Page:Siam and Laos, as seen by our American missionaries (1884).pdf/218

 heinous offence of disobedience or want of respect toward his teacher the pupil's hands are tied around a post, and then he is whipped—not four or five strokes, but it is one, two or three dozen, as the case seems to require. A teacher is supposed to take an interest in his pupil, and the pupil to be improving, just in proportion to the amount of corporal punishment administered.

One day a man brought his boy to put him into the "King's School." After the arrangements were all made and he was about to say "Good-bye" to his boy, he turned to the principal of the school and said, "Please whip him a great deal; I want him to learn fast. If at any time you think he deserves one dozen, please give him two dozen, and if you think he deserves two dozen, please give him four dozen. Don't let him be a dunce." And with this loving injunction he took his leave. Another little boy has dropped out of the same school entirely, the probable reason being that his grandmother's repeated request to te hi mak mak (whip him a great deal) was entirely disregarded. These wat-schools—if schools they may be called—are free from all the trammels of school laws and school committees, each teacher being left free to follow his own will in everything. Neither are there any school-houses or school-furniture. The teacher seats himself, tailor-fashion, on the floor of his own