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BELL, ANDREW, D.D., author
of the "Madras System of Education," was born at St Andrews, in
1753, and educated at the university of that place. The circumstances of
his early life, and even the date of his entering into holy orders, are
not known; but it is stated that he was remarkable in youth for the
exemplary manner in which he fulfilled every public and private duty.
After having spent some time in America, we find him, in 1786, officiating
as one of the ministers of St Mary’s, at Madras, and one of the
chaplains of Fort St George.
In that year, the Directors
of the East India Company sent out orders to Madras, that a seminary
should be established there, for the education and maintenance of the
orphans and distressed male children of the European military. The
proposed institution was at first limited to the support of a hundred
orphans: half the expense was defrayed by the Company, and half by
voluntary subscriptions; and the Madras Government appropriated Egmore
Redoubt for the use of the establishment. The superintendence of this
asylum was undertaken by Dr Bell, who, having no object in view but the
gratification of his benevolence, refused the salary of 1200 pagodas
(L.480) which was attached to it. "Here," he reasoned with
himself, "is a field for a clergyman, to animate his exertion, and
encourage his diligence. Here his Success is certain, and will be in
proportion to the ability he shall discover, the labour he shall bestow,
and the means he shall employ. It is by instilling principles of religion
and morality into the minds of the young, that he can best accomplish the
ends of his ministry: it is by forming them to habits of diligence,
industry, veracity, and honesty, and by instructing them in useful
knowledge, that he can best promote their individual interest, and serve
the state to which they belong,—two purposes which cannot, in sound
policy, or even in reality, exist apart."
With these feelings, and
with this sense of duty, Dr Bell began his task. He had to work upon the
most unpromising materials, but the difficulties he had to encounter led
to that improvement in education with which his name is connected. Failing
to retain the services of properly qualified ushers, he resorted to the
expedient of conducting his school through the medium of the scholars
themselves. It is in the mode of conducting a school by means of mutual
instruction, that the discovery of Dr Bell consists; and its value, as an
abbreviation of the mechanical part of teaching, and where large numbers
were to be taught economically, could not be easily overestimated at the
time, although later educationalists have improved upon the plan, and the
Madras system is now less in use than formerly. The first new practice
which Dr Bell introduced into his school, was that of teaching the
letters, by making the pupils trace them in sand, as he bad seen children
do in a Malabar school. The next improvement was the practice of syllabic
reading. The child, after he had learned to read and spell monosyllables,
was not allowed to pronounce two syllables till he acquired by long
practice a perfect precision. From the commencement of his experiment, he
made the scholars, as far as possible, do everything for themselves: they
ruled their own paper, made their own pens, &c., with the direction
only of their teacher. The maxim of the school was, that no boy could do
anything right the first time, but he must learn when he first set about
it, by means of his teacher, so as to be able to do it himself ever
afterwards. Every boy kept a register of the amount of work which he
performed, so that his diligence at different times might be compared.
There was also a black book, in which all offences were recorded: this was
examined once a-week; and Dr Bell’s custom, in almost every case of ill
behaviour, was to make the boys themselves judges of the offender. He
never had reason, he says, to think their decision impartial, biassed, or
unjust, or to interfere with their award, otherwise than to mitigate or
remit the punishment, when he thought the formality of the trial, and of
the sentence, was sufficient to produce the effect required. But the
business of the teachers was to preclude punishment, by preventing faults;
and so well was this object attained that for months together, it was
not found necessary to inflict a single punishment.
An annual saving of not
less than £960, upon the education and support of two hundred boys, was
produced in the institution at Madras, by Dr Bell’s regulations and
improvements. This, however, he justly regarded as an incidental
advantage; his grand aim was to redeem the children from the stigma under
which they laboured, and the fatal effect which that stigma produced; and
to render them good subjects, good men, and good Christians. After
superintending the school for seven years, he found it necessary
for his health, to return to Europe. The directors of the charity passed a
resolution for providing him a passage in any ship which he might wish to
sail in, declaring, at the same time, that, under "the wise and
judicious regulations which he had established, the institution had been
brought to a degree of perfection and promising utility, far exceeding
what the most sanguine hopes could have suggested at the time of its
establishment; and that he was entitled to their fullest approbation, for
his zealous and disinterested conduct." The language in which Dr Bell
spoke of the institution on leaving it, will not be read without emotion,
by those who are capable of appreciating what is truly excellent in human
nature. During seven years which he had devoted to this office, he had
"seen the vices incident to the former situation of these orphans
gradually vanishing, their morals and conduct approaching nearer and
nearer every year to what he wished them to be, and the character of a
race of children in a manner changed." "This numerous
family," said he, "I have long regarded as my own. These
children are, indeed, mine by a thousand ties! I have for them a parental
affection, which has grown upon me every year. For them I have made such
sacrifices as parents have not always occasion to make for their children;
and the nearer the period approaches when I must separate myself from
them, the more I feel the pang I shall suffer in tearing myself from this
charge, and the anxious thoughts I shall throw back upon these children,
when I shall cease to be their protector, their guide, and their
instructor." Eleven years after he had left India, Dr Bell received a
letter, signed by forty-four of these pupils, expressing, in the strongest
terms, their gratitude for the instruction and care which he had bestowed
upon them in childhood.
On his arrival in Europe,
Dr Bell published, in 1797, a pamphlet, entitled "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
superintendence of the Master or Parent." The first place in England
where the system was adopted, was the charity school of St Botolph’s,
Aldgate. Dr Briggs, then of Kendal, the second who profited by Dr Bell’s
discovery, introduced it into the Kendal schools of industry. These
occurrences took place in 1798. In 1801, the system was fully and
successfully acted upon in the schools of the Society for bettering the
condition of the poor.
In 1808, Mr Joseph
Lancaster first appeared before the public. He published a pamphlet with
the following title—"Improvements in Education, as it respects the
Industrious Classes of the Community; containing a short Account of its
Present State, Hints towards its Improvement, and a detail of some
Practical Experiments conducive to that End." "The
institution," he says, "which a benevolent Providence has been
pleased to make me the happy instrument of bringing into usefulness, was
begun in the year l798. The intention was to afford the children of
mechanics, &c., instruction in reading, writing, and arithmetic, at
about half the usual price. The peculiarity of his plan seems to have
consisted, chiefly, in introducing prizes and badges of merit, together
with a mode of teaching spelling, which was said to economize time and
trouble: he also called in the assistance of boys, as monitors. In his
pamphlet of 1803, he freely accords to Bell the priority of the mutual
system, acknowledging also that the published account of it had furnished
him with several useful hints. Eventually, Mr Lancaster put forward a
claim, obviously unfounded, to be considered the sole inventor of the
system. One of his advertisements in the newspapers was thus introduced:—"Joseph
Lancaster, of the Free School, Borough Road, London, having invented,
under the blessing of Divine Providence, a new and mechanical system of
education for the use of schools, feels anxious to disseminate the
knowledge of its advantages through the united kingdom. By this system,
paradoxical as it may appear, above 1000 children may be taught and
governed by one master only." And on another occasion he writes:—"I
stand forward before the public, at the bar of mankind, to the present,
and for the future ages, avowing myself the inventor of the British or
Royal Lancasterian System." (Morning Post, 4th September.)
Again: "I submit the plan, original as it is, to the country. The
same cannot be found in any other work, unless copied or pirated."
(Preface to edition of 1808.)
But however unfounded
Lancaster’s claim to originality may be, there can be no doubt that,
through his exertions chiefly, the system was extensively reduced to
practice in England. Belonging to the sect of Quakers, a body whose
exertions in the cause of philanthropy are universally known, he did not
apply to them in vain for pecuniary support and personal exertion.
Lancasterian schools were rapidly established in all parts of the kingdom.
Dr Bell lived long enough
to witness the introduction of his system into 12,973 national schools,
educating 900,000 of the children of his English countrymen, and to know
that it was employed extensively in almost every other civilized country.
He acquired in later life the dignity of a prebendary of Westminster, and
was master of Sherborn hospital, Durham. He was also a member of the
Asiatic Society, and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He employed
himself during his latter years in writing several works on education,
among which the most valuable were, "The Elements of Tuition,"
"The English School," and a "Brief Manual of Mutual
Instruction and Discipline." The evening of his pious and useful life
was spent at Cheltenham, in the practice of every social and domestic
virtue. Previously to his death he bestowed £120,000, three per cent,
stock, for the purpose of founding an academy on an extensive and liberal
scale in his native city. He also bequeathed a considerable sum for
purposes of education in Edinburgh; which, however, to the everlasting
disgrace of the individuals intrusted with the public affairs of that city
at the time, was compromised among the general funds of that corporation,
a few months before its bankruptcy.
Dr Bell died on the 27th of
January, 1832, in the eightieth year of his age, and was buried in
Westminster Abbey, the archbishop of Canterbury and the bishop of London
acting as chief mourners. |
