Chapter 168: The Dawn of Light
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The launch of the “Educational Machine” was a tremendous failure. People were requesting refunds all over the country. The root of the problem was because the “Educational Machine” represented an educational belief that was conservative, outdated, and obstinate. For some of the experts in the education field, these beliefs were rigidly etched into their hearts.
On the surface, they were supportive of the new technology, but what they were doing reflected that they truly despised it. Deep down, they were still adhering to their immutable beliefs. They were reluctant to give up their status as the leaders in the educational field to a mere little learning machine. However, for most of the experts in the educational field, why would they not wish for the next generation to be stronger and for Z nation’s future to be better? In most of their hearts, there was a dream, a dream to make the Z nation a powerhouse in the educational field.
It was just that… the influence was too great towards the benefits of those within the field. Hundreds of thousands of tuition centers outside of school, teachers in which 70% of their income originated from extra tutoring cla.s.ses, the organizations that produce tutoring materials, exercise books, and papers… and many more. The potential loss of profit was simply too much.
For example, the tuition centers. Aside from dance cla.s.ses, piano cla.s.ses, art cla.s.ses, and calligraphy cla.s.ses that remained unaffected, the tuition centers teaching primary subjects such as Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc. had experienced a 30% plunge in profits for the last three months. The higher the sales of the intelligent learning machine, the greater their profits would drop. The plummet could be described as a free-fall demotion. In approximately one to two years, the market for tutoring would shrink at least 60%. It would cause hundreds of thousands of people to lose their jobs and hundreds of billions of economic losses. With such a detrimental effect towards their own benefits, who wouldn’t have struggled for it?
After Mr. Tang returned, he indeed unleashed quite a ma.s.sive “energy burst.” They vilified the learning machine on the forums online. The experts in the educational field appeared one by one, criticizing the Little Star learning machine for shattering the equity in education, hampering students from poor families from achieving success, causing many people in the educational field to lose their jobs, and much more. The uproar was rather huge. It triggered a ma.s.sive wave of debate.
Facing the umpteen voices of doubt and criticism, Xing Hai Technologies showed no sign of refute. They just posted a short message on their official Weibo. “We might not be able to change the current situation, but we can let you see the future.”
Immediately, the experts mauled the statement.
“What future are you talking about if you can’t even ensure equality?”
“We do not want a future like this!”
“Changing the current situation? The current situation is the best situation!”
Spurred by their own benefits, the combat power of the experts was off the charts. They gained a significant upper-hand in the forums. They influenced many parents to be on their side. They jointly requested to ban the “Little Star learning machine.”
However, there were also voices of solidarity and support backing up Xing Hai Technologies. The entire tech community was on Xing Hai Technologies’ side.
Many renowned scientists wrote blog posts to support Xing Hai Technologies.
“Huh, looking at all the comments from the so-called experts, I feel like I have returned to the pre-industrial revolution era when the luddites held ‘machine-wrecking’ activities. Never have I thought that I would get to listen to similar voices in the 21st century. What I hear is stupidity, conservativeness, selfishness, and voices of those who are not willing to give up their own benefits. I find this intriguing.”
“Equality in education has always been a false proposition! Even if the Little Star learning machine was not created, our education doesn’t seem fair either. Attending tuition cla.s.ses is a kind of inequality towards those who can’t afford the cla.s.ses; getting admitted into a good school, entering a good cla.s.s, and listening to the lectures of excellent teachers is a kind of inequality towards those who were admitted to a normal school, entered a normal cla.s.s, and were taught by ordinary teachers! Those who keep saying the word ‘equality’ are those who are not willing to accept this very fact!”
“We must not refuse to eat for fear of choking! The Little Star learning machine is our future. It symbolizes our control over knowledge and us being the master of knowledge. It carries the predicaments that our children are no longer the pa.s.sive recipients of knowledge. This tool allows normal people like us to possess the ability to solve complicated and cutting-edge problems. In the future, each of our children will own for themselves a vessel of knowledge and a ‘super brain.’ As long as our children are able to utilize this tool, each and every one of them will be geniuses!”
Aside from the voices from the scientific community, a portion of parents also issued their own statements in support of Xing Hai Technologies. One of the parent’s statements that stood out was, “I heard that some experts are saying that the Little Star learning machine is destroying the equality in education. As parents, we actually have more of a say on this. My family is a poor household. I myself have some disabilities and therefore I’m not able to work. My child’s father has a mild mental r.e.t.a.r.dation and only received a little education. His monthly income is only slightly above $1,000. Adding up with the aid issued by the state, we could just barely hold our lives together. The lucky thing is that we have a healthy child, a very intelligent one as well. He scores above 80 marks in every exam paper. His father and I are very proud of him. We wished a promising future for him. But once he entered high school, my child was clearly behind track in his studies. We had no money to buy him learning materials, so he could only search for them at the waste collection station beside his school. We had no money for him to attend tutoring cla.s.ses that cost thousands of dollars. So, he could only learn by himself. He can’t even partic.i.p.ate in his school’s summer cla.s.ses as we couldn’t afford the fees for it. When school started, his teacher a.s.sumed that everyone attended summer cla.s.s, and so the teacher skipped a large portion of the syllabus, causing my child to lag behind. There was one time my child told me, the first place in his cla.s.s attended a $40,000 Mathematics cla.s.s and a $20,000 English cla.s.s. He said that he wished to get the first place in cla.s.s, but he couldn’t do it. From his eyes, I could see the feeling of inferiority and dejection. He could never make it. No matter how hard he studied, he would still roam around the 30th to 40th place in cla.s.s. Other kids with similar intelligence to him enjoyed more educational resources than him. In this race, he had lost right at the beginning. But everything changed when I gathered all the resources I could manage and bought him a Little Star learning machine! My child told me confidently that he would never have to fear those excellent scorers ever again. Within just two months, his academic results surged from the 36th place to the 2nd place in cla.s.s… his cla.s.s teacher and cla.s.smates accused him of cheating, so I posted a video of him learning by using the learning machine at 3 a.m. in the morning in the cla.s.s chat group… then, the voices of doubt were all gone. Equality? I’m very grateful for the experts to mention this word. I’m very thankful that they thought of us. But for families like mine and for my child, the Little Star learning machine is equality, an equality that we could still afford by grinding our teeth! Please do not take away this equality!”
After this article became widely spread, the tides in the forums turned. The scientists from the scientific community also wrote a joint letter with the t.i.tle “Support Popularizing the Little Star Learning Machine” and delivered it to the high authorities.
…
On the 15th of August, Mr. Yuan from the Ministry of Education personally led a team to Xing Hai Technologies. After a brief communication from both sides, they came out with the solution to solve the “Learning Machine Crisis.”
The main criteria were as below:
1. All 10.2 million units of the first generation “Educational Machine” will be obsolete and will be temporarily reclaimed.
2. Xing Hai Technologies will a.s.sign technical personnel to replace the operating system of these “Educational Machines” with the Little Star OS, then return it to those students. For each overwrite, Xing Hai Technologies will be paid $300.
3. For the subsequent “Educational Machine 2.0,” the Ministry of Education will have deep collaborations with Xing Hai Technologies, using the Tree of Knowledge from the Little Star learning machine, adding in the “Answers For All” function, keeping the “Homework Guide” function… all technical standards will be aligned with the Little Star learning machine.
4. For future productions of the intelligent learning machine by Chang Cheng Electric’s foundries, the Ministry of Education and Xing Hai Technologies will each have 50%.
After the solution was announced, the students and parent’s mood quickly stabilized. They expressed that they were willing to hand in their “Educational Machine” to Xing Hai Technologies for it to be formatted into a “Little Star learning machine.”
After the talk, Chen Jin asked curiously, “Mr. Yuan, where has that Mr. Tang gone, why didn’t he tag along this time around?”
“He was detained by the CCP for privately accepting more that $80,000,000 worth of other people’s belongings. More than half of the experts in the group were ‘retired.’ The higher-ups said that if they do not change their minds they’ll change the person themselves. In the future, as long as you do not touch on sensitive topics, you can rest a.s.sured that we’ll promote your company’s learning machine,” Mr. Yuan said while he shook his head.
Chen Jin’s eyes glowed as he saw the light in a glorious revelation.