Fagging

Fagging, a usage in the great public schools of England, in virtue of which the senior boys are authorised to exact a variety of services from the junior boys. A lower form boy has certain duties to perform to all the upper form boys, as in stopping the balls for them when practising cricket—and others which he owes to a special master, such as stoking his fire and carrying his messages, of a more or less private kind. The risk of capricious exercise of the senior boys' privileges in harassing or humiliating the juniors is sufficiently obvious; but, on the other hand, the system is said by its defenders to make boys handy, helpful, and docile, while taking the nonsense out of bumptious lads. And the argument chiefly relied on in its favour is that the relation thus established between seniors and juniors prevents bullying. The origin of the usage, which is prominent in tales of school-life, such as Tom Brown's School-days, is sought for in the necessity felt in great boarding-schools for a scheme of definite relations amongst the boys, so as to secure definite rights and immunities during the time when they are not in the teacher's presence. A similar usage, called Pennalism, sprang up in the German universities in the 17th century; and the freedoms taken, under the name of hazing, by sophomore and senior students with freshmen in the American colleges is somewhat analogous.