Andrew Bell (27 March 1753 – 27 January 1832) was a
Scottish Episcopalian
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...
priest and
educationalist
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...
who pioneered the
Madras System of Education (also known as "mutual instruction" or the "monitorial system") in schools and was the founder of
Madras College
Madras College, often referred to as Madras, is a Scottish comprehensive secondary school located in St Andrews, Fife. It educates over 1,400 pupils aged between 11 and 18 and was founded in 1833 by the Rev. Dr Andrew Bell.
History
Madras ...
, a secondary school in
St Andrews
St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...
.
Life and work
Andrew Bell was born at
St. Andrews, in
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
on 27 March 1753 and attended
St. Andrews University where he did well in mathematics and natural philosophy, graduating in 1774.
[Blackie 901]
In 1774 he sailed to
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
as a private tutor and remained there until 1781 when he left to avoid involvement in the war of independence. He returned to Scotland, surviving a shipwreck on the way, and officiated at the Episcopal Chapel in
Leith
Leith (; gd, Lìte) is a port area in the north of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, founded at the mouth of the Water of Leith. In 2021, it was ranked by '' Time Out'' as one of the top five neighbourhoods to live in the world.
The earliest ...
. He was ordained Deacon in 1784 and Priest in the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
in 1785.
In February 1787 he went out to India and went ashore at
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
, where he stayed for 10 years. He became chaplain to a number of British regiments and gave a course of lectures. In 1789 he was appointed superintendent of an orphan asylum for the illegitimate and orphaned sons of officers. He claimed to see some
Malabar
Malabar may refer to the following:
People
* Malabars, people originating from the Malabar region of India
* Malbars or Malabars, people of Tamil origin in Réunion
Places
* Malabar Coast, or Malabar, a region of the southwestern shoreline o ...
children teaching others the alphabet by drawing in sand and decided to develop a similar method, putting bright children in charge of those who were less bright. He was opposed to corporal punishment and used a system of rewards.
In Bell's adaption of the Madras, or
monitorial system The Monitorial System, also known as Madras System or Lancasterian System, was an education method that took hold during the early 19th century, because of Spanish, French, and English colonial education that was imposed into the areas of expansion. ...
as it later came to be known, a schoolmaster would teach a small group of brighter or older pupils basic lessons, and each of them would then relate the lesson to another group of children.
He was a careful man and accumulated considerable wealth. In August 1796 he left India because of his health and published an account of his system, which started to be introduced into a few English schools from 1798/99, and he devoted himself to spreading and developing the system. He served as a priest in Edinburgh for a short time and married Agnes, daughter of a Dr George Barclay in December 1801. He was then appointed Rector of
St Mary's Church, Swanage in Dorset and established a school there to teach straw-plaiting to girls and also using his system to teach infants. He and his wife adopted the new discovery of vaccination for smallpox and personally successfully vaccinated very many people in the district. However his marriage was unsuccessful and a decree of judicial separation was granted in 1806.
Another educationist,
Joseph Lancaster
Joseph Lancaster (25 November 1778 – 23 October 1838) was an English Quaker and public education innovator. He developed, and propagated on the grounds both of economy and efficacy, a monitorial system of primary education. In the first deca ...
, was promoting a similar but not identical system and their differences developed into a major and continuing dispute. Unlike Bell's schools, those established by Lancaster were not committed to the Church of England.
Bell received powerful support from the Church and his system was adopted in army schools and the Clergy Orphan School. A society was founded in November 1811 which set up schools using Bell's system. This was the National Society for the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Christian Church. By the time of his death twelve thousand schools had been established in Great Britain and the colonies. The system was also used by the Church Missionary Society and other institutions.
Bell was a fanatical enthusiast for his system and an intolerant man. He was difficult to deal with and hard to work under. Nevertheless, he always got on well with children.
Death
He retired to Lindsay Cottage in
Cheltenham
Cheltenham (), also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a spa town and borough on the edge of the Cotswolds in the county of Gloucestershire, England. Cheltenham became known as a health and holiday spa town resort, following the discovery of mineral s ...
, a wealthy man, at the age of 75 and died at home, aged 78, on 27 January 1832. He was buried in
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
with a monument designed and carved by
William Behnes
William Behnes (1795 – 3 January 1864) was a British sculptor of the early 19th century.
Life
Born in London, Behnes was the son of a Hanoverian piano-maker and his English wife. His brother was Henry Behnes, also a sculptor, albeit an i ...
. He left substantial sums of money for educational purposes but with what many considered unreasonable conditions attached.
His system did not survive for long after his death. It needed close and enthusiastic supervision and small classes and was only really useful when funds were sparse and teachers in very short supply.
[cf. Blackie 905]
See also
*
Bell-Lancaster method The Monitorial System, also known as Madras System or Lancasterian System, was an education method that took hold during the early 19th century, because of Spanish, French, and English colonial education that was imposed into the areas of expansion. ...
*
Learning by teaching
In the field of pedagogy, learning by teaching (German: ''Lernen durch Lehren'', short LdL) is a method of teaching in which students are made to learn material and prepare lessons to teach it to the other students. There is a strong emphasis on ac ...
(LdL)
*
Madras College
Madras College, often referred to as Madras, is a Scottish comprehensive secondary school located in St Andrews, Fife. It educates over 1,400 pupils aged between 11 and 18 and was founded in 1833 by the Rev. Dr Andrew Bell.
History
Madras ...
,
St Andrews
St Andrews ( la, S. Andrea(s); sco, Saunt Aundraes; gd, Cill Rìmhinn) is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fou ...
Notes
References
*Bell, Andrew: ''An analysis of the experiment in education, made at Egmore, near Madras'' (London, 1807: Available on Google Books)
*Bell, Andrew: ''An Experiment in Education Made At The Male Asylum of Madras. Suggesting A System By Which A School or Family May Teach Itself Under the Superintendance Of The Master Or Parent.'' By The Rev. Dr.Andrew Bell. 1797- Primary Source Edition
vailable on Amazon.com*Bell, Andrew: ''Mutual Tuition and Moral Discipline: Or, Manual of Instructions from Conducting Schools Through the Agency of the Scholars Themselves: For the Use of Schools and Families. with an Introductory Essay On the Object and Importance of the Madras Sysetem of Education.'' 1823 Primary Source Edition
vailable on Amazon.com*
*
*
Further reading
*
John Miller Dow Meiklejohn (1881), ''An Old Educational Reformer: Dr. Andrew Bell''
*
External links
Significant Scots: Andrew BellMadras CollegeTexts by Andrew Bell at archive.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Andrew
1753 births
1832 deaths
18th-century Scottish Episcopalian priests
19th-century Scottish Episcopalian priests
People from St Andrews
Alumni of the University of St Andrews
People educated at Madras College
Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Burials at Westminster Abbey
Scottish people of the British Empire
Fellows of the Royal Asiatic Society
Scottish orientalists
Scottish educational theorists
British people in colonial India