Chapter 48 The Dionysian School (3)

Dionia's classroom is a cube with a height of 3.5 meters. It is a colonnade-like structure. Except for a brick wall built in the north, the inner surface is covered with cement, painted with plaster, and the walls are kept smooth and painted with black paint. The other three sides are transparent, and all are roofs supported by countless stone pillars, so as to ensure sufficient light, so it is an open building.

Before Patroclus entered the classroom, he saw that many children were already sitting in it. If Patroclus didn't want to sit outside the stone pillars and be exposed to the sun for a long time, he had to sit in the back row. He was not very happy, and it looked all boys (although the Senate agreed to the proposal that "girls can also study in school", but years of traditional habits still made them restrict, and men and women could not be in the same classroom) , the usual stubborn temper began to attack.

Carrying the folding wooden chair, he squeezed straight forward, and shouted: "Back up! Make room for me!"

Most of the boys in the classroom were only seven or eight years old, so the 13-year-old Patroclus looked tall and big. Everyone was afraid of retreating, but a child came out and accused Patroclus.

The two refused to give in to each other, and because of the conflict of words, they started to move their hands and feet. When the teacher arrived, they saw Patroclus throw the boy to the ground.

He hurriedly stepped forward to stop it, and after asking the reason for the fight, he immediately sent the culprit to stand outside the classroom.

Patroclus disagrees.

The teacher said sternly: "If you don't want to accept the punishment, then you don't have to come to school in the future!"

Although Patroclus was stubborn, he knew the importance and walked out of the classroom obediently. Who knew that the boy who was beaten took the opportunity to kick his ass, and the teacher shouted angrily: "You also give me a penalty stand!"

After dealing with the fight, the teacher put a big hourglass on the wooden table, then sat on the wooden chair, took out the student roster, and said to the children sitting around him: "From today onwards, I will be the No. 1 classroom. The teacher who teaches you to know the Greek script here, my name is Onatas..."

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"Hey, big man, I'm Amintas' adopted son, Steveros, what's your name?" The grievances between the boys came and went quickly, the boy standing outside the classroom feeling helpless He couldn't help but say to his opponent just now.

"Patroclus, son of Pariandoros." He replied casually, then thought of something, and hurriedly asked: "Your father is Armintas! Which Armintas?!"

"Of course it's the brave Amyntas of the First Legion!" Stephros said proudly.

"My father Pariandoros was a soldier under your father Amyntas." Patroclus said in surprise.

The two little boys became enthusiastic because of this...

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In the past two years, one consequence of Dionysius' military action to unify southeastern Sicily was that many people in the southeastern Sicily city-state were forced to flee their homes, most of whom were attracted by the Dionysian Immigration Act. Come to Turii, which is not too far from Sicily.

Sicily, as the first place where the Greeks colonized the Western Mediterranean, not only developed agriculture and commerce, but also had closer cultural exchanges with Greece. The test organized by North, became a teacher of the Dionysian League, and Onatas was one of them.

He chose to become a teacher at the newly established Dionysian School. Although his salary was not as much as that of a private school teacher, he could immediately become a Dionysian citizen and share land.

The school does not have a unified teaching material. The content and progress of the teaching are all determined by the teachers themselves. However, the school requires that after three school years, the students of primary education must be able to recognize and write at least one thousand Greek characters, and be able to recite the letters with accurate pronunciation. And be able to write short articles with fluent language and clear meaning, so that students can successfully pass the test and enter the secondary education. In addition, each teacher's teaching performance is assessed every year, and teachers with poor performance for three consecutive years will be disqualified as teachers.

This means that he will be deprived of all the rights that Dionia gave to teachers.

Therefore, Onatas has a sense of urgency in his heart. As a highly educated cultural person, he cannot allow himself to lose to other teachers. However, when he learned knowledge, his parents hired teachers to teach one-on-one at home. Now in the school, facing more than 30 students, how can we ensure the effect of teaching?

Onatas had thought carefully beforehand, so when he came in, he first punished the two fighting children, and after calling the name, he sternly emphasized the need to abide by the discipline of the classroom, and students who violated the rules would be criticized and punished. , in serious cases will be expelled from the school.

In this way, the originally noisy classroom became quiet.

Onatas was very satisfied with the effect. He stood up and picked up a white pen from the wooden table. It is said that it was made of limestone, mixed with animal fat and other substances, and dried in the sun. Onatas had tried it beforehand, and the writing on the black wall was very clear, and he could read it clearly even standing in the back row of the classroom.

Facing more than 30 pairs of curious eyes, Onatas couldn't help feeling very emotional: a new city-state alliance attaches so much importance to the quality education of citizens, not only creating an unprecedented teaching system in Greek city-states, but also attracting various preferential conditions. High-quality foreigners serve as teachers, and even teaching supplies have to be carefully researched and produced. How lucky are the children living in this alliance!

At this moment, he was already a citizen of Dionia, and he felt a sense of pride. He supported the flat wall with his left hand, and wrote a series of letters on the wall with a white pen with his right hand: "I am teaching you to learn the Greek alphabet. Before, I hope you know the word 'Dionysian'! Whether you are Greek or Lucanian, you live in Dionysus, grow up in Dionysus, and you will be Dionysus in the future A citizen, so read aloud with me, 'Dai-o-ni-ya'..."

"Dionia!!..."

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For most children of city-state citizens, at the age of six or seven, they have already begun to read and write for the first time under the guidance of their parents. Therefore, compared with classmates who actively answer questions, Patroclus's learning progress appears to be difficult.

However, in the arithmetic class, under the influence of guarding the market stall with his mother since he was a child, he showed a strong sensitivity to numbers, and even teachers from the Institute of Mathematics paid attention to his performance.

At noon, the classroom teaching is over.

Originally, the Greeks had two meals a day in the morning and in the evening. Under the influence of Davos and military training, the citizens of Dionia have become accustomed to three meals in the morning, noon and evening. Children who live in Turii can go home to eat, and their homes are relatively far away. As far away as Patroclus, he was informed by the school in advance that he prepared dry food for noon, and some children went to the city to buy lunch from domestic slaves...

In the afternoon, it was mainly outdoor lessons: dance and music for girls, taught by priests from the Temple of Hera; boys for physical training, running, and long jump, interspersed with some of the simplest military exercises, such as queuing , formation, overall advance, etc., taught by disabled veterans, let the children cultivate the spirit of martial arts from an early age, and gradually understand and become familiar with the formation changes and some basic tactics of the Dionia light and heavy infantry from an early age, and know how to unite And cooperation, when they become adults, they can easily integrate into the legion once they are recruited. In this regard, Davos and the Senate humbly borrowed some of the practices of Sparta.

After the military training, the children's favorite is a new ball game invented by Archon Davers-soccer, because it is not as intense as rugby and is prone to injury.

Children, you chase after me, and use your feet to flexibly control a ball that is made of cowhide, stuffed with inflatable tripe, and has a nearly round appearance. …

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"In the road we originally designed, the trees were too close to the road, and after a long time, the roots of the trees could easily burrow out of the road and damage the roadbed. This situation has occurred many times on the Turii-Amendolara Avenue, ... and now Pedestrians, carts, and horse-drawn carriages all walk on the avenue. During busy days, the avenue is crowded with people and livestock, which not only easily causes long-term blockages, but also crashes into people many times...

My suggestion is to cut down the trees on both sides of the avenue and build another road for pedestrians to walk on outside the drainage ditch, so that people and livestock can walk separately without interfering with each other, and the avenue will become more smooth..."

Davos listened to Heraclid Jr.'s explanation as he read "Plans for the Reconstruction of the Avenue" written by Heraclid Jr. Hearing this, he couldn't help being shocked.

It should be admitted that when he built the avenue, there were some flaws in his design, such as the problem of street trees. For example, he did not expect Dionia to develop so rapidly. After just over a year, the four-horse-wide avenue was not enough... …

But what he did not expect was that little Heraclid could think of laying sidewalks so quickly. Of course, he knew that sidewalks were not a new thing that only appeared in the age of technology. In the middle and late Roman Republic, there were already perfect avenues, sidewalks, A complete set of road systems such as drainage ditches.

He sighed lightly and asked with a gentle expression, "What else needs to be improved?"

Little Heraclid said with deliberation: "My lord consul, if a foreigner sets out from Crotone to walk to Turii, and after a long walk, he is tired, thirsty, and hungry. , he doesn't know how far there is a town in front of him? Where can I find a restaurant to eat? Where can I find a hotel to stay? For the convenience of pedestrians, can we erect a stone monument next to the avenue at intervals to mark the distance of nearby towns... and ...Well, aren't we building a post station? We can also engrave the distance of the post station on the stone tablet, so that when pedestrians see the stone tablet, they can plan their own itinerary according to the above tips and avoid sleeping in the wild at night..."