A direct effect of this growing interest in science was to show the
value of Western education in such a way as to create a demand for
the educational work of the mission. Not satisfied with their own
enlightenment several of these progressive nobles requested Dr.
House to tutor their sons in English with a view to instruction in
science. As early as 1847, before the doctor himself could devote
time to such work, Mrs. Mattoon had undertaken to tutor Kuhn Gnu,
the son of the Praklang.
While at the tract house one day the doctor caught a glimpse of
the desire and capacity of the common people for learning. A boy
applied for a book. Knowing that the lad had received one the
previous day, the doctor began to catechise him on that volume
before giving him another. He was surprised to find that in a day’s
time the boy had mastered the details of the story of Elijah.
Upon this the doctor observes: “Now this is in effect, as far as
it goes, a school and a Christian school, where more knowledge is
imparted perhaps than would be in a regular school.”
Under the régime of the old king no regular school was possible,
not only because the monarch was antipathetic to western ideas but
because the Siamese had no common desire for education.
“It is next to impossible to interest the native Siamese in
education, because it is the custom for all boys to enter a
watt as novitiates for the priesthood, and as such are taught
to read; but to read is the limit of their ambition.”
The quickening of an interest in science among the upper classes
proved to be the awakening of some of the younger generation to the
desirableness of a broader education than the priests ever thought
of giving.
The first mention of a school as a proposed department of the
mission occurs as an entry in the journal on the first anniversary
of the arrival in Siam, when the doctor records briefly: “Plans for
interesting and instructing the young Siamese were discussed.”
Looking back over the course of affairs it is apparent that the
embryo of the mission school was the receiving of some children
into the homes of the missionaries to be taught, while assisting
in house work. As early as 1848 Mrs. Mattoon, with an eagerness to
do something to elevate the condition of child-life, succeeded in
obtaining two girls for this purpose, one of whom she named Nancy,
after her own mother, and one Abby, after the mother of Dr. House.
Later another was added, whom she named Esther.
In the next year Dr. House had apprenticed to him a Chinese lad of
thirteen named Ati, the nephew of his Hainanese laundryman. The
boy was bound for a period of three years, during which he was to
act as a house servant in return for instruction in English. As a
matter of fact this boy remained in connection with the mission
for a much longer period. The part played by these children was
not simply a demonstration of their capacity for a Western
education but, even more importantly, they formed a nucleus around
which to organise a formal school later. Until time was ripe for
such an undertaking the missionaries could only try in the most
experimental way to develop interest in education among the common
people with whom they came into more intimate contact.
Although Dr. House fitted himself for the medical profession, he
found that by taste and aptitude he was essentially a teacher. His
fixed purpose was to impart to the Siamese the Christian truth
about God and about salvation, confident that this truth would
awaken the sleeping conscience. His discontent with his profession
was to a large extent because it hindered him from the more direct
propagation of the Gospel. Observation early disclosed to him, what
other educators had discerned elsewhere, that the chief obstacle to
the consideration of the spiritual message of Christianity was the
false cosmogony as held by the people.
Their idea of the universe was based upon a total ignorance of many
common facts of nature, an ignorance which completely excluded from
their minds the idea of a spiritual God. They were so obsessed with
fallacies about natural phenomena that there was but small common
basis of physical knowledge upon which the missionaries could build
an argument to dispose of these grotesque ideas. For instance, the
popular explanation of a lunar eclipse was that a great dragon was
trying to swallow the moon. When an eclipse occurred, the people
would set up a din of kettles and drums to scare away the dragon.
Since the moon always escaped, the people were the more confirmed
in their belief. Then there was the old notion of the earth being
flat. In the midst of the earth was a great central mountain,
whence Buddha had come, surrounded by a vast plain; and inasmuch as
Siam occupied the middle of this plain, obviously there could be no
other greater country. Before truth could penetrate such an armour
of ignorance, it was necessary that nature be stripped of these
false ascriptions in order that there might be a common ground upon
which to consider the arguments for the Christian faith.
In the presentation of Dr. House’s message there can be traced an
orderly philosophy which reflects this situation. First he sought
to remove some of these false ideas by pointing out common facts
of nature which the natives had never observed. Next he sought to
explain the conception of God as Creator. From this he led on to
the love and mercy of God as revealed by Jesus. As a practical
sequence he aimed to give an elementary education to the few who
would receive it so as to demonstrate the Christian way of life.
This meant in the course of time the development of a system of
education.