Public School Life Handbook

All through my school life I was appalled by the fact that masters and senior boys were allowed literally to wound other boys, and sometimes quite severely.
I couldn't get over it.
I never have got over it.

A prestigious public school. Most students come from wealthy, powerful, or both families. Boys who have lived as young masters their whole lives are the first, and perhaps last, to be hit and cursed at.

Emphasis on classical (Latin/Greek) education. Science is neglected.

Everything is determined by rank. Starting with the order of meals, how many buttons on the uniform can be unbuttoned, whether you can cut across the lawn. Seniority is absolute, and above the highest grade, there are student officers, house captains, and student representatives.

New students serve as errand boys for senior students for several years after admission. They polish shoes and uniforms, clean studies, fetch tea, and on top of that, run personal errands – they do literally everything, and the school condones it. Since you become the one giving orders after a few years, everyone endures it.

Corporal punishment is a public practice. Usually, a cane is used as a switch. Not only teachers, but senior students also have the right to cane junior students. Caning is often administered for trivial reasons. Talking back, making a mistake in an errand, or the senior student just being in a particularly bad mood that day. Letters are sent home every weekend, but no one writes exactly what happened, like getting beaten up.