Monitorial system (education)
The monitorial system of education was an innovative method developed in the early 19th century that utilized older or more accomplished students, termed "monitors," to assist in teaching younger or less advanced peers. Pioneered by British educators Joseph Lancaster and Andrew Bell, this system allowed a single teacher to oversee a large classroom, sometimes consisting of hundreds of children, effectively allowing for mass education at a low cost. The monitors received initial instruction from the teacher and then facilitated the learning of smaller groups of students, creating a hierarchical structure within the classroom. While the method gained traction, especially in urban areas to educate the poor, it faced criticism for fostering a mechanical and impersonal learning environment, as well as for its reliance on untrained student instructors. By the mid-19th century, the monitorial system fell out of favor as educational philosophies shifted towards a more individualized, teacher-centered approach. Although it was once embraced in various regions, its limitations and the emergence of alternative educational frameworks led to its decline. Today, the monitorial system serves as a historical example of early attempts to address educational needs in a cost-effective manner.
Monitorial system (education)
The monitorial system was a method of education that used older, more accomplished students to teach younger or weaker students. The system was pioneered in the early nineteenth century by British educators Joseph Lancaster and Andrew Bell and gained popularity around the world. Under the system, a single teacher oversaw the education of a large classroom, often containing hundreds of children. The teacher instructed the better students, who in turn acted as "monitors," to assist those under them with their lessons. The monitorial system was designed to teach large numbers of students at minimal cost and was primarily used in larger cities as a means of educating the poor. Despite its initial popularity, the method was criticized as promoting a machine-like atmosphere for education and ran into opposition from teachers and religious groups. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the monitorial form of education had fallen out of favor and was replaced by newer educational methods.
Background
While the creation of the monitorial system is often credited to Joseph Lancaster, he was influenced by the work of Andrew Bell. Bell was a Scottish clergyman who devised an educational system using student instructors while a chaplain with the British army in India. Lancaster was born in 1778 and grew up in an impoverished section of London. As a young boy, he developed a love of reading and became an assistant teacher at the age of sixteen. Lancaster noticed that attendance among the students fluctuated greatly. On days when few students attended class, Lancaster and the teacher could afford to give students more personal attention. With a full classroom, the pair was hard-pressed to keep up.
Lancaster was a devout Quaker, a Christian religious denomination that believes people can experience the presence of God directly, without formal ministry and worship. These beliefs often left Quakers open to discrimination from the Anglican Church, England's state church. Quaker philosophy calls for service to the poor and oppressed, mirroring the behavior they saw in the biblical examples of Jesus Christ. In 1798, Lancaster merged his love of teaching with his Quaker beliefs and opened his own school in his family home. He charged poor families four pennies a week for expenses, but he would often waive the fee if they could not afford to pay. His first class consisted of two students, but by 1799, enrollment had jumped to about 130, forcing Lancaster to move the school to a larger building.
Overview
While the small fee charged to families was supplemented by donations from supporters in the community, Lancaster struggled to financially maintain his growing school. Remembering the lessons he learned as a student teacher, Lancaster wanted a system that could provide personal education to a large number of students in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. He adopted a form of mutual instruction employed by Bell, and developed a method that divided the classroom into segments based on proficiency and trained the more accomplished students to act as teachers. The classroom was overseen by a master teacher who instructed the monitors in the lessons at the start of the day. Each student monitor was then given the responsibility to teach a group of ten children. The monitors not only instructed their charges, but also supervised their discipline and progress, handing out rewards and deciding when promotions were warranted. As the younger students advanced, they could eventually become monitors themselves, while the older students could also move up to become assistant teachers or teachers. Eventually, the student monitors received a payment.
Students in Lancaster's schools learned the basic courses of reading, writing, and arithmetic in a regimented, structured atmosphere. While the curriculum also involved the study of Christian values and the Bible, education was nondenominational and not tied to the Anglican Church as was Bell's system. The method soon became known as the Lancaster System, and its popularity attracted the attention of influential supporters and high-ranking officials. In 1805, Lancaster was summoned to an audience with King George III, who was so impressed by the system that he promised to have the royal family personally donate more than 200 pounds annually to the schools.
In 1803, Lancaster published the pamphlet Improvements in Education, a work that highlighted his system and his educational philosophy. The pamphlet and the success of his schools in the United Kingdom brought his method to the attention of educators around the world. In 1805, a philanthropic group called the Free School Society brought Lancaster's method to the United States. The society was dedicated to increasing education among the growing ranks of the urban poor and set up a monitorial school in New York City. Within two years, the school had become so popular that a new structure was needed to house the students. The city donated the use of a building to the society and the New York State legislature granted a one-time appropriation of $4,000 plus an annual amount of $1,000 to the effort.
In the United Kingdom in 1812, there were more than 130 schools using Lancaster's monitorial system. By 1818 in the United States, the schools had spread from New York to other large cities such as Philadelphia. New York State began managing New York City's monitorial schools and funded them with revenue from a number of taxes. More than twenty-five thousand students were estimated to have been taught under the method annually in New York City in the 1840s.
Despite its seeming success, the monitorial system only remained popular for about half a century. By this time, a change in teaching philosophy had taken hold, with a movement toward free, public schools that focused more on teacher-driven education tailored more for individual student's needs. The system was subject to heavy criticism by opponents who viewed its methods as being impersonal, mechanical, and over reliant on memorization. In the United Kingdom, the schools' nondenominational stance angered some advocates of the state religion, who purposely built Anglican-run schools near Lancaster's schools to syphon off students. In the United States, teachers' groups complained that the use of unskilled student monitors was demeaning their profession. In the 1840s, New York City established the Board of Education, which set up its own publically funded school system and absorbed the monitorial schools in the early 1850s.
Bibliography
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