Online Encyclopedia

order and cheerfulness of the school and the military precision of the children's movements began to attract much public observation at a time when the See also:

EDUCATION

education of the poor was almost entirely neglected. Lancaster inspired his young monitors with fondness for their See also:

WORK

work and with See also:

PRIDE, THOMAS (d. 1658)

pride in the institution of which they formed a See also:

PART

part. As these youths became more trustworthy, he found himself at leisure to accept invitations to expound what he called " his system " by lectures in various towns. In this way many new See also:

SCHOOLS

schools were established, and placed under the care of young men whom he had trained. In a memorable interview with See also:

George III., Lancaster was encouraged by the expression of the See also:

king's wish that every poor See also:

child in his dominions should be taught to read the See also:

Bible.

Royal patronage brought in its See also:

TRAIN (M. Eng. trayn or trayne, derived through Fr. from Late Lat. trahinare, to drag, draw, Lat. trahere, cf. trail, trace, ultimately from the same source)

train resources, fame and public responsibility, which proved to be beyond Lancaster's own See also:

POWERS, HIRAM (1805-1873)

powers to sustain or See also:

CONTROL (Fr. contrdle, older form contre rolle, from Med. Lat. contra-rotulus, a counter roll or copy of a document used to check the original; there is no instance in English of the use of " control " in this, its literal, meaning)

control. He was vain, reckless and improvident. In 18o8 a few noblemen and gentlemen paid his debts, became his trustees and founded the society at first called the Royal Lancasterian Institution, but afterwards more widely known as the See also:

BRITISH

British and See also:

FOREIGN

Foreign School Society. The trustees soon found that Lancaster was impatient of control, and that his See also:

WILD, JONATHAN (c. 1682-1725)

wild impulses and heedless extravagance made it impossible to work with him. He quarrelled with the See also:

COMMITTEE (from commute, an Anglo-Fr. past participle of commettre, Lat. committere, to entrust; the modern Fr. equivalent comite is derived from the Eng.)

committee, set up a private school at Tooting, became bankrupt, and in 1818 emigrated to See also:

AMERICA

America. There he met at first a warm reception, gave several courses of lectures which were well attended, and wrote to friends at See also:

home letters full of See also:

ENTHUSIASM

enthusiasm. But his fame was See also:

SHORT, FRANCIS JOB (1857– )

short-lived. The miseries of See also:

DEBT (Lat. debitum, a thing owed)

debt and disappointment were aggravated by sickness, and he settled for a time in the warmer See also:

CLIMATE

climate of See also:

CARACAS

Caracas. He afterwards visited St See also:

Thomas and See also:

SANTA

Santa Cruz, and at length returned to New See also:

York, the See also:

CORPORATION (from Lat. corporare, to form into a body, corpus, corporis)

corporation of which See also:

CITY (through Fr. cite, from Lat. civitas)

city made him a public See also:

grant of Soo dollars in pity for the misfortunes which had by this time reduced him to lamentable poverty. He afterwards visited See also:

CANADA

Canada, where he gave lectures at See also:

MONTREAL

Montreal, and was encouraged to open a school which enjoyed an ephemeral success, but was soon abandoned. A small See also:

ANNUITY (from Lat. annus, a year)

annuity provided by his friends in See also:

England was his only means of support. He formed a plan for returning home and giving a new impetus to his " system," by which he declared it would be possible " to See also:

TEACH [THATCH OR THACH], EDWARD (d. 1718)

teach ten thousand children in different schools, not knowing their letters, all to read fluently in three See also:

WEEKS, EDWIN LORD (1849-1903)

weeks to three months." But these visions were never realized.

He was run over by a See also:

CARRIAGE

carriage in the streets of New York on the 24th of See also:

OCTOBER

October 1838, and died in a few See also:

HOURS, CANONICAL

hours. As one of the two See also:

RIVAL

rival inventors of what was called the " monitorial " or " mutual " method of instruction, Lancaster's name was prominent for many years in educational controversy. Dr See also:

Andrew See also:

Bell (q.v.) had in 1797 published an See also:

account of his experiments in teaching; and Lancaster in his first pamphlet, published in 1803, frankly acknowledges his debt to Bell for some useful hints. The two worked independently, but Lancaster was the first to apply the system of monitorial teaching on a large See also:

scale. As an economical experiment his school at the Borough Road was a See also:

SIGNAL

signal success. He had one thousand scholars under discipline, and taught them to read, write and work See also:

SIMPLE

simple sums at a yearly cost of less than 5s. a See also:

head. His See also:

TRACT (from Lat. tractare, to treat of a matter, through Provencal tractat and Ital. trattato)

tract Improvements in Education described the gradation of ranks, the system of signals and orders, the functions of the monitors, the method of counting and of spelling and the curious devices he adopted for punishing offenders. Bell's educational aims were humbler, as he feared to " elevate above their station those who were doomed to the drudgery of daily labour," and therefore did not desire to teach even writing and ciphering to the See also:

LOWER

lower classes. The main difference between them was that the system of the one was adopted by ecclesiastics and Conservatives,—the " See also:

NATIONAL

National Society for the Education of the Poor in the principles of the Established See also:

Church " having been founden in 1811 for its See also:

PROPAGATION

propagation; while Lancaster's method was patronized by the See also:

EDINBURGH

Edinburgh See also:

REVIEW (Fr. revue, from revoir, to see again, Lat. re and videre)

Review, by Whig statesmen, by a few liberal Churchmen and by Nonconformists generally. It was the See also:

DESIGN (Fr. desiin, drawing; Lat. designare, to mark out)

design of Lancaster and his friends to make national education See also:

Christian, but not sectarian,—to cause the Scriptures to be read, explained and reverenced in the schools, without seeking by catechisms or other-See also:

wise to attract the children to any particular church or See also:

SECT

sect. This principle was at first vehemently denounced as deistic and mischievous, and as especially hostile to the Established Church. To do them See also:

JUSTICE (Lat. justitia)

justice, it must be owned that the rival claims and merits of Bell and Lancaster were urged with more See also:

PASSION (post-classical Lat. passio, formed from pati, passus, to suffer, endure)

passion and unfairness by their friends than by themselves.

Yet neither is entitled to hold a very high See also:

PLACE (through Fr. from Lat. platea, street; Gr. IrAar6s, wide)

place among the See also:

WORLD

world's teachers. Bell was See also:

COLD (in O. Eng. cald and ceald, a word coming ultimately from a root cognate with the Lat. gelu, gelidus, and common in the Teutonic languages, which usually have two distinct forms for the substantive and the adjective, cf. Ger. Kolte, kalt, Dutch koude

cold, shrewd and self-seeking. Lancaster had more enthusiasm, a genuine and abounding love for children, and some ingenuity in devising plans both for teaching and governing. But he was shift-less, wayward and unmethodical, and incapable of sustained and high-principled See also:

PERSONAL

personal effort. His writings were not numerous. They consist mainly of short See also:

PAMPHLETS

pamphlets descriptive of the successes he attained at the Borough Road. His last publication, An See also:

Epitome of the See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

Chief Events and Transactions of my Own See also:

LIFE

Life, appeared in America in 1833, and is characterized, even more strongly than his former writings, by looseness and incoherency of See also:

style, by egotism and by a curious incapacity for judging fairly the motives either of his friends or his foes. We have since come to believe that intelligent teaching requires skill and previous training, and that even the humblest rudiments are not to be well taught by those who have only just acquired them for themselves, or to be attained by See also:

mere mechanical drill. But in the early stages of national education the monitorial method served a valuable purpose. It brought large numbers of hitherto neglected children under discipline, and gave them elementary instruction at a very cheap See also:

RATE

rate. Moreover, the little monitors were often found to make up in brightness, tractability and See also:

ENERGY (from the Gr. ivipyela; iv, in, ipyov, work)

energy for their lack of experience, and to teach the arts of reading. writing and computing with surprising success. And one See also:

CARDINAL (Lat. cardinalis)

cardinal principle of Bell and Lancaster is of See also:

PRIME, PRIMER AND PRIMING

prime importance.

They regarded a school, not merely as a place to which individual pupils should come for guidance from teachers, but as an organized community whose members have much to learn from each other. They sought to place their scholars from the first in helpful mutual relations, and to make them feel the need of See also:

COMMON

common efforts towards the attainment of common ends. (J. G.

End of Article: LANCASTER, JOSEPH (1778-1838)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.

» Add information or comments to this article.

Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.

Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
LANCASTER, JOHN OF GAUNT

[next]
LANCASTER, SIR JAMES (f1. 1591—1618)