The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Chapter 228 Female School

So, Zhang Hongjuan began her teaching career at home. She and Suisui taught while they learned, and they were busy every day.

"No matter what kind of Kung Fu you practice, you must start with the horse stance. Even if you just want to strengthen your body, you must start from the beginning and practice the basics step by step. Only in this way can you really hone your body."

New teacher Zhang Hongjuan said seriously to her "little apprentice".

Suisui was taking a break after practicing horse stance for half an hour. Although it was already autumn, her forehead was already covered with sweat.

She wiped the sweat off her face and drank a sip of warm water before she could spare the time to reply, "I know. It's just like when I was practicing calligraphy. If I don't work hard now, I won't be able to practice well in the future. I'm not just doing it on a whim. I've been prepared for this."

Zhang Hongjuan nodded approvingly, saying that this attitude is enough.

Although my sister-in-law is a little old, she is in good health. She doesn't want to become a martial arts master and travel the world. She just wants to strengthen her body for self-defense. As long as she is willing to work hard, she can still learn it in three to five years.

Chen Cui watched the scene with a smile at the gate of the courtyard. She said nothing and quietly retreated.

She has been busy with the establishment of a girls' school recently. She has already bought the land and is planning to build a school building. However, building a house is a trivial matter. As long as there is enough money, it is only a matter of time before the house is completed. What worries her is the selection of the teacher for the girls' school.

In the traditional sense, girls' schools mostly teach skills such as playing the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, which are mastered by ladies from well-off families. They are aimed at girls from good backgrounds and wealthy families. The purpose is to help them win a better reputation, be more popular in the marriage market, and have better marriages in the future.

But the girls' school she wanted to run was not of this kind. Instead, it would be aimed at more girls from ordinary families and teach them skills to make a living, so that ordinary girls could acquire more abilities to make a living and have more say in the future.

At present, she plans to teach some basic knowledge of literacy and arithmetic first, and then divide them into tailoring and embroidery, medicine, and mathematics, which are suitable for girls, according to their choices, so that they can study in depth.

At present, the candidates for medical professors have been found, and they will be taken turns by the three female doctors in the clinic and Qin Ruozhi. There are also similar candidates for tailoring and embroidery, and the only thing left is the final confirmation. Only for mathematics, it is not easy to find someone.

Those who are good at mathematics must be scholars. There are not many such people among men, let alone women.

Even if there were, those women would mostly live in large mansions and would not easily come to such places to teach common women.

Just when Chen Cui was paying attention to the progress of the girls' school and worrying about the mathematics teacher, Mr. Zou took the initiative to come to her and told her that he wanted to be a mathematics teacher in the girls' school.

Ms. Zou has been in Beijing for several years. I don’t know if it’s because of the open atmosphere in Beijing, or because she has spent more time with Sui Sui, but now her temperament has become much more relaxed, and she is in better condition than when she was in Longnan.

"Sui Sui doesn't need much from me to teach him, and I have nothing to do with my free time. How about finding him a job under you? What do you think?"

Mr. Zou was smiling and talking.

Having said that, Chen Cui knew that Mr. Zou wanted to help her and do his part for girls' education.

"I have been taught by you for so many years, and I am now what I am today. Now I want you to worry about another thing. I am really grateful."

Chen Cui bowed deeply to Mr. Zou.

"Don't say that. You are devoted to promoting women's education and working for the welfare of women. You are truly righteous. I am just doing my best to help."

Mr. Zou quickly gave way and supported Chen Cui.

The two of them held hands and looked at each other, and couldn't help but smile at each other.

When Zhang Hongjuan learned that her mother-in-law was planning to build a girls' school, she volunteered to be a martial arts teacher.

But Chen Cui's plan did not include teaching these girls martial arts.

The poor are good at literature and the rich are good at martial arts. This is not just a saying.

In feudal society, if one wanted to change his or her social class and climb up, there were two ways: to study literature or to practice martial arts.

Most people think that studying costs money, but they don’t know that learning martial arts costs even more.

The cost of studying is nothing more than books, pens, ink, paper and inkstone. If the wealthier farmers squeeze a little, they can still afford the money.

Moreover, the benefits of literacy are immediate. Even if one is unable to take the imperial examination, after two years of study and knowing a few words, one can find a job in a shop and bring higher income to the family.

But practicing martial arts is different. If you want to achieve something in this area, you not only need to hire a professional martial arts master to teach you, but you also need to continuously supplement yourself with adequate nutrition, which all costs a lot.

Moreover, practicing martial arts is a long-term investment. You won't see any results in three or two years. There are also many people who cannot become a master after ten or eight years. If you want to advance yourself by learning martial arts, you have to study for a long time.

Chen Cui's purpose in opening a girls' school is to find more ways out for girls at the bottom of society. They simply don't have the ability to learn martial arts, and these things are not practical for them.

"Mom, you misunderstood. I don't want to teach them kung fu. I want to train them to be healthy. No matter what girls learn, they must have a good body first. Only when their bodies are well taken care of can they learn other things. Don't you agree?"

Zhang Hongjuan confidently recommended herself: "I can lead them in calisthenics and boxing to strengthen their muscles and bones, so that they will not be easily bullied when they go out to work in the future."

These days, she has heard many new ideas from her sister-in-law, such as women should be independent and have their own careers.

This means that no matter how high the husband's official position is, the wife should have her own things to do, instead of just being a so-called "good wife" and making managing the rear house her lifelong ambition.

Zhang Hongjuan agreed with what he said, and the more she thought about it, the more she felt it made sense, so she was determined to get this position as a teacher, and then teach at the girls' school so that more girls could benefit from it.

She had heard from her mother-in-law that the purpose of building this girls' school was not to make money, and that she should even be prepared to lose money, but she was still determined to build it.

The purpose is to enable more women to have the ability to settle down and make a living, step out of their homes and stand on their own feet.

It is difficult for women to establish themselves simply because they cannot survive independently. Before marriage, they rely on their fathers and brothers, and after marriage, they rely on their husbands. But if a woman has the ability to make a living on her own and does not need to rely on others to survive, then wouldn’t she have the confidence to say "no"!

Even after they have learned skills, they still have to get married, have children, and live an ordinary life, but what they have learned will not be easily forgotten.

The knowledge, thoughts and ideas they have learned will exist in their blood, flow to the next generation and influence more people!