Monitorial System

The monitorial system, also called the Bell-Lancaster method or the Madras system, is an early nineteenth century approach in which a small number of adult teachers direct large numbers of students indirectly, through older or more able pupils who serve as monitors and instruct their peers. It arose from two independent British originators, Andrew Bell, who developed it as superintendent of the Male Orphan Asylum in Madras from 1789 to 1796 and summarized it as the school teaching itself, and Joseph Lancaster, whose competing Lancasterian system took as its motto that he who teaches, learns. Both versions grouped children by ability in reading and arithmetic, tracked progress through registers, used rewards such as medals and badges, and relied on strict disciplinary codes and precise classroom arrangement, letting a single school educate far more children than a conventional staff of adult teachers could have taught directly.