Chapter 2051: Adult Education and the Construction of the Legal System

Therefore, regarding the request mentioned by Laidun for the night school to expand its teaching hours and scope, Xia Duo's answer was—

"No!"

Of course it was a no! Adults attending Enlightenment Classes would inevitably consume more of the instructors' energy, and furthermore, the developmental potential of adults is far inferior to that of children, yet their ability to accept new knowledge is not necessarily weaker than children's; mixing them in the same class is clearly inappropriate.

Furthermore, while Enlightenment Classes for children in the Territory are currently completely free, this is because Xia Duo wants to invest in the children's future, but how much potential do those adults have that is worth investing in?

However, Xia Duo did not shut the door completely; he still left an opening, "Laidun, you can go and take a census to see exactly how many adults want to attend Enlightenment Classes.

"As long as the number exceeds one hundred, I will agree to send mages from the Tower of Time to hold specialized classes for them. Of course, adults should not think about tuition waivers; let the tuition be tentatively set at 5 Gold Coins per lesson, but with a minimum enrollment of ten lessons.

"I will discuss the specific arrangements with the Tower of Time; you go and count the number of people first, then come back and tell me."

In Xia Duo's hometown, there was specialized adult education, with a wide variety of types that one could choose from at will; of course, none of this was free, and as the saying goes, compared to children, the potential of adults is too low.

Occasionally there are a few late bloomers, but those are merely individual cases; from a statistical perspective, mere individual cases are variables that simply need to be excluded.

Of course, Xia Duo's consideration of charging fees is not just because adults have less potential than children; a large part of the reason is also that the Tower of Time has limited manpower, and for the universal knowledge education currently implemented in the Territory, the number of qualified instructors available from the Tower of Time is very small.

Even if they are all new mages who previously participated in the compilation of the Enlightenment Book, if it were free, given how many people were settled previously, they would all flood in at once, and it would be impossible to teach them.

An online-class-style one-to-N approach is certainly possible, but Xia Duo still hopes that every student can have the opportunity to interact with the teacher, and the more, the better.

Perhaps only when the artifact-spirit-style "teaching machine" is put into practical use in the future will the residents be able to truly obtain a cheap and high-quality one-on-one teaching experience.

But by that time, when educational resources are so abundant, will the residents still be as eager to learn as they are now?

But regardless, society is always progressing, and problems of development must be solved through development; one cannot deliberately create a shortage of educational resources just because some people are tired of learning when resources are abundant.

……

"How is the work of publicizing the legal code progressing?"

"Most of the official residents are actively studying the Territory legal code, and the results are very gratifying, but many of the new residents still hold a skeptical attitude toward the Territory legal code."

"This requires constantly strengthening the construction of the legal system! In addition to publicizing the legal code and letting the residents understand the boundaries of the law, for the Law Enforcers, we must clarify the spirit of the law, govern according to the law, and enforce the law strictly. Do not stop the public trial assemblies; as long as a case can be tried publicly, try to do so. We must let the new residents know the Territory's attitude toward the legal code."

"Yes, my lord."

Laidun agreed without hesitation, but after agreeing, he seemed to have something more to say.

Seeing this, Xia Duo feigned anger and said, "If you have something to say, just say it. Are there any unspeakable secrets between you and me?"

"My lord, the number of new residents is truly too large. They have brought bad habits from the outside into Daxia Territory. Jibu has already complained to me many times; there is a shortage of security personnel. If it weren't for the deterrence of Meili's aerial patrol, who knows how much chaos would have broken out!"

This was the first time Xia Duo had seen Laidun's expression be so rich and vivid, but if he were to laugh out loud because of this, it would inevitably lose the dignity of a lord, and the security of the new residents does indeed seem to be a problem.

After thinking for a moment, Xia Duo asked Laidun, "Have the official residents of the Territory been affected by the new residents?"

"I don't know what you are referring to, my lord. If you mean whether the official residents have picked up the bad habits of the new residents, then I can say with certainty that the vast majority have not! But if you mean whether the life and work of the official residents have been disturbed, then yes, they have."

"I see!"

Xia Duo felt gratified by the performance of the official residents; it should be said that this is the standard that official residents of Daxia Territory should have, but he was also worried about the arrangements for the new residents.

Right now, the weather is getting colder and colder; it can already be considered the beginning of winter. If it were spring or summer, these new residents could quickly integrate into the Territory's order through labor, but now it is clear that they won't be able to work for many more days.

There is still a long winter ahead.

Nearly one hundred thousand unstable factors are truly quite troublesome.

Xia Duo does not wish to use forceful suppression; after all, they will all be his subjects in the future, and there should be a more gentle way to let them quickly integrate into the Territory.

"I will propose a few points. One is the publicity of the legal code; we can recruit temporary lecturers from the official residents in the name of the Government Hall. This will not only popularize the law but can also teach literacy at the same time."

What Xia Duo is thinking is that as long as those new residents are not left idle, they will not cause trouble. Literacy can be called a great weapon; there are not many opportunities for commoners in Netheril to become literate.

A relatively stable path is to join a local Mage Tower as an Apprentice (servant) when young; if one misses this, there is also being an artisan's apprentice, which also offers a significant chance to learn characters.

Finally, there is paying scholars to provide private tutoring, but the teaching and learning of characters both require techniques. If money is involved, one is willing to overcharge and the other is willing to be fleeced; it is hard to say how much it will cost.

In addition, the mastery of characters requires constant reading and practice; if one is away from a textual environment for too long, those who were previously literate may revert to being illiterate.

It can be said that as long as one is a "drifter," there is basically no environment where one is in frequent contact with characters; in other words, most of the new residents should be illiterate.

Literacy is a precious but not-so-important opportunity for them, at least from their perspective.

Teaching literacy should be able to stabilize part of the public sentiment. Besides this, Xia Duo added, "Second point, regarding the shortage of security personnel, we can also recruit temporary security personnel; anyone who is familiar with the Security Management Regulations can serve."

This is actually a "vigilante" force; the Territory should have such personnel reserves, and even a personnel reserve mechanism, which can play a role at critical moments.

"Third point, I emphasize again: strict law enforcement. It is not only that law enforcement must be strict, but also that violations must be investigated. Public trial assemblies cannot stop. As long as a case can be tried publicly, it must be tried publicly. When holding public trials, invite more new residents to watch on-site. Combined with the publicity of the legal code, I do not require them to understand the spirit of the law, but at least they must have some awe for the Territory legal code."

After finishing, Xia Duo felt as if he had missed something, and after recalling, he continued, "In addition to temporary security personnel, the quota for official security personnel must also be increased, but the assessment standards cannot be lowered.

"Another thing is the Territory Guard; conscript a batch of troublemakers from among the new residents into the army. I believe that the tempering of iron and blood will surely allow them to quickly integrate into the Territory's order."

"Yes!"