Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/140

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Village Life in Korea.

afford to let them go to school. So when a number of men get together and decide that they will open a school, the first step is to see how much money can be raised either in cash or in rice, which is always the equivalent of cash. When a sufficient amount has been subscribed to justify the calling of a teacher, he is secured and the school started. In this important personage the one absolutely necessary qualification is to know Chinese characters and to be able to teach them to boys. They have no wrangles over the sort of text-books to be adopted. The question of whose geography, arithmetic, history, tor speller is never raised, for the simple reason that none of these subjects are taught except history, and that is settled. The teacher knows nothing of such common studies, but he is past master in the art of reading and writing Chinese characters; and surely no other nor greater knowledge could reasonably be expected of a gentleman whose only business is to educate boys. The teacher having been secured at a price which I am quite sure would not make the average American teacher start to Korea at once, the room where the school is to meet is next selected and the work begins. The room may change with the coming of every new moon, since the teacher will most likely board among the pupils, staying only a month at each place, until he has made the entire round of the patrons. The school meets and studies in the room which he occupies, so that when he moves the school moves with him. For his services he will receive his board and