Editing Mongkut (section)

===Education reforms===
During his reign, Mongkut urged his royal relatives to have "a European-style education."<ref name="Winichakul 1997, p.38" /> The missionaries, as teachers, taught modern geography and astronomy, among other subjects.<ref name="Winichakul 1997, p.38" /> Six years after Mongkut's death, the first Thai-language geography book was published in 1874, called ''Phumanithet'' by J.W. Van Dyke.<ref name="Winichakul 1997, p.47" /> However, geography was only taught in select schools, mainly those that were run by American missionaries with English programs for upper secondary students.<ref>Winichakul 1997, p. 48</ref> [[Thongchai Winichakul]] argues that Mongkut's efforts to popularize Western geography helped bring reform to education in Siam.