The adults lack that kind of awakened awareness, and due to economic backwardness, they don't need to know how to read or write on a daily basis; as long as they know how to do farm work and are willing to toil, they can keep themselves fed and clothed.
The only things they can teach their children are these abilities.
"These adults' way of thinking just feels so outdated."
Ayane said this.
After accompanying Hakushi to visit so many villagers, this was the only thought in her mind.
"This is what they truly think in their hearts. What they need are jobs that can support their families, not literacy skills or knowledge that's useless to them."
In an era of such low productivity, the grains and vegetables grown by ordinary farmers, after paying taxes, are only barely enough to live on.
Places like schools, in their subconscious, only exist in cities, and only the nobility would go study there. Peasants ought to work the fields properly and support themselves and their families.
This way of thinking is, in Hakushi's view, certainly wrong, backward, and ignorant. But starting from the actual circumstances of the village, these peasants' ideas are the correct ones.
Things from the big city don't match their realities.
It's like ninja study materials—ordinary people don't need them, and even if given to them, they wouldn't learn it or use it in their lives.
"That's the reason I'm conducting this survey in person. If we establish a school here and issue standardized textbooks, the villagers will definitely dislike and resent it, because city textbooks don't teach what they actually need."
If it doesn't fit the interests and needs of the peasants, of course it will be rejected; it's impossible to unify thought.
"Just listening to it sounds troublesome." Ayane's head hurt, but seeing Hakushi so assured and full of confidence, she found him quite attractive as a man.
"Everyone has different needs. And the development of any force depends on talent from all walks of life. In the future of the Ninja Realm, talent will surely be the foundation. And so-called talent is the result of sifting through the masses. If we want more talent, the base number must be expanded. The ninja lifestyle isn't something ordinary people can access."
That's why Hakushi wanted to distinguish between the education of ninjas and that of ordinary people.
And even among ordinary people, because of differences in region, education level, economic environment and so forth, the schools they set up and the materials supplied will differ greatly.
In poor places, we have to teach them knowledge that can help them get rich, and quickly resolve basic subsistence issues.
In wealthy places, since survival isn't a problem, the odds of producing talent are much higher than in poor areas.
Right now, the world is in the era of ninjas.
The importance of ordinary people has been overlooked.
At the end of the day, ninjas are also selected from among ordinary people.
Focusing only on the development of ninja strength and ignoring the masses of ordinary people is arrogance in itself.
Through this village, Hakushi could broadly understand the living conditions in non-urban regions of the Land of Demons. Prosperous villages are the minority; most villages are still struggling to feed themselves.
Over the next few days, Hakushi spent even more time learning about the village, and only then did he bid Granny Kanoko farewell and travel to Armstrong elsewhere for further investigation.
When he returned to headquarters, it was a month later, the beginning of March and early spring.
In that month, there were times Hakushi and Ayane spent the night in mountain caves, and times they stayed with villagers in their homes.
There were lots of problems, but the advantages were obvious—there was no chaos, order was stable, and what's left is just to take time figuring out solutions. Hakushi didn't feel any need to rush in this regard.
By the time he got back to headquarters, the ninja training area for cultivating ninjas had already been built.
This school could accommodate several hundred people learning ninja skills at the same time; it was large in scale, with enough space for practical training exercises.
For student sources, Hakushi planned to select from within the Land of Demons, while another portion would be provided with appropriately-aged children from the Uchiha Clan, Hyuga Clan, and Uzumaki Clan.
Finally, there would be a search across the Ninja Realm for young orphans to bring back for cultivation.
Nurturing ninjas through Natural Energy didn't require any chakra aptitude.
As long as the body didn't have any severe defects, it was possible to build combat capability; if nothing else, even just using Taijutsu made them more than ordinary people could handle.
The downside is that the probability of cultivating top-tier powerful ninjas is very low; the advantage is making up quality with quantity, so there's no shortage of combatants.
After all, there are homeless orphans everywhere in the Ninja Realm—just picking casually, you could bring back hundreds or even thousands.
According to reports, currently more than four hundred orphans had been collected, and ninja training for them would officially start next month, in April.
The facility would officially be in full operation, barring unexpected events, in nine years.
"Lord Hakushi, this is a letter from Konoha."
While Hakushi was observing in the school grounds, a man wearing a trench coat embroidered with the Shion Flower insignia appeared using Instantaneous Body Jutsu and handed him a letter.
Hakushi opened the letter and quickly skimmed it.
The previous year, he had arranged for people here to settle a cooperation agreement with Konoha for medical ninja training.
The Shion Flower Company would provide part of their pharmaceutical data, while Konoha would in turn train some medical ninjas for their side.
The official partnership would begin next month in April, which was also when Konoha Ninja School would start the new term.