Contradiction

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The clock turns back to two and a half hours earlier at the Yudong campus.

According to the notice, at four in the afternoon, Xiao Bei’s mother brought her child to participate in the mock examination for piano grading.

It wasn’t until six forty that Xiao Bei’s turn finally arrived.

Yet, the child was out of the examination room in less than three minutes.

Xiao Bei’s mother had timed him at home herself. Combining all the pieces required for this level’s assessment, it should take about eight minutes to play through everything.

Last year, when she accompanied Xiao Bei to the mock exam for Level One, he had played for three and a half minutes in the exam room; back then, all the required pieces for the level added up to only six minutes.

This year, Xiao Bei was taking Level Three. What could possibly be tested in less than three minutes, and could it really achieve the purpose of evaluation?

Since Li An was not present, Xiao Bei’s mother questioned Xiao Bei’s assistant teacher, Wang Panpan.

In fact, it was a problem easily resolved.

Wang Panpan merely needed to explain the process of the mock evaluation.

It was identical to the actual grading environment: the examiner randomly selected fragments from the pieces the child had submitted and listened to those, then gave scores on the spot.

Every child who entered the examination room was treated the same.

Regardless of individual differences in ability, or the level for which the child was registered.

Small differences in time were simply due to the varying lengths of the selected segments from different pieces.

This would largely have reassured parents who feared their child was being singled out or dismissed perfunctorily.

Then, she could address the parent’s real concern.

Was less than three minutes enough to properly evaluate the child?

The answer: absolutely.

A skilled teacher can make a preliminary assessment of a child’s basic finger technique within five seconds.

Within fifteen seconds, they can judge the child’s command of a particular piece.

A minute is enough to grasp the child’s overall level.

She could then emphasize that all the examiners for this mock assessment were excellent teachers from the main campuses.

Wang Panpan could even take this chance to advertise Li An a bit.

As the only piano examiner dispatched from Yudong to the main campus this time, Li An was entrusted with the assessment of a great number of piano students.

Leveraging Xiao Bei’s mother’s trust in Li An, she could have completely put her at ease about the assessment.

Two birds, one stone.

Finally, she could add that the purpose of the mock examination was not to see how long the child could play in the simulated environment.

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Rather, it was to help the child practice composure and adjust to the pressure, so that when entering the real examination room, they could quickly find their performance state.

At this point, she could have touched on the issue parents care about most.

How did my child perform just now? Will he pass this time?

Wang Panpan could simply have presented Xiao Bei’s score sheet—this had already been coordinated among the main campuses.

There was no possibility of a failing result.

It was that simple.

But Wang Panpan messed it up.

Having been busy for two days straight, she was already exhausted.

To be honest, she wished she could finish with each child in a minute and just go home to sleep.

In this state,

When Xiao Bei’s mother raised her concerns, her first reaction was: Why is this parent so troublesome?

But, considering that the mock assessments were still ongoing and not wanting to disturb other students’ parents, she asked Xiao Bei to go practice in Classroom 4 and brought his mother to the office.

That was the right thing to do.

With a problem-solving attitude, she patiently explained why the child had spent less than three minutes in the exam room.

“Most of these assessments are just about playing the opening, then the examiner stops the child and selects certain segments. Then they score; it never takes long.”

Her conclusion was also correct.

But lacking any preamble, such a blunt statement was not enough to dispel the concerns of parents like Xiao Bei’s mother.

After several rounds of back-and-forth, seeing that Xiao Bei’s mother refused to let go of the notion that it was unreasonable to spend less than three minutes on an eight-minute program, Wang Panpan’s temper flared again.

In her view, this parent was placing too much emphasis on grading and neglecting the essence of music learning.

So she decided to take another approach to enlighten the parent.

That was when the conflict erupted.

She launched into a lengthy tirade against the value of grading.

Her words had already strayed from the professional stance expected of a teacher at Blue Sky.

On the other hand, Xiao Bei’s mother had a firm stance regarding her child’s grading, and after listening, she naturally presented her own views.

Their argument quickly escalated, continuing until Old Dong appeared.

Old Dong had worked in education for many years and had seen all kinds of parents.

After understanding the situation, he calmed Xiao Bei’s mother’s emotions within a few words.

Meanwhile, with a single glance, Old Dong sent Wang Panpan out of the office. Standing in the corridor, she felt both angry and wronged.

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She had spoken from the perspective of the child’s musical education, yet in the end it seemed as if everything was her fault.

After calming down, she realized that some of her words had indeed been inappropriate, and then she began to worry: What if Xiao Bei’s mother withdrew from the lessons and stopped coming?

How would she explain this to Li An?

She dared not call Qin Yong; after much hesitation, she finally dialed Li An’s number.

“…Senior, are you done over there?”

“Just finished. What’s wrong?”

After hanging up, Li An wasn’t even sure how to be angry.

...

“Is Xiao Bei’s mother still at the campus?” Chen Xuan put down her phone and asked.

Li An nodded, then sighed.

He knew the situation wasn’t as bad as Wang Panpan had made it sound, and he trusted that Old Dong would handle it well.

He also believed that Xiao Bei’s mother wouldn’t withdraw.

Though she was stubborn when it came to her child’s graded exams, she was also a cautious person.

Xiao Bei’s current pace of learning piano with him was going well; his mother wouldn’t easily change teachers.

Chen Xuan wanted to say something, but didn’t know how to put it.

She felt Wang Panpan’s approach was wrong, but her criticism was not.

Today, graded arts exams had largely lost their function as a true measure of a child’s ability. She herself, following her older cousin’s advice, had stopped participating in extracurricular grading after Level Six.

Li An’s earlier point was also valid.

Ten years ago, did the exams truly reflect a child’s real level?

“It’s just that, as practitioners in the arts and insiders in the industry, we see things more clearly than the parents.”

The moment social arts exams became linked to the capital market, whether grading had any real value ceased to be an issue for teachers to focus on.

The market would decide.

Li An said that Wang Panpan had just graduated, had seen too few students and parents, and hadn’t yet found her proper role.

Chen Xuan thought of her own behavior in the exam room yesterday, and recalled that when she first arrived at Yudong, she too had made the same mistake as Wang Panpan.

She hadn’t found her proper role.

After getting out of the car, the two of them walked into the Yudong office building. A wave of people coming off work exited as they stepped into the elevator.