417 Talent
Yu Bing frowned as she flipped through Xiao Lin’s essay. Not only were the idioms used wrongly, but there were also many spelling errors.
Her attention was usually on Xiao Li and Xiao Sheng, and she only paid attention to Xiao Lin occasionally. She saw that Xiao Lin was quite good at math and that he was a serious listener, but she didn’t expect this kid’s language arts skills to be so bad.
When Xiao Sheng saw Yu Bing’s ugly expression, he asked curiously, “What’s wrong?”
Yu Bing looked at Xiao Sheng with an indescribable expression. “Don’t you check Xiao Lin’s language arts skills and such?”
Xiao Sheng frowned and asked, “Is there a need for me to check?”
Yu Bing was stunned by this question.
Xiao Lin was a little puzzled when he heard this. “Sister Yu Bing, our teacher doesn’t have such requirements. If there’s a mistake, the teacher will mark the mistakes after checking the homework.”
Only then did Yu Bing realize that education in the country was still at the laissez faire stage, unlike in the future. It was nowhere as competitive.
However, in this 500-word essay, there were 20 to 30 spelling errors. Yu Bing felt that if Xiao Lin continued like this, Xiao Lin would only be slightly better than an illiterate.
Looking at Xiao Lin, who still had a confused expression and didn’t realize that there were many problems with his studies, Yu Bing could understand why homework was enough to drive some parents crazy.
“Xiao Lin, in the future, tell your brother all the new terms you learn every day in class and let him review them with you every night. It’ll only take a few minutes, so it won’t delay anything.”
When Xiao Lin heard that it would only take a few minutes, he agreed readily, but he completely ignored the fact that he would be punished with copywriting if he made a mistake.
Yu Bing handed the essay to Xiao Sheng as she said gloomily, “You have to check Xiao Lin’s learning. You can’t just let him finish writing every day without checking. Take a look yourself. There are so many errors on it.”
Xiao Sheng wasn’t surprised after seeing it. Studying was one’s personal responsibility. If he was bad at studying, he could learn something else. The most important thing was for him to be self-reliant.
“That’s okay. Perhaps Xiao Lin doesn’t like studying very much, and that’s why he got this score.”
Yu Bing also knew that people nowadays didn’t value knowledge that much. They valued it because for thousands of years, they had the philosophy that “nothing is as important as studying.” They didn’t value it because after high school students finished school, they would farm in the field like many illiterate farmers.
In addition, many parents only knew commonly used words and could only tutor first and second-year students. They were helpless in regards to anything beyond that, so they had no choice but to let their children be.
However, Yu Bing knew how rapid the development and changes of the world would be in the future. What did the 21st century lack the most? Talents!
As Yu Bing looked at the three siblings in front of her, she analyzed for them, “The lack of knowledge is only temporary. You might not feel the difference between having knowledge and not having knowledge now, but why? It’s because jobs are allocated by the country now, so the city will assign them as many jobs as possible and there are no extra vacancies. Adult city dwellers come to the countryside to farm, so it seems that everything is carried out step by step and whether one has to study or not depends on whether one’s parents have the ability to help one find a job.”
“Then what if all of this changes one day? What if all jobs are publicly recruited, and only the capable ones get the jobs. If you have more knowledge than others, won’t you have a higher chance than others? Won’t you have more choices than others?”
Xiao Lin immediately gave an answer that was unique to people of this era. “That has nothing to do with us. We’re from the countryside. The jobs in the city are reserved for city dwellers.”
Yu Bing asked again, “Then what if rural people can also go to the city to work?”
When Xiao Lin heard this, he replied, “That’ll cost money. A female classmate’s father spent money and pulled strings to become a worker at the sugar factory in town.”
Yu Bing’s expression froze. The dogma and rigidity of this era were so deeply engraved in everyone’s bones that it was like their DNA. Everyone’s thoughts were very rigid. There were too many people who didn’t dare to think outside the box. They didn’t dare to imagine a change in the country in the future.
Yu Bing could only use another method to make it easier for everyone to understand. “Your classmate’s father has at least graduated from junior high, right?”
Xiao Lin nodded vigorously when he heard this. “Yes, but unfortunately, he didn’t finish high school.”