Session Information
Session 8, Historical Perspectives on Educational Provision (2)
Papers
Time:
2005-09-09
11:00-12:30
Room:
ENG
Chair:
Helena Ribeiro de Castro
Contribution
It is well known that the philosophical radicals supported the monitorial system devised by Joseph Lancaster. For example, James Mill and Francis Place were enthusiastic advocates of the Lancastrian monitorial system and founded the Royal Lancastrian Society (subsequently the British and Foreign School Society). The reason for their support was that characteristics of the monitorial system, segmented knowledge, emulation among pupils, and the system of reward and punishment, etc. conformed to their philosophy of mind and their utilitarian ethics. Jeremy Bentham, who was a central figure amongst the philosophical radicals also adopted the monitorial system as an educational method in his pauper management plan. Plans were made for apprentices in industrial houses to be educated by this method. He also constituted a new school plan for the children of the middling and higher ranks, named Chrestomathia, that depended upon the monitorial system. It was at the suggestion of Place that he started to write this plan. But it is curious that he relied not only on the Lancastrian system but also on the system of Andrew Bell. As is well known, the National Society for promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, which supported Bell's system, was opposed to the British and Foreign School Society. Given that in another work, Church of Englandism, the utilitarian Bentham criticized the Established Church, why did he draw upon Bell's system? The fact that he did indicates that Bentham believed the monitorial system to embody an important principle - a principle that mattered more than the religious conflict this presented him with. Bentham adopted the monitorial system as one of the management principles of the Chrestomathic School. The monitorial system seemed to provide the means for economical mass schooling for the labouring classes by the method of mutual instruction. But the Chrestomathic school was for the children of the middling and higher ranks. Hence, Bentham's attention was drawn not to the aspect of saving money but to the modernity of the system as a management principle. This paper will attempt to examine the relationship between Bentham's thought and the characteristics of monitorial system by investigating Bentham's works such as Crestomathia and Church of Englandism. Through this examination, the modernity of the monitorial system can be illustrated. This will lead to the suggestion that the dependency of Bentham's educational thought on the modernity of the monitorial system is a reflection of his intention to promote a totally modern government through education. The analysis also seeks to correct the image of Jeremy Bentham as the oppressor of the liberty of individual for the sake of 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number'. Bentham intended to secure the liberty of the individual systematically. For him the monitorial system was an expedient measure for creating modern liberal government.
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