Yuan Yuan Cram School, Classroom.
The boys sat in the classroom, having not yet eaten the instant noodles Lin Lu brought.
Lin Wanxing stood at the podium and picked up a piece of chalk.
The boys in front of their desks began shouting, "Are you finally going to teach us seriously?"
Lin Wanxing smiled and retorted, "When have I not been serious?"
"I think sometimes you avoid teaching us from the textbooks. Do you think you can't teach us well?" Qin Ao asked arrogantly.
Lin Wanxing froze for a moment; she had never considered that the boys might think this way.
"Of course not," Lin Wanxing shook her head. "Let's be reasonable. You've studied in school for so many years. If I were to teach you the same knowledge, would it make a qualitative difference for you?"
Qi Liang said, "How do you manage to phrase 'you're hopeless' in such a fresh and elegant way?"
Lin Wanxing replied, "I definitely can't save you. Including studying, that's your own business. As for me, I can only provide the help you need."
"Then what kind of help do you think we need right now?"
"I've already said it. I think you need to properly discuss the issues you're worried about at this stage."
"What's there to worry about? We'll take it one day at a time," Qin Ao said.
"You've already completed your 'money-making' goal. Do you plan to continue?" Lin Wanxing asked directly. "If you want to keep making money, how will you allocate and manage your time between that, football, and studying?"
"Of course we need to make money. Who thinks they have enough money?" Qin Ao said.
"But we have monthly exams coming up soon. If we spend time making money, when will we study? If we fail, we're done for!" Lin Lu said.
"Then whoever wants to make money can go do it. If you don't want to, just do your own thing," Chen Jianghe thought for a moment, then looked toward the blackboard and said to Lin Wanxing, "Isn't this what you call the principle of freedom?"
"Some want to do it, some don't. What if we can't find time to train together in the end?"
The boys argued back and forth, clearly unable to reach a consensus on the matter.
After listening to their discussion, Lin Wanxing tossed the chalk from her left hand to her right and proposed, "Let's have a formal meeting."
The boys were clearly wary of the words "formal meeting."
"What are you trying to pull now!"
——
The students' wariness was clearly justified.
Lin Wanxing seriously proposed holding a self-governance assembly at Yuan Yuan Cram School to achieve student self-management, democratic decision-making, and collective consultation.
In short, it meant that any issues would be raised, discussed together, and then decided through democratic procedures.
On many previous occasions, Lin Wanxing had allowed the students to discuss freely, but those discussions were usually about how to work together to accomplish something.
Ever since the students previously wanted to "give up football," Lin Wanxing felt that when it came to fundamental "yes or no" questions, the students easily fell into a pattern of talking until they all gave up.
Another issue was that "the loudest voice often seems right." The opinions of the minority were frequently hard to hear.
Therefore, they needed a meeting to discuss the problems they faced and make collective decisions through an efficient, orderly, fair, and reasonable process.
"Then what do we need you for?"
That was the boys' first reaction after hearing her explanation.
"Me?" Lin Wanxing turned around and wrote a new book title on the blackboard. "I will introduce you to a set of meeting rules. Of course, whether to use these rules should be your decision. So, you can try holding a meeting according to these rules and vote on whether to adopt them. Consider it an interesting experiment."
Qin Ao looked at "Robert's Rules of Order" on the blackboard and said, "You're nesting dolls here!"
Lin Wanxing explained to the students that this book was compiled by Brigadier General Henry Robert. During the American Civil War, Mr. Robert was tasked with chairing a meeting, but the two opposing sides argued fiercely, and he failed miserably at presiding.
To learn how to conduct meetings, he searched for books on the subject but found none. In frustration, he decided to write one himself. He spent decades compiling "Robert's Rules of Order."
The first edition of "Robert's Rules of Order" was published in 1876. After Henry Robert's death, his descendants formed a committee to continuously revise the book. By 2011, the 11th edition was published.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen, based on "Robert's Rules of Order" and referencing American women's rights activist Ms. Shade's "Parliamentary Rules," translated and compiled the famous "Preliminary Steps to Civil Rights."
"This is a living work," Lin Wanxing said.
"Over 700 pages!" the boys immediately groaned.
"To be honest, I've only read the concise version. My grandfather has a 700-page copy of 'Robert's Rules of Order' in the small storeroom. If you're interested, you can go flip through it and get a feel for it," Lin Wanxing said with a laugh.
"So... are we supposed to study this book now?" the students suddenly became anxious.
"If you fully understand and master all the content of this book, you'll be capable of presiding over meetings in most countries worldwide," Lin Wanxing said. "If you're interested, you can study it on your own. I'm just here to briefly introduce the core principles and operational rules of meetings as explained in this book."
In summary, it was divided into four steps.
Step one – "Make a motion."
A "motion" refers to a specific opinion or suggestion regarding a matter.
For example: "We will give up our money-making endeavors and devote our time to collective studying" is a motion.
Simply saying "making money is fun, studying is boring" cannot be called a motion.
"No motion, no discussion." If there's no specific suggestion on what to do, abandon the meeting.
Step two – "Second the motion."
As long as one attendee thinks "we can discuss this motion," regardless of whether they support or oppose it, the meeting moves to the next stage – discussion.
Step three – "Discuss the motion."
Every attendee has the right to fully express their opinion regarding the motion.
Some principles must be followed here:
The core principle is "address the chair." That is, no matter how heated the debate, all discussion is directed to the meeting chair, not argued among themselves.
Everyone has fixed limits on speaking time and turns, so they must prepare their viewpoints in advance. First state your position – whether you agree or not – then speak.
Respect the referee. Just as in a football match where the referee is respected, the referee has the authority to eject those who break the rules. The meeting chair has the authority to stop discussions that involve rude interruptions, disrespect for others, or deviation from the topic.
...
Step four, the final stage – "Voting phase."
Voting respects the principle of majority rule, and all must abide by the final voting result.
Lin Wanxing had thought this content would be relatively dry, and since the students were used to freedom, they would find faults and oppose during her explanation.
But to her surprise, the students showed great interest in the content of "Robert's Rules" throughout the entire process.
They listened carefully to her entire explanation and were eager to start a formal meeting immediately.
Lin Wanxing was elected as the chairperson of the first meeting.
"I know you're teaching us this so you can be lazy later, letting us discuss and decide everything ourselves, but don't think you can escape," Qin Ao stated.
——
Overall, the first meeting proceeded smoothly under the guidance of Robert's Rules.
There were 10 attendees. Chen Weidong said he went back to his hometown with his parents and didn't come today.
The motion was proposed by Yu Ming, who initiated the motion "We should stop our money-making endeavors and instead devote ourselves to collective studying."
Lin Lu seconded the motion, and the meeting entered the third stage.
As the chairperson, Lin Wanxing temporarily set speaking rules: raise your hand to speak, each person has two opportunities to speak for one minute each.
At first, the boys weren't clear about the discussion principles.
When Lin Lu said, "If we study hard now, we can make big money in the future," Qin Ao immediately sneered.
Qin Ao: "At least with making money, every cent you earn is in your hand. Studying? It's not like you can actually learn anything."
Qin Ao spoke without raising his hand and getting permission first, so Lin Wanxing immediately stopped him.
"The purpose of our discussion is to resolve the issue, not to 'resolve' individuals. Attacking each other or questioning motives will make the meeting ineffective, so I must stop your previous behavior," Lin Wanxing said seriously. "No matter what you want to say, please address it to me."
Qin Ao froze for a moment, then surprisingly obediently said, "Then I'll study a bit more and speak later."
But after a second, he raised his hand again.
The boy was anxious but kept his lips tightly sealed. Lin Wanxing allowed him to speak.
Qin Ao: "Teacher, does what I just said count as one of my two speaking turns? But is this my last chance? Should I finish stating my reasons for opposition first!"
He blurted out everything he wanted to say, then shut his mouth.
The first meeting had many similar hiccups like this and didn't quickly proceed to the final step.
The students were still trying to understand the rules, and they found that organizing their thoughts in a short time and expressing them clearly and logically seemed much more difficult than following those meeting principles.
Fu Xinshu even took out paper and pen in the end, writing down points one, two, three, four, five.
To Lin Wanxing's surprise, the students' debate ultimately focused on the issue of "whether to study collectively."
In summary, opponents believed that while football training required everyone to be together, the remaining time should be freely arranged by each individual.
If you want to make money on your own, you can go do it. They couldn't be tied together forever, studying as a group.
Supporters, on the other hand, believed that teaching had its own pace. If you fell behind and suddenly wanted to catch up, could you expect others to wait for you or provide extra tutoring?
Studying should be like football training, requiring everyone to participate together.
If you wanted to do something else, you should use time outside of this.
Finally, the motion passed with 6 votes in favor, 3 against, and 1 abstention.
When the voting results came out,
Although the opponents were dissatisfied, they decided to abide by the motion.
After all, for them, sleeping was sleeping wherever they were.
The students stretched lazily, looking at the result on the blackboard with anticipation.
Lin Wanxing seized the opportunity to propose a new motion, fully confirming Qin Ao's suspicion that she wanted to be lazy.
Lin Wanxing: I propose that every Sunday from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM be the fixed meeting time for the football team. During this time, we will discuss each person's new "motions" for the week, decide and handle the issues everyone faces each week, and arrange the work for the next week.
The students plunged into a new round of discussion.
At first, Lin Wanxing worried the students would fall into the "methodology" trap.
That is, no matter how big or small the matter, they would want to hold a meeting and vote to decide.
But clearly, the students' thinking wasn't that rigid or stubborn.
They were happy to respect the principles of freedom, democracy, fairness, and mutual respect in the rules. This courtroom-like debate model felt somewhat fresh.
But no one wanted to hold meetings for every trivial matter.
For example, regarding the upcoming study arrangements, the boys directly said, "Teacher, just teach us whatever you're going to teach. We'll discuss and set a class schedule, and then you have to come teach us!"
Lin Wanxing agreed.
She wiped the chalk dust off her hands and was about to announce dismissal for dinner when Fu Xinshu stood up.
Fu Xinshu: "Teacher, I think we also need to discuss the issue of the new coach."
Fu Xinshu's words plunged the entire classroom into silence. The boys' faces showed varying degrees of disappointment.
This was probably the issue they were most worried about at this stage.
Lin Wanxing froze for a moment, then asked, "Uh, don't you guys check the forum?"
OpenNovel