NOTE
I recommend this article to the notice of the
Minister of Education and the UnderSecretary. I
have marked certain passage in red, because some
of them impress me, and others state very
clearly what I have felt all along.
All systems and rules and syllabus are really so
much waste paper, and worse still _ waste of
time, if they do not succeed in producing
the sort of citizens we want for our country. I
do not say that what applies to England will
equally apply to Siam. On the contrary it would
be a very grave mistake to adopt English methods
in tots without alteration, but the article may
give one some few ideas.
In the Royal Pages Colleges, what I want is not
so much to turn out model boys, all of the same
Standard, all brilliant Madhayom
Scholars with thousands of marks each, as to
turn out efficient young men, _ young men
who will be physically and morally clean,
and who will be looking forward keenly to take
up whatever burden the future may lay upon them.
_I do not want monument of learning who have
passed all your exams with flying colours. I do
not want a walking school books. What I want are
just manly young men, honest, truthful,
clean in habit and thoughts; and I would not
break my heart about it if you told me that such
or such a fellow writes with difficulty, cant
do compound fraction, or does not know any
geometry, if I only knew that he has learnt
enough at my school to know the difference
between true manliness and effeminacy. I never
want again to hear clever people complaining
that ปัญญาท่วมหัวเอาตัวไม่รอด. At the Mahadlek
College, what I want is that Education
should mean the turning of a boy into a fine
young man and a good citizen, not to crush out
all individuality under the weight of Syllabus
and System!_ and I want Education to be
interesting to the boys, so that they would in
later days be able to look back upon School life
as something peculiarly pleasant to have passed
through. My College is not to be compared to
other schools, where the aim is different. If I
had wanted just the ordinary kind of school, I
would have founded a day school, not a
boarding one.
All this may all or may not be in accord with
your scheme of Education _if it is, then I am
glad; but if not, then please let me have a fair
trial with my idea. Dont try and make my
Teachers toe your line; let them toe mine,
because they are running in my sports,
in which I am giving the Cups.
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