LANCASTER, JOSEPH

Improvements in Education as It Respects the Industrious Classes of the Community, Containing, among Other Important Particulars, an Account of the Institution for the Education of One Thousand Poor Children, Borough Road, Southwark; and of the New System of Education of Which it is Conducted.Third Edition, with Additions

      Darton and Harvey - Joseph Lancaster (25 November 1778 - 23 October 1838) was an English Quaker, and public education innovator. In 1801 he founded a free elementary school using a variant of the monitorial system. His ideas though were not original as Dr. Andrew Bell had been using a very similar system in Madras referred to as the Madras System of Education. The method of instruction and delivery is recursive, as one student learns the material he or she is rewarded for successfully passing on that information to the next pupil. This method is now commonly known as peer tutoring but the economics of Lancaster's or Bell's methodology is not widely discussed. Lancaster wrote Improvements in Education and later travelled to the United States to lecture and promote his ideas. His headstrong ways and poor money management made for rough times on himself and his schools. One of Lancaster's original schools, funded by royals, still runs under the name of The British and Foreign School Society but it is not known if the same methods used at the founding of the school, under the name The Royal Lancasterian Institution, are still in use today [wikipedia]. 8vo, xvi + 211pp. + list of subscribers + advertisements. Rebound in fine green cloth with paper label on spine, contemporary owner's inscription of title-page, very small library stamp on dedication page, untrimmed, wide margins. [Attributes: Soft Cover]