John Draper
That kindergarten children have been taught discipline by wearing military uniforms, drilling, and practicing Nazi salutes in any other country should have immediately triggered a rescue operation by social services, involving psychiatric care and deprogramming. In Thailand, however, the central administration has praised the school.
At least some Thai people have noted with concern the news that the kindergarten students of Dun Sat Community School, Kranuan District, in Khon Kaen Province, wear soldiers’ uniforms every Thursday. Here –on the left, is a picture of those students:
According to the kindergarten’s head teacher, the uniforms have been worn for the last four years on Thursdays in what is not a unique school experiment in militarised fascism in Thailand’s school system. The uniforms are worn as part of the school’s ‘Little Soldiers of Princess Mother’ project, which aims to instil discipline in children from 3-5 and educate them about the societal contribution of the late Princess Srinagarindra, His Royal Highness King Bhumibol’s mother.
Apparently, the children and parents are highly cooperative, one reason on the part of the parents perhaps being because not cooperating might be construed as lèse-majesté. Moreover, the uniforms and drilling are seen as effective in imbuing the small children, who only 3-5 years earlier were in their mothers’ wombs, with ‘discipline’, as proven by the fact the children collect rubbish after their being lectured every Thursday morning on the values of discipline and the life of Princess Srinagarindra.
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