Plácido Penitente is on his way to class at the University of Santo Tomás. He doesn’t like school, though he’s a good student. He’d rather work, but his family is making sacrifices for him to get an education. Plácido sees his friend, Juanito Peláez, who tries to get him to skip class and chip in money to erect a statue of a deceased priest. Before going to class, he sees Doña Victorina and Paulita emerge from a coach and enter a church. Another student tries to get Plácido to sign a counterpetition to the one wanting a Castilian Academy, but Plácido won’t sign anything before he reads it. He’s late to class, and when he enters, it seems the teacher is upset with him.

The narrator provides a diatribe against the education system, its lack of real education, reliance on memorization, and its monkish professors. The professor leading the physics class doesn’t fully accept that the world is round, nor that it revolves around the sun. He also enjoys humiliating the students. The students aren’t tested on their knowledge, but rather how well they memorize textbooks. The professor calls on a yawning student, and when the student begins his verbatim recitation, the professor changes tactics and asks him direct questions about mirrors (as the text is about reflective surfaces); the student can’t answer.