CHAPTER 491: CHAPTER 469 ST. FRICK PALACE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

As the bell ringer struck the bell representing noon, the laborers at several construction sites in the town put down their hammers and axes, hooked arms, and walked toward trees and grass sheds for shade.

Unlike the bygone days of field life, time on Autumn Dusk Island is strictly and clearly divided.

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

Rising with the sun and resting with sunset isn’t just talk.

The monks in the monastery strictly follow prayer times for daily morning prayers, noon prayers, evening prayers, and bedtime prayers.

Anyway, not praying feels uncomfortable.

In ancient times, this clear adherence to time was a unique privilege for monks, but in the Savior Pope Country, this Monk Country, everyone enjoys monk-like treatment.

Although all are monks, sitting in a study writing documents and hitting stones under the big sun are both contributions to the Holy Father, no difference.

When to start work, when to eat, when to finish work, all depend on the temporary bell ringer at City Hall for cues.

After all, clear time brings clear work hours, fair wages, efficient work mode, and productivity.

The rapid progress of the Salvation Army’s civil engineering projects is largely related to Horn’s efficiency derived from precise time management from the future.

Today is Saturday, normally a day off.

But since all construction sites settle daily, to finish major constructions before the rainy season, everyone works hard in light rain, works less in heavy rain, and works nonstop in sunny weather.

Bear in mind that many projects are outsourced by Vite to the local Beastman King, who brought a large number of nationals to work, and delay is of significant cost.

Thus, beside Frick Primary School, Horn sees Beastmen who have trimmed their tail and ear fur short, hiding in the shade of the eaves, crazily making potato root bread, then falling asleep.

"In the future, we’ll have to form a labor department under the Truth Court." Horn mumbled to himself, "Currently, the numbers aren’t large, still manageable, but once the territory grows, I might end up like an evil dragon."

"Your Grace?"

"It’s nothing." Horn looked up at the Frick Primary School sign ahead and stepped inside.

In two days, the Kush Noble Youth from Jinhe Town and newly admitted middle school students will arrive, so Horn plans to check the situation at Frick Grammar School.

Passing by Frick Primary School, Horn thought, since I’m here, might as well take a look at how the primary school is doing.

The primary school’s land isn’t big, mostly two or three-story wooden houses, five in total, with a three-story main teaching building and two-story wooden houses on each side.

In front of the houses is a field enclosed by a person-high fence, with a sand pit dug beside it, and several wooden bars for gym equipment.

Walking among the brick ruins and meadows, Horn felt like he had arrived at a rural mountain primary school.

However, unlike sparsely populated rural primary schools, this place houses over five hundred local children aged 8-10.

Because when they get older, they are forced by their parents to go work together.

Currently, Frick Primary School teaches only two subjects, language arts and mathematics, offers free lunch, and the teaching time is about three years.

Anyway, the aim is for these children to be able to independently read notices and calculate taxes and fees after leaving school, preventing them from being deceived by junior officials.

Of course, it says they only teach language arts and mathematics, but there are quite a few hidden subjects.

For instance, occasionally, someone would take them to exercise military posture on the grass field or teach them chorus singing.

In language arts, some knowledge of theology and history is taught, while in mathematics, part of natural studies is incorporated.

"Where do all the teachers come from?" Horn asked Raphael beside him.

Having stayed on Autumn Dusk Island for a long time, Raphael was considered a seasoned old Autumn Dusk Islander, familiar with this: "Those teaching language arts are mostly old nuns, while those teaching mathematics are mostly Wizards or Alchemists."

"Are the textbooks all based on my compiled outline of lesson plans?"

"Yes, Your Grace Hilov compiled your outline into textbooks for two grades, making adjustments based on feedback for the third grade."

"Hilov again?" Horn was startled a moment, suddenly realizing that while Vite was the Town Mayor of the town, he’s only responsible for construction.

Most of the specific affairs, including education, politics, law, public safety, and even scientific research, are all handled solely by Hilov.

No wonder those elders submitted willingly, feeling as if they’d found the sensation of being managed by Horn again.

Entering a classroom, Horn looked at the cramped room and the fluorite inlaid in the walls, reached out to stroke the burr-ridden desk: "Get me a textbook to look at."

Getting the literacy textbook in hand, Horn opened the first page and saw, "Under the leadership of our friend Horn, created Gallar letters!"

Feeling his face heat up, Horn quickly flipped a page, seeing several large pages of Gallar letters.

The so-called Gallar letters are Horn’s simplified version of Falan letters during arduous military marches, then handed to captured monks and priests for further improvement.

Horn asked them to minimize the number of letters and the length of words, trying to match phonetics with letters.

Summing it up was to convert all multi-stroke letters into within two strokes and merge soft and hard homophones into one letter.

To analogize with English, it was like if a "c" sound had soft, which sounds like "s," and hard, which sounds like "k."

In Horn’s simplified Falan letters, "ice" and "clean" became "ise" and "klean," thus removing the presence of "c."

The rest was eliminating a large batch of unreasonable transformations due to mixing Ancient Aier Era and local languages.

Basically, it was a transition from Middle English to Modern English, only more radical.

And mathematics is the most basic elementary mathematics, from the basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, to commutative and associative laws, to decimal multiplication and division, calculating areas, and part of simple logic.

"How about night classes and Sunday academies? Will they buy their own textbooks?" Horn flipping through the literacy textbook asked.

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

At night, artisans, soldiers, and idle civilians would come to Frick Primary School, or the nearby Hundred House Church, to learn literacy.

But enthusiasm isn’t high, many people just treat this as entertainment.

Often the teacher lectures above, a group of people below talks about everything and gossips.

If it weren’t for Vite banning bringing in food and drinks, they’d treat night classes as gatherings.

Raphael shook his head helplessly: "Of course, they wouldn’t buy, those with better attitudes might buy paper and pen, those with normal attitudes just draw with a stick on the ground."

"Don’t the night class teachers manage?"

"Their teachers were noble captives from several wars, including some stewards and merchants, and the students below might be the ones who captured them back then, so how could they dare manage?"

"Alright." putting down the textbook, Horn stood up, "Let’s inspect Frick Middle School next, and then return."