After entering what the Han Chinese called the "smart kids '" class, he was one of just three or four other Aboriginal students, exposing him for the first time to the socioeconomic differences between him and his Han classmates: when they were playing or studying, he had to cut sugarcane or dig up peanuts in rich people's fields to earn money for his folks.
進入平地人所謂的「好班」，班上只有三、四名原住民學生，讓馬耀首次體會自己與平地學生社經地位的差異；當平地生都在玩樂或用功的時候，他必須到有錢人家的田裡削甘蔗、拔花生，幫家裡賺錢。