Education

December 9, 1866.

Today, another school opened in Hechingen: the Hechingen Cultural School. This school is actually a primary school, and unlike the Hechingen Military Academy, it enrolls Chinese students while also accepting local Hechingen residents.

After all, attending the Hechingen Military Academy means eventually going to East Africa. What German parents would rush to send their children to Africa?

Therefore, besides Chinese students, most of the other German cadets at the Hechingen Military Academy are orphans from various parts of Germany.

The Hechingen Cultural School is different; it's a proper school, whereas the Hechingen Military Academy is essentially a diploma mill.

The Hechingen Military Academy is not part of the Prussian education system. Its student body is entirely recruited independently by the academy, and its graduates have clear career objectives.

The Hechingen Cultural School, however, has been registered with the Prussian government. The Chinese students here study under the guise of "international students."

Ernst, a student at the Hechingen Military Academy, can be granted household registration in the East African colony. However, the Chinese students at the Hechingen Cultural School are still officially registered as Chinese in the Prussian government's records.

After all, these Chinese students are expected to study in other German schools later. Without government-issued identification, they are theoretically illegal residents. Thus, the "international student" status serves as a cover, with Ernst acting as their guarantor.

The Hechingen Military Academy can only meet the demand for military talents, while Ernst needs professional talents from all walks of life in the future.

To utilize limited educational resources, those with excellent academic performance can continue their studies in German middle schools. Ernst also plans to establish a middle school.

Then, the outstanding students among them will be recommended by Ernst to audit and study at various universities in Germany.

As for those who don't study well, they can only work in Ernst's factory after graduation, tightening screws. Of course, they can also apply to the Hechingen Military Academy, eventually serving in the East African colony or becoming German teachers.

Currently, the Upper Coastal Region has begun piloting German education, with the first German primary school established in First Town. The East African colony mandates that all Chinese immigrants in First Town must send their children to the First Town German Primary School.

The teachers at these schools are graduates of the Hechingen Military Academy, and the textbooks are those they previously used.

Regarding the education of immigrants, it naturally starts with these children. The older generation of immigrants are not expected to speak German; mastering a few common vocabulary words is sufficient.

For these adult Chinese, their thinking is already set, and they have passed the age most suitable for learning. The cost of direct literacy education would be immense, and the results might not be satisfactory.

As long as they realize that German is the future of the colony, the intelligent ones among them will proactively learn German.

In fact, some quick-witted immigrants have already learned simple German through interactions with colonial officials and have been assigned to management positions.

For immigrants in the colony, sending their children to school carries no psychological burden, as the saying goes, "All professions are inferior; only scholarship is superior."

The bureaucrats in the Far East indeed blocked paths of advancement by monopolizing knowledge and education. Folk operas tell us how wonderful it is: if you become the top scholar, you can have anything you want. Common people may not have eaten pork, but they've seen pigs run.

The local Xiucai scholars, Juren scholars, and officials—those who achieved success through studying—reaped substantial benefits. Even a Xiucai scholar could escape manual labor by teaching and nurturing people, not to mention economic privileges like tax exemptions and improved social status.

The education in the East African colony is certainly not the model of selecting officials like in the Far East; it's simply literacy education for the children of ordinary immigrants.

Of course, those who receive compulsory education earlier will reap greater dividends, such as priority in the allocation of better job positions within the colony.

In the future, as compulsory education becomes more widespread in the East African colony, these dividends will diminish, eventually becoming the most basic threshold.

The educational content in the first school in East Africa is actually very simple. Besides German education, it only includes basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, followed by the ideology of "loyalty to the ruler and love for the country."

Therefore, these children only have half-day classes each day. They attend school in the morning and can help at home in the afternoon.

To improve their quality of life, immigrants engage in some side income activities, such as growing vegetables near their houses or raising chickens and ducks. The colony does not interfere with these activities.

As long as they complete their assigned work for the colony on time, they can arrange the rest of their time as they please. Due to the abundance of land, there is a lot of idle land in the East African colony.

For instance, the houses of immigrants in the colony are not crowded like those in the Far East; they are more dispersed. When planning these houses, two plots of land were allocated in front and back: one for a garden and one for a drainage ditch.

Gardens are something Chinese immigrants have never even heard of. They would rather use this land for growing vegetables. The drainage ditch is behind the house and not much land is actually needed for it. Beside the ditch, the land can be tilled and planted with crops.

The extra income generated from utilizing this idle land belongs to the immigrants themselves and does not need to be handed over.

Only the residences of Germans have actual gardens and lawns in front, with the land beyond the drainage ditch in the back left fallow.

This merely reflects the different attitudes towards life of the two groups. Moreover, German salaries are indeed higher, and their work is more leisurely.

Germans are also curious about Chinese immigrants growing vegetables in their gardens. Sometimes they would proactively ask the immigrants what kind of vegetables they were or what a particular tool was used for.

The Chinese immigrants did not arrive in East Africa completely empty-handed. The colony did not confiscate their belongings, but items that were too large could not be brought onto the ship.

However, some Chinese brought plant seeds with them to East Africa, resulting in the appearance of various Far Eastern vegetables on African soil.

African land is most suitable for growing vegetables. After all, vegetables are essentially grass, and Africa is suitable for grass growth, hence its vast savannas.

There is no winter here; as long as the water supply is maintained, plants can grow continuously.

There are also some ideological differences between Germans and Chinese immigrants. For example, Germans value territory; others cannot enter their yards without their permission. Chinese immigrants, on the other hand, visit each other freely and have no sense of territoriality.

Chinese people also do not proactively enter German yards. After all, Chinese immigrants inherently feel inferior. In reality, these Germans do not have an arrogant attitude. After interacting with the Chinese, their impression is quite good. Everyone comes from a farming background, and their interactions when exchanging agricultural experiences are quite pleasant.

Chinese immigrants without queues, coupled with their diligence and hygiene—these are the results of mandatory colonial regulations. However, the high obedience of the Chinese masks some of their shortcomings.

The Germans in the East African colony are also roughnecks from the Prussian region, unconcerned with minor details.

The only difference between the two sides is that Germans have received compulsory education, so their cultural level is higher. However, they have only received primary school education, so their quality is limited.

In the eyes of these German farmers, Chinese immigrants are easier to deal with. The thinking of ordinary farmers is simple and straightforward, without any deviousness.

Unlike later generations, where some people who go abroad casually pick flowers and grass in others' yards, and when criticized, act wronged and argue unreasonably. You might say they lack culture! But they have gone abroad, so their academic qualifications are usually not low. Therefore, academic qualifications and quality are not strongly related.

This was a situation that occurred with Chinese people in developed countries back then. When Ernst was in Africa, the Chinese could be described as universally disliked. There were many workers from the homeland at the construction site where Ernst worked.

Their educational backgrounds were not high; at least, many whom Ernst knew had high school or junior high school diplomas. Yet, in Africa, they treated the natives like monkeys.

They acted incredibly arrogant every day, giving native children small snacks, then teaching them "stupid talk," filming it, and posting it on Douyin, displaying a strong sense of superiority.

In reality, weren't those natives also looking at them as a joke? Some even viewed certain individuals as suckers.

Although Ernst also looked down on the natives, the education he received in his homeland prevented him from engaging in such impolite behavior; it was too beneath him.

In this era, due to the country's weakness, the people's livelihood being in dire straits, and the enslaving education, Chinese immigrants overseas dared not act like they owned the world as they would in later generations.

Obsequiousness was the true portrayal. Therefore, Chinese immigrants who voluntarily took a step back, believing "a broader view is better," got along harmoniously with the Germans.