A country boy quits school

Narrator: The story starts out by saying that in the country a nine-
year old boy is at least half as useful as an adult because he can
help with several chores, so the family didn't want to send him to
school. However, there was a proclamation that stated that any
boy over six years old had to go or a family member would have
to go to jail. The boy goes to school and he brings books back,
which the teacher has told him cost much.

Mother: Hows your first day son?

Boy: Its okay ma.

Grandma: Everyone come here, faster!

Grandpa: These four books and the five classics never had any
picture like this.

Father: The people in the pictures are not Chinese! Look carefully
none of them wear the kind of clothes that we wear. This is a
foreign costume, this is what is called a dog stick. They remind
me of the old missionary who preaches at the cross street in the
city.

Grandma: This woman at the spinning wheel is also a foreigner.

We use the right hand to spin but she uses left. So mysterious.

Grandpa: Then this driver is not a Chinese either. Look, have you
ever seen a Chinese driver standing on the side of the cart?

Grandma: They certainly have the nerve to make us pay for the
books after we give up the boy to them.

Father: Who can afford such schools?

Mother: We cant save that much money. Well have to sell at

least eight bushels of corn to raise that much money. I think one
book will be enough to start with.
Grandpa: They can get another after they have finished that. Why
should it cost do much?

Family: (Arguing)

Boy: Pa, Ma, Grandpa, Grandma stop!

Narrator: The books which they had marvelled at a few minutes

before had suddenly become a cause of depression. The family
discussed the matter at supper and all through the rest evening.

Father: What will we do?

Mother: We dont have enough money.

Grandma: Then we will work hard.

Grandpa: We will pay the amount required since it was the first
time.

Mother: I will contribute my two pairs of earrings that I recently

sold.

Father: You are nine now, you are no longer a kid. Were sparing
you from work and sending you to school. Though we cant afford
to pay your tuition. Youll be ungrateful if you dont study hard.

Boy: Okay papa.

Narrator: The boy took his fathers instructions to heart and set
out for school the next day at dawn.

Boy: I will study hard for my family!

Mother: Good morning son!

Boy: Good morning ma you look so pretty today!

Mother: Thanks son. Faster go eat your food, maybe youre late
from school.

Boy: I will go now bye!

Narrator: When he got there, however, the security guard said
him in a low voice.

Security guard: Classes dont start till nine. It is 5:30, You are too
early. The teacher is asleep and the classroom is locked. You
should go home now. Come back when its 9:00 o clock.

Boy: Oww thanks bye!

Narrator: The boy looked around the school and found that he was
indeed the only student there. He listened outside the teachers
window and heard him snoring. There was nothing to do but run
back home.

Grandpa: Did you skip class? Come here! Its only the second day
and he is playing truant already!

Boy: Grandpa

Mother: Go at the kitchen and tend the fire.

Narrator: When the boy went to school again after breakfast, the
teacher was already discussing about being late to school.

Security Guard: Hey your late.

Teacher: Okay class. When students come to class late, it can

disrupt the flow of a lecture or discussion, distract other students,
impede learning, and generally erode class morale.

Boy: Good morning sir! Sorry I am late.

Teacher: Go to your seat now. I am going to tell you a story about

a little fairy that waited by the wayside with a bag of gold to
reward the earliest student. Maybe its a chocolate?!

Narrator: The boy was enchanted with the story and the words
fairy and gold

But he could not figure out just what was meant by earliest.
Narrator: In the afternoon, our young hero came back from school
at 3:30, just as his father was going back work after his midday
nap. Luckily his father happened

to see the other boys also coming home and the teacher taking a
stroll with his dog stick and concluded his son was not playing
truant.

Cassandra: Look! I love her clothes. Its so cute.

Kate: Her shoes are pretty cool!

James: I want to eat! Lets go there! Wanna join?

Boy: Nope James I want to go home early because I want to read

this book.

James: Hi mom! Why are you here?

Sussy: Im going to the principal. Dont worry its not about you.
Oh wait I have a call. Bye guys. Go home early James!

James: Thats my mom her name is Sussy Reid.

Boy: Your mom looks so busy.

James: Yes she is always busy but she loves me. Im really I have
to go. Bye!

Narrator: His father kept wondering about the strange ways of

these foreign schools. The first six days of school were taken up
with the first lesson called This is Mama.

Boy: This is mama3x This is Mama!

Mother: My son have an another mama.

Boy: Once more this is mama.

Mother: Let me see who your mama is!

Boy: This is mama- the lady with a nice dress, curly hair, and
heels.

Grandpa: Whats happening?

Grandma: Maybe she has possessed by some evil spirits!

Father: Whats the matter?

Mother: Where did my son get that vampire-like mama?

Father: We will have the boy asked his teacher whose mama this
really is.

Grandpa: Maybe it is the teachers mama!

Narrator: The next morning before dawn, Mother woke up her son
and made him go to school to ask the teacher for a solution to the
problem that had bothered her all night.

Boy: I forgot there is no class every Sunday. Yay! Ow wait Im

going to tell mama about this.

Narrator: At general assembly on Monday, the teacher said gently

to his students.

Teacher: One who wants to learn must not be afraid to ask

questions. Anyone who has any question should raise it at once to
his teacher at school or to his parents at home.

Boy: Sir! The reader says This is Mama. Whose mama is she,
really?

Teacher: It is the mama of anyone who happens to read the book,

do you understand now?

Boy: No, Baldy is also reading this, but his mama is not like this
lady.

Hsiao Lin: Baldys mother is lame in one arm and has only one
eye.
Teacher: Dont talk among yourselves! We are going to have the
second lesson today; This is Papa. Look, everyone. This is Papa,
the man with spectacles and parted hair.

Narrator: After school, Mother was still worried about who the
pictured woman was, but when she heard her son reiterating

Boy: This is Papa.

Mother: What is happening to my son?

Narrator: A few days later, the boy learned two new sentences:

Boy: The ox tends the fire; the horse eats noodles.

Narrator: They had an ox and a horse and he had himself taken

them out to graze in the hills, but he had never once seen a horse
eat noodles and he was sure that their ox could not tend the fire.
But could the book be wrong? Since he could not answer these
questions, he obeyed his teachers injunction of the week before
and asked his father about it.

Father: I once went to a foreign circus in the city and saw a horse
could ring a bell and fire a gun. Perhaps the book is talking about
such horses and oxen.

Narrator: Grandmother, however, did not agree with fathers

explanation.

Grandmother: The ox must be the Ox-head Devil King and the

horse must be a demon. Dont you see that they wear human
clothing?

Narrator: The old lady then went on to tell stories about demons
that could command the wind and summon rain; the result was
the boy dreamed that night of being seized by a winged-wolf
demon and woke up crying. The following day, the boy asked his
teacher.
Boy: Is this ox that can tend the fire a foreign ox?

Teacher: You are too literal! The book has only made those things
up. It is not true that oxen can really tend the fire or that horses
really eat noodles.

Narrator: The explanation cleared up at one stroke many things in

the book that had puzzled the boy. He had read about such things
as bread, milk, park, ball, and the like, which he had never seen
and which had made him wonder. It dawned upon him that the
book dealt only with make-believe things.

Anna: We will have a tea party! Do you agree Dylan?

Dylan: I want a tea party! Drink tea and you will be healthy!

Oliver: Everyone should donate twenty cents.

Boy: For what?

Courtney: For the oranges, apples, chocolate, and things.

Hsiao Lin & Baldy: Okay

Thomas: I will ask mom if she could donate us more money.

Children: Nice!

Narrator: Our boy knew, of course, that he would be only inviting

a beating to ask money for buying sweetmeats. Grandmother
always mumbled that school would bankrupt them, yet, whenever
he had to buy a sheet of writing paper. Grandfather had been
suffering for a long time from chronic cough, and someone had
told him that orange peels would give him relief.

Boy: Grand pa, we are getting some oranges.

Grandpa: You are getting some oranges? What are you getting
oranges for?

Boy: We want to hold a tea party.

Grandpa: What is a tea party?

Boy: It means to get together and eat things and drink tea. It is in
the book.

Grandma: What kind of books is this that is either making animals

talk or teaching people to eat and play? No wonder the boys have
become lazy and choosy about their food since they went to
school.

Grandpa: And it is always about foreign food. There doesnt seem

to be any corn stew or bean curd with onions on it.

Mother: Remember, son, to bring back some orange peels for your
grandfathers cough.

Father: Where did you get the money to buy oranges?

Boy: The teacher---

Baldy: Paaaa please!

Baldys father: We cant even afford salt, and yet you want to buy
candy!

Hsiao Lins uncle: I let you buy books with my hard-earned money
because it is for your good, but I havent any money for you to
buy sweetmeats. You can ask whoever wants to hold tea parties
for it.

Father: What?!

Grandpa: It might be better that the boy wont go to school

anymore.

Grandma: So our son will go to jail?

Mother: Let him try school a few more days.

Boy: I will study harder no matter what.

Narrator: After this humiliation, our young scholar vowed to study
harder and to recover his lost prestige in the family.

Schoolmates: Hsiao Ling will be having a birthday party at a

beach wanna join?

Boy: No, thank you.

Oliver: You should have time to relax.

Boy: Soon.

Courtney: Okay! When we will go back you will be jealous.

Dylan: Stop Courtney!

Courtney: Im just kidding. You take it too serious.

Hsiao Ling: Stop! Courtney and Dylan. We have to go bye!

Boy: Take care guys! Take care Kate!

Narrator: Everyday after school, he read without stopping until it

was dark. He did not realize that the source of his troubles lay in
the textbook itself. For grandmother had been feeling that her son
was no longer as close to her as before his marriage and that her
position in the family had been gradually slipping.

Boy: In my family, I have a papa, a mama, a brother, and a sister.

Grandma: Wheres the grandpa and grandma? So this house is

now all yours and I have no longer a share in it!

Father: Dont be angry anymore! We wont let him read this kind
of book any longer. I would rather go to jail!

Narrator: And so the next day, Father discharged a day laborer

and the teacher marked the boys absence in the record book at
school.