Monitorial System

The Monitorial System, 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. This method was also known as 'mutual instruction' or the 'Bell-Lancaster method' after the British educators Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster 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. The Monitorial System, 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. This method was also known as 'mutual instruction' or the 'Bell-Lancaster method' after the British educators Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster 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. 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 in England and Wales, and later by the National Schools System. The Monitorial System, although widely spread and with many advocates, fell into disfavour with David Stow'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 35 AD in Rome, Seneca the Younger, in an epistle to his friend, Lucillus, noted: Docendo discimus - we learn by teaching.