Chapter 26: A dispute over the court
Xiao Rihua was a little excited, but also a little worried. He was excited because the midterm exams were approaching, and worried because all the teachers in the year could see that Principal Ding Juntao meant business this time. Of the seven classes in the first year of senior high, more than five had veteran homeroom teachers. Each had taught at least three graduating senior-high classes, all held senior professional ranks, and all excelled at managing students and coordinating their classes.
By comparison, Xiao Rihua had far less experience. Even some of the subject teachers were almost his equals in seniority and privately resented his position. The pressure was considerable.
Although the entire school would take the midterm exams, the results would still be compiled separately by year. The competition within each year went without saying. Senior high and junior high were two entirely different stages; students who excelled in junior high would not necessarily excel in senior high. These midterms were therefore nothing less than a fresh assessment and reshuffling of academic ability.
This affected the bonuses of every member of the first-year senior-high teaching staff, so some had begun paying attention to it early.
Xiao Rihua was already quietly watching several students who usually performed outstandingly in class, having long since marked them out for special cultivation and observation.
Occasionally, he would also sift useful information from the various things he heard from the subject teachers. This was a necessary skill for a homeroom teacher. Some matters were, of course, awkward to ask the subject teachers about directly. Su Can, that thorn in his side, was one such matter.
In their classroom confrontation some time earlier, Xiao Rihua had more or less been rebuffed, which had affected his authority in class