementary School, Horn thought that since he was already there, he might as well take a look at the elementary school.

The primary school in front of us does not cover a large area. It is basically made up of two- or three-story wooden houses, five in total. There is a three-story main teaching building in the middle, and two-story wooden buildings on both sides.

In front of the house was a wasteland surrounded by a one-meter-high fence. Next to it was a sand pit and a few wooden horizontal bars used as sports equipment.

Walking among the brick and tile ruins and weeds, Horn thought he had arrived at the rural primary school in the mountainous area.

However, unlike the sparsely populated rural primary schools, this one can accommodate more than 8 local children aged 10-.

Because when they grow up a little bit, they will be forced by their parents to work together.

Currently, Frick Primary School only teaches two subjects, Chinese and mathematics, provides free lunch, and the teaching period is about three years.

In any case, we will try our best to ensure that after leaving school, these children can read notices independently and calculate the taxes and fees payable, so that they are less likely to be deceived by petty officials.

Of course, it is said that only Chinese and mathematics are taught, but there are still many hidden subjects.

For example, from time to time, someone would take them to the wasteland to practice military posture, or take them to learn chorus.

Some knowledge of theology and history will also be taught in Chinese, while some knowledge related to nature will also be taught in mathematics.

"Where do the teachers here come from?" Horn asked Rafael who was standing beside him. Rafael was a native of Autumn Dusk Island because he had been there for a long time. He was very familiar with this: "Most of the teachers who teach Chinese are old nuns, and most of the teachers who teach math are wizards or alchemists."

"Are all the textbooks based on the lesson plan outlines I wrote?"

"Yes, Her Majesty Shilov has compiled textbooks for two grades based on your outline, and will adjust the third grade based on the feedback."

"Shilov again?" Horn was stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized that although Witt was the mayor of the town, he was only responsible for construction.

Most of the specific affairs, including culture, education, politics, law, public security and even scientific research, are handled by Shilov alone.

No wonder those veterans are so obedient, they recall the feeling of being managed by Horn back then.

Walking into a classroom, Horn looked at the cramped room and the fluorescent stones inlaid on the wall. He reached out and touched the burred desk: "Give me a textbook."

When Horn got the literacy textbook, he could see on the first page: "Under the leadership of our fellow Horners, the Great Sun... the Gallic alphabet was created!"

Feeling his face getting hot, Horn quickly turned the page and saw several pages of huge Gallic letters.

The so-called Gallic alphabet was the simplified Francophone alphabet that Horn had simplified during the Long March, and then given to captured monks and priests for further improvement.

Horn asked them to minimize the number of letters and word length, and to match the sounds and letters as closely as possible.

To sum up, all multi-stroke letters were changed to two strokes or less, and soft and hard homophoned letters were merged into one letter.

If we use English as an analogy, for example, the "c" sound can be divided into soft and hard. The soft "c" makes the sound of "s" and the hard "c" makes the sound of "k".

In Horn's simplified flange alphabet, "ice" and "clean" were changed to "ise" and "klean", and the existence of c was eliminated.

The rest is to eliminate the stubborn problem of irrational evolution caused by the mixing of a large number of ancient Airy periods with local languages.

It's basically a Middle English to Modern English transition, only more radical.

Mathematics is the most basic elementary school mathematics, from the most basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, to the commutative law and associative law to decimal multiplication and division, area calculation and some simple logic.

"What about the regular night classes and Sunday schools? Will they buy their own textbooks?" Horn asked as he flipped through the literacy textbook.

The so-called night classes and Sunday schools are adult literacy education.

Every night, craftsmen, soldiers and free civilians would go to Frick Elementary School or the nearby Hundred Households Church to learn to read.

However, the enthusiasm is not high, and many people just regard this activity as a pastime.

There is often a teacher giving a lecture at the top while a group of people are chatting and gossiping below.

If Witt hadn't strictly prohibited bringing in alcohol and food, they would have treated the night class as a party.

Rafael shook his head helplessly: "Of course not. Those with better attitudes bought some paper and pens, while those with average attitudes just used branches to draw on the ground."

"The night class teacher doesn't care?"

"Their teachers are all noble captives from several wars, including some housekeepers and merchants. Their students might be the ones who captured them, so how dare they control them?"

"Okay." Horn put down the textbook and stood up. "Let's go to Frick Middle School for another inspection and then go back."

(End of this chapter)