The Monitorial System, also known as Madras System or Lancasterian System, was an
education
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. Va ...
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. This method was also known as "mutual instruction" or the "Bell–Lancaster method" after the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
educators
Andrew Bell and
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 ...
who both independently developed it. The method was based on the abler pupils being used as 'helpers' to the teacher, passing on the information they had learned to other students.
Monitorial Systems
The Monitorial System was found very useful by 19th-century educators, as it proved to be a cheap way of making primary education more inclusive, thus making it possible to increase the average class size. Joseph Lancaster's motto for his method was ''Qui docet, discit'' – "He who teaches, learns." The methodology was adopted by the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
in
England and Wales
England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...
, and later by the
National Schools System.
The Monitorial System, although widely spread and with many advocates, fell into disfavour with
David Stow
David Stow (17 May 1793 – 6 November 1864) was a Scottish educationalist.
Life
Born at Paisley, Renfrewshire, the son of a successful merchant, he was educated at Paisley Grammar School before entering the Port-Eglinton Spinning Co. in 1 ...
's "Glasgow System" which advocated trained teachers with higher goals than those of monitors.
The basic teaching and learning process used in the Monitorial System has been used in passing knowledge between people in many cultures because of its low cost to benefit ratio. Numerous institutions use the basic concept as their primary mode of instruction. There have been many observations regarding its efficacy,
in 35AD in Rome,
Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature.
Seneca was born in ...
, in an epistle to his friend, Lucillus, noted: ''
Docendo discimus
''Docendo discimus'' is a Latin proverb meaning "by teaching, we learn."
It is perhaps derived from Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC – 65 AD), who says in his ''Letters to Lucilius'' (Book I, letter 7, section 8): ''Homines dum docent discunt.'', ...
'' – we learn by teaching.
The Lancasterian System
![Giovanni Migliara - Confalonieri e Pellico alla applicazione del metodo Lancaster-Bell di mutuo insegnamento - aquarello](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Giovanni_Migliara_-_Confalonieri_e_Pellico_alla_applicazione_del_metodo_Lancaster-Bell_di_mutuo_insegnamento_-_aquarello.jpg)
Lancaster specified an ideal classroom (hall) as being a
parallelogram, the length about twice the width. The windows were to be six feet from the floor. The floor should be inclined, rising one foot in twenty from the master's desk to the upper end of the room, where the highest class is situated. The master's desk is on the middle of a platform two to three feet high, erected at the lower end of the room. Forms and desks, fixed firmly to the ground, occupy the middle of the room, a passage being left between the ends of the forms and the wall, five or six feet broad, where the children form semicircles for reading.
According to Gladman, to stimulate effort and reward merit, "Lancaster used Place Taking abundantly. He also had medals and badges of merit... Tickets could be earned too; these had a trifling pecuniary value." Prizes were given "to excess" ceremonially.
[.]
Frequent changes of routine aided discipline. A code of command and exact movements also reinforced discipline. Class lists and registers were kept.
Children were classified on a dual principle according to their ability in reading and arithmetic.
Lancaster described his system as to produce a "Christian Education" and "train children in the practice of such moral habits as are conducive to the welfare of society."
The Madras System
Bell's "Madras System" was so named because it originated at the Military Male Orphan Asylum,
Egmore
Egmore is a neighbourhood of Chennai, India. Situated on the northern banks of the Coovum River, Egmore is an important residential area as well as a commercial and transportation hub. The Egmore Railway Station was the main terminus of the Madr ...
, near
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 ...
. Gladman describes Bell's system from notes taken from ''Bell's Manual'' which had been published by the National Society two years after Bell's death, in 1832. "After observing children in a native school, seated on the ground, and writing in the sand, he set a boy, John Frisken, to teach the alphabet on the same principle... Bell was consequently led to extend and elaborate the system."
Bell declared, "There is a faculty, inherent in the mind, of conveying and receiving mutual instruction". In 1796, John Frisken was 12 years and 8 months old. With assistants, he was in charge of 91 boys.
![Dr](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Dr._Bell%27s_School%2C_Great_Junction_Street.jpg)
The school was arranged in forms or classes, each consisting of about 36 members of similar proficiency, as classified by reading ability.
The young teachers were kept to task through registers. Reading, ciphering and religious rehearsals were tracked through the paidometer register. Discipline was held through a 'Black Book', which had entries which were read to the entire school, and the faults were explained in moral terms.
The hall was built in rectangles, with windows five feet from the floor, but opening at the top. Desks were placed against walls, and the Master's desk was raised. "Fixing the master thus, deprived him of much of his power; he would do more good in passing from class to class, and teaching." critics said.
[
]
Comparison
Frederick John Gladman
Frederick John Gladman (1 February 1839 – 12 November 1884) was an Australian educationist and author whose work had an influence on the formation of Australia's educational system. His textbooks were used as late as the 1930s to train teachers. ...
, writing in the 1880s, distinguishes between the Lancasterian system and the Madras System. The Lancasterian System is described as preferring smaller classes, unlike Bell's Madras System.[
Despite the many similarities of the two systems, and the initial friendship of Lancaster and Bell, divisions appeared between their advocates. In 1805, ]Sarah Trimmer
Sarah Trimmer (''née'' Kirby; 6 January 1741 – 15 December 1810) was a writer and critic of 18th-century British children's literature, as well as an educational reformer. Her periodical, ''The Guardian of Education'', helped to define the em ...
published a paper claiming Lancaster's system was antagonistic to the Anglican Church. It was said that the country was soon divided into two camps; speeches, sermons, magazine articles and pamphlets appeared on each side. The National Society was formed to propagate Bell's System and the British and Foreign School Society
The British and Foreign School Society (BFSS) offers charitable aid to educational projects in the UK and around the world by funding schools, other charities and educational bodies. It was significant in the history of education in England, suppor ...
(B&FSS) was formed to propagate Lancaster's System.
There is one surviving Lancaster-designed British School in Hitchin
Hitchin () is a market town and unparished area in the North Hertfordshire Districts of England, district in Hertfordshire, England, with an estimated population of 35,842.
History
Hitchin is first noted as the central place of the Hicce peopl ...
, Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
—and this is now run as a museum with an experiential educational program suitable for Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 pupils.
See also
* 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 ...
* British Schools Museum (Hitchin)
The British Schools Museum is an educational museum based in original Edwardian and Victorian school buildings in Hitchin in Hertfordshire, England. The museum complex is made up of Grade II listed school buildings housing infants, girls and bo ...
, an example of a Lancaster-designed school
* Horace Mann
Horace Mann (May 4, 1796August 2, 1859) was an American educational reformer, slavery abolitionist and Whig politician known for his commitment to promoting public education. In 1848, after public service as Secretary of the Massachusetts Sta ...
, US proponent of educational reform
* Sudbury model
A Sudbury school is a type of school, usually for the K-12 age range, where students have complete responsibility for their own education, and the school is run by a direct democracy in which students and staff are equal citizens. Students use t ...
of democratic education
Democratic education is a type of formal education that is organized democratically, so that students can manage their own learning and participate in the governance of their school. Democratic education is often specifically emancipatory, with ...
schools
References
Notes
Bibliography
* .
* .
External links
* , about the monitorial schools.
{{Authority control
Pedagogy