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THE LANCASTERIAN SYSTEM OF 
 
 INSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOLS 
 
 OF NEW YORK CITY 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN FRANKLIN REIGART, Ph.D. 
 
 TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
 CONTRIBUTIONS TCP EDUCATION, No. 81 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 tSmtiftva (Uollpg?, (Columbia :Hmu?rstty 
 NEW YORK CITY 
 
 1916 
 
 Monograph 
 
1 
 
 Copyright, 1916, 
 
 BY 
 
 John FRANkLiN Reigart 
 
 JUL -3 1317 
 
 ©CI.A467757 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. Introduction i 
 
 Present System. — Education in New York in 1805. — Free 
 School Society. — Infant Schools and Primary Departments. 
 — Saturday and Evening Schools. — Religion and the Schools. 
 — School Attendance. — Board of Education, 1842. — Con- 
 solidation of the Two Systems, 1853. — Financial Support. — 
 Philanthropy and Economy. — The Lancasterian System. — 
 Extension of Monitorial System. — Completeness of the 
 Experiment. 
 
 II. Rise of the Lancasterian System of Instruction 7 
 
 Introduction 
 
 Educational Progress in New York. — This study limited to 
 
 the Lancasterian System. — Vogue of the Lancasterian 
 
 System. — Extension of the System. 
 Origin of the System 
 
 Lancaster's First School. — Order. — Monitors. — Discipline. 
 
 — Economy in Instruction. 
 Lancaster's School as Described by Sydney Smith 
 
 Reading and Writing. — Arithmetic. — Order. — Rewards. — 
 
 Monitors. 
 Reasons for the Introduction of the Lancasterian System in 
 New York 
 
 Lack of Schools for the Poor. — Dame Schools. — Ex-Soldiers 
 
 as Teachers. — Teaching not a Profession. — Imposters. — 
 
 Methods Memoriter. — Similar Conditions in Other Cities. — 
 
 Teachers and Methods. — Loss of Time. 
 
 III. Introduction of the Lancasterian System into New York. . 17 
 
 Adopted by the Free School Society. — Method of Introduc- 
 tion. — Relation to London Schools. — Lancaster in New 
 York City. — Lancaster's Decline. — Personal Appearance. 
 — Lancaster's Plans for a National System. — Universal Edu- 
 cation. — "The Generous Plan." — Indian Education. — 
 Higher Education. — Lancaster as an Inspector. 
 
 IV. Organization of the New York Lancasterian Schools 24 
 
 School Buildings and Equipment 
 
 Buildings of the Free School Society. — Girls and Boys. — 
 Infant Schools. — Under Board of Education. — The School- 
 room. — Forms. — Semi-circles. — Alphabet Wheel. 
 
iv Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 Organization of the School 
 
 The Teacher. — Order. — Economy. — Efficiency. — Monitors 
 in 1820. — Assistant Teachers. — Monitors in 1850. — Limita- 
 tion of Monitorial System. 
 
 Classification of Pupils 
 
 Promotion by Subjects. — Fixed Grading. — Primary Schools. 
 — Grammar Schools. — Primary Schools in 1867. — Grammar 
 Schools in 1867. 
 
 School Sessions 
 
 Vacations. — School Hours. 
 
 Order of Exercises in Grammar School. 
 
 Order of Exercises in Primary School. — Order of Exercises 
 in 1850. 
 
 V. Methods of Teaching ^ 41 
 
 Reading 
 
 Eight Classes for Reading. — Alphabet Class. — Reading and 
 Writing Combined. — Sand Table. — Letter Board. — Place 
 Taking. — Alphabet Method Intellectual. — One Syllable 
 Class. — Slates. — Lack of Variety.— Reading Material. — 
 Similar Methods in 1850. — Book Manual. — Imitation of 
 Lancasterian Methods. — Weakness of the Monitorial Plan. 
 — Results. 
 
 Dictation 
 
 Early Use. — Dictation in 1850. — Formal Discipline. — Dic- 
 tation Boards. 
 
 Writing 
 
 Copies. — Poor Results. — Writing in 1850.— Writing Taught 
 by Questions. 
 
 Arithmetic 
 
 Grading and Promotion. — Monitorial Methods. — Use of the 
 Blackboard. — Results. — Earlier Methods in Arithmetic. 
 
 Science and Object Teaching 
 
 School Museums. — Infant Schools. — Astronomy Intro- 
 duced. — Dramatization in Astronomy. — The Holbrook 
 Plan of Science Teaching. — Object Lessons in 1850. — Lack 
 of Child Study. — Infant Training. — Precocity Cultivated. 
 — Exchange of Specimens. — Exchange of Specimens and 
 Letters as a Means of Averting the Civil War. 
 
 Manual Training 
 
 No Manual Training in the Schools. — Home Work En- 
 couraged. 
 
 School Libraries 
 
 Libraries in All Schools. — Moral Influence.— Children's 
 Reading in 1846. 
 
 VI. Religious and Moral Education 65 
 
 Religious but non-sectarian 
 
 Reading of the Scriptures. — Sunday Attendance Required. — 
 
Contents v 
 
 Catechism Taught. — Religious Instruction. — Religious Read- 
 ing. — Persuasive Charge. 
 
 Moral Training 
 
 Means Employed. — Reading Lessons. — A Moral Dialogue. 
 — Address to Parents. — Visits to Parents. 
 
 Moral Training through Monitorial Government 
 Obedience. — Order. — Industry. — Order Mechanical. — Fail- 
 ure as Means of Moral Training. 
 
 Punishments and Rewards 
 
 Lancaster's Punishments. — Lancaster's Hatred of the Rod. 
 — Punishment in the New York Public Schools. — Lancas- 
 ter's Punishments Discredited. — Rewards. — Discontinuance 
 of Gifts. — Plan of Self-Government. — Jury System. — Class 
 of Merit. 
 
 VII. School Inspection and Training of Teachers 86 
 
 Examinations and Exhibitions 
 
 Weekly Examinations. — Annual Examinations. 
 
 Training of Teachers 
 
 Monitors become Teachers. — Training in Six Weeks. — 
 Morning School for Monitors. — Saturday and Evening 
 Normal Schools. 
 
 VIII. Summary and Conclusion 94 
 
 Adequate Trial of the Monitorial System. — Reasons for the 
 Choice of the System. — Blind Adherence to the System. — 
 Decline of the Public School Society. — Educational Monop- 
 oly. — Distrust of the Society. — Decline of the Monitorial 
 System. — Monitors Supplanted by Teachers. — Failure of 
 Benevolent Despotism in Education. 
 
 Beneficial Results of the System 
 
 Education of the Community to the Support of the Schools. 
 — Training of Teachers. — Improved Organization. — Milder 
 Forms of Punishment. 
 
 Evil Effects of the System 
 
 Slavery to System. — School Organization. — Methods of 
 Instruction. — Discipline. 
 
 IX. Bibliography 102 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The present school system of the city of New York is the result of 
 
 growth and unification extending over a period of nearly a century, 
 
 from the organization of the Free School Society in 
 
 Present 
 1805 to the reorganization of the schools of the greater System 
 
 city in 1902. During nearly half of that period public 
 elementary education was a dminis tered by a corporation not respon- 
 sible to the people. From the establishment of the Board of Education 
 in 1842 to its absorption of the Public School Society in 1853, two 
 distinct systems existed. The formation of the greater city of New 
 York in 1898 involved great extension and new readjustment. To 
 the school system of the former city of New York, now the Borough 
 of Manhattan and the Borough of the Bronx, there were added two 
 city school systems, those of Brooklyn and Long Island City, and 
 thirty-five school districts in the Borough of Queens and twenty-nine 
 in the Borough of Richmond. Complete unification of these diverse 
 elements was not accomplished until the charter of 1901 went into 
 effect. 
 
 In 1805, for a population of more than 75,000, the only facilities 
 for elementary education were provided by private, church, and 
 
 charity schools, with one hundred and forty-one 
 
 , , i i j j j • Education in 
 
 teachers, of whom one hundred and six were men jj ew Y or k i8os 
 
 and thirty-five were women. A school for colored 
 
 children, the African Free School, had been opened in 1787 by 
 
 the Manumission Society; and a school for girls, in 1801, by the 
 
 Association of Women Friends for the Relief of the Poor, generally 
 
 known as the Female Association. The schools of these associations 
 
 were later taken over by the Public School Society; those of the 
 
 Manumission Society in 1834, and of the Female Association in 1845. 
 
 The purpose of the Free School Society, of which De Witt Clinton 
 
 was the first president and the largest contributor, was, as stated in 
 
 their first address to the public, "to extend the means 
 
 of education to such poor children as do not belong to, Society 
 
 or are not provided for, by any religious society." 
 
 The first school was opened in 1806. In 1826, owing to the desire 
 
 1 
 
2 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 to admit pay pupils, the name of the association was changed to the 
 Public School Society. At this time the schools of the Society num- 
 bered twenty-one, with 6007 pupils, while the number of children 
 between the ages of five and fifteen, who attended no school what- 
 ever, was estimated at 20,000. Bourne, in his "History of the 
 Public School Society," p. 121, presents the condition of the schools 
 of the city in 1826 in the following table: 
 
 Schools 
 
 Principal 
 Teachers 
 
 Assist- 
 ants 
 
 Pupils 
 
 430 Private 
 3 Incorporated 
 19 Charity 
 11 Public 
 
 432 
 
 6 
 
 25 
 
 21 
 
 259 
 23 
 
 5 
 - 24 
 
 15,320 
 1,081 
 2,544 
 6,007 
 
 463 Total 
 
 484 
 
 311 
 
 24,952 
 
 The Lancasterian system of instruction was introduced in the first 
 public school and was maintained throughout the existence of the 
 
 Public School Society. But New York 
 Infant Schools and . „ , . ■, ■, .* -n .l 1 
 
 Primary Departments was not unaffected by the Pestalozzian 
 
 movement, particularly by the form under 
 which it became most popular in England as Infant Schools. In 
 1828 permission was granted to the Infant School Society, organized 
 in the previous year, to organize schools in the basements of certain 
 public school buildings. These schools were open to children from 
 two to six years of age, and retained until dark the children of parents 
 who were occupied during the day. After the model of these Infant 
 Schools, the Public School Society in 1830 formed Primary Depart- 
 ments and, in 1832, Primary Schools. There were now three classes 
 of schools: (1) Public Schools, having the more advanced boys and 
 girls in separate departments; (2) Primary Departments, developed 
 from the Infant Schools; and (3) Primary Schools, admitting boys 
 from four to six years of age, and girls of four years and over. 
 
 A plan for evening schools for apprentices and others was put in 
 operation in 1833, but was relinquished after three or four years 
 
 owing to "smallness of numbers and the 
 Ev^nm^Schools Sreat difficulties in regard to discipline." 
 
 The real causes of failure were no doubt 
 that teachers were forced to serve without pay and that there was no 
 organization of authority. (Evening schools were afterwards suc- 
 cessfully inaugurated by the Board of Education in 1847.) Satur- 
 day and evening schools for the instruction of monitors, established 
 
Introduction 3 
 
 in 1834 and 1835, were more successful, as attendance was compul- 
 sory. These schools were known as "Normal Schools" though no 
 professional instruction was given. 
 
 In its inception the Free School Society was non-sectarian, but 
 not unmindful of the importance of religious training. The Bible 
 was read daily in the schools. Tuesday afternoons were set apart 
 for instruction in the catechisms of the various 
 denominations. On Sundays the children as- die Schools 
 
 sembled at the schools and then proceeded, under 
 the care of monitors, to the churches to which they belonged. As 
 the society successfully opposed attempts of various denominations 
 to share in the school money, it was open to attack in case any sec- 
 tarian bias was shown in its schools. Such bias in favor of Protes- 
 tantism was claimed by the Catholics on the basis of objectionable 
 passages in text-books and library books. Other denominations also 
 opposed the Society's maintenance of a monopoly of public educa- 
 tion in the city. 
 
 Another reason for lack of confidence in the existing system of 
 schools was the failure to provide adequate facilities for a rapidly 
 growing population and to secure school attend- 
 ance. Several attempts had been made to reach Attendance 
 the "idle and vicious." In 1828, Mr. Samuel W. 
 Seton was employed as "visitor" to hunt up vagrant children and 
 their parents, and to canvass among those who did not go to school. 
 Persuasion not being effective, the Common Council in 1832 ordered 
 that the Commissioner of the Alms House deny "public favor" to all 
 parents who did not send to school children between the ages of five 
 and twelve. In his annual message for 1842 Governor Seward stated 
 that 20,000 children of school age received no instruction in the city 
 of New York, while the number in the remainder of the state did 
 not exceed 9000. 
 
 With the establishment of the first Board of Education in 1842, 
 the Public School Society no longer possessed a monopoly in public 
 education. The new schools were called Ward 
 Schools, each ward being practically a school Education 1842 
 district. The monitorial system was not adopted, 
 a larger proportion of class rooms and teachers was provided and 
 higher salaries were paid. In less than ten years the attendance of 
 the Ward Schools surpassed the attendance of the schools of the 
 society, whose growth was checked by a law forbidding it to establish 
 
4 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 any new school without the consent of the Board of Education, and 
 by the refusal of the Board to furnish all the money needed to make 
 up deficits. 
 
 The anomalous situation of two systems of public schools existing 
 side by side came to an end in 1853, when the Public School Society 
 
 ceased to exist, and its schools, with an attend- 
 Consolidation of the r i , on nr\r\ j i. ^ ±. j 
 
 Two Systems i8s^ ance a b° ut 20,000 and property estimated at 
 about half a million, were turned over to the 
 Board of Education. During the forty-eight years of its history the 
 Society had, as it claimed, educated 600,000 pupils and trained 1200 
 teachers. 
 
 At first the public schools were supported by voluntary subscrip- 
 tion, with no fees from pupils, and no financial aid from the city or 
 state. The contributions for the first year 
 SuDoort amounted to $6501. The pay system was intro- 
 
 duced in 1826, but proved unsuccessful and, after 
 a trial of six years, was relinquished. Nor was the subscription plan 
 by any means adequate to maintain the public schools. As early as 
 1807 a grant of $500 was made by the city; and by the state $4000 was 
 appropriated for building, and $1000 annually to be paid out of the 
 liquor tax. From 1815 the Society received its share of the State 
 Common School Fund, amounting at that time to $3700, and from 
 1819 one half of the tax on lottery licenses, amounting to $1000. 
 The request for a tax of one-half mill was met by the Legislature in 
 1829 by the grant of a tax of one-eighth mill, which in 1831 was 
 raised to one-half mill. Governor Seward, in his annual message 
 for 1842, stated that the trustees of the Society were the dispensers 
 of an average annual sum of $35,000 from the Common School Fund 
 and $95,000 from a tax on real and personal estates of the city. Ex- 
 penditures rapidly increased under the Board of Education. After 
 1871 school buildings were paid for by the issue of city bonds. For 
 the maintenance of schools, the Legislature fixed, in 1901, a four mill 
 tax, which, however, two years later, was reduced to three mills. 
 This rate proved to be. insufficient, unless supplemented by appro- 
 priations by the Board of Estimate, to meet the cost of higher salaries 
 and the great expansion of school activities, a sum amounting to 
 about $40,000,000 a year, nearly one-fourth of the city budget. 
 
 That the education of the poor was a proper object of private 
 philanthropy, rather than a matter of direct public responsibility, 
 
Introduction 5 
 
 was quite in accord with the educational and polit- 
 ical ideas prevalent at the beginning of the nine- anc j 1 Economy 
 teenth century. Direct control of public schools 
 and greatly increased expenditures were manifestations of the broader 
 view of municipal functions which developed about the middle of the 
 century. In 1842 the Croton water supply was provided, in 1851 
 Central Park was purchased; in 1845 the Police Department was 
 established, in 1865 the paid Fire Department, and in 1866 the 
 Board of Health. The per capita expenditures doubled each de- 
 cade from 1850 to 1870. 
 
 The trustees of the Public School Society never had the funds or 
 the public opinion to support any expensive undertaking. They 
 lacked the money to establish a much desired high school or to sup- 
 port evening schools. Their finest school house, called a "model 
 building," cost $17,000 for ground, building, and furnishing. The 
 salaries of teachers were considerably less than those of the Ward 
 Schools. The cost of tuition and supplies per pupil was, in 1823, 
 as low as $1.80. 
 
 It was, in great measure, due to the "limited state of funds" that 
 
 the society introduced in their first school, in 1806, the monitorial 
 
 system, at that time in vogue in England and on 
 
 ,, ,. , , r i ji j , ,• j i The Lancasterian 
 
 the continent through the adaptation and popular- Svstem 
 
 ization of mutual instruction by Bell and Lan- 
 caster. As Bell's system was pushed by the Church of England 
 and associated with its religious propaganda, while Lancaster's was 
 non-sectarian and supported by non-conformists, particularly by 
 the Friends, the latter form was naturally the one to enlist the inter- 
 est of the trustees of the Free School Society, among whom Friends 
 were the dominant influence. For the details of the plan the Society 
 was indebted to its first secretary, Benjamin Perkins, who visited 
 Lancaster in London and published, in 1807, the first American 
 edition of the "Improvements in Education." Through the agency 
 of the British and Foreign School Society a trained teacher was 
 brought over from England in 1818. Lancaster himself arrived 
 later in the year. Though necessarily modified by the adoption of 
 the Infant School system, and by the introduction of higher branches 
 of study, the monitorial system retained the official sanction of the 
 society. To the city of New York belongs the distinction of the 
 introduction of the system in America and its most consistent sup- 
 port. 
 
6 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 The influence of the New York Public Schools and of the New 
 York Monitorial High School, founded by John Griscom (1825— 
 1831), was a marked factor in the foundation of 
 Monitorial°System monitorial schools throughout the country. With 
 the zealous and powerful advocacy of Governor 
 Clinton, the schools of New York, as later the schools of Quincy 
 under Col. Parker and those of Gary under Superintendent Wirt, 
 evoked widespread discussion, adulation, criticism, and imitation. 
 
 Seldom has any educational experiment had a trial so complete 
 and adequate, and few have resulted in so signal a failure. A self- 
 perpetuating body of most enlightened and dis- 
 Completeness of ,. . , , ... , ,,. , , ,. 
 
 the Experiment tinguished citizens, holding a monopoly in public 
 
 education in the metropolis, adopted a system 
 which seemed to promise "a new era in education," maintained this 
 system as nearly as possible "in its original purity," and retained 
 towards it an unshaken confidence even after its mechanical nature 
 and its educational inadequacy had become almost universally recog- 
 nized. 
 
II 
 
 RISE OF THE LANCASTERIAN SYSTEM OF INSTRUCTION 
 
 While the unparalleled growth of the New York School system 
 under the Free School Society to 1826, the Public School Society to 
 1853, and the Board of Education of the greater 
 
 citv to 1905 has been duly recorded, *» the his- Educational Progress 
 
 ' in j\ ew i ork 
 
 torian of a school system, engaged in tracing 
 
 the development of organization and adrninistration, finds but small 
 space for the description of methods of instruction and discipline. 
 Yet the changes that have taken place in teaching are as striking and 
 significant to the student of education as the remarkable increase in 
 numbers and material equipment. Simultaneous and draft instruction 
 has been replaced by the lessons of the class room, the child monitor by 
 the trained teacher, parrot-like dictation and interrogation by intelli- 
 gent teaching, the constraint of the gallery by the freedom of the 
 kindergarten, a program of monotony and dullness by the modern 
 enriched curriculum. 
 
 It is the purpose of this investigation to trace the part played by 
 that system of instruction which was adopted at the foundation of 
 
 the New York Free Schools, and which, with 
 
 !•/-,• • r -L ij: This Studv Limited to 
 
 modifications, was in use tor hall a centurv — T . J . c . 
 
 ' . - Lancastenan System 
 
 the system of monitorial instruction known 
 
 as the Lancasterian. This plan of instruction, now almost forgotten, 
 
 was, with its rival, but similar system, that of Dr. Andrew Bell, the 
 
 most popular means of elementary education during the first hah of 
 
 the nineteenth century. It formed the basis 
 
 for the most extravagant hopes for the im- T Wueof the 
 
 ° r Lancastenan System 
 
 provement of mankind. The Westminster 
 
 Review of January, 1824, estimated the improvement made in the 
 
 art of teaching as ''of more importance to the advancement of knowl- 
 
 1 Bourne, Wm. Oland, Public School Society of New York, New York, 1870. 
 ! Boese, Thomas, Public Education in the City of New York, New York, 
 1869. 
 
 3 Palmer, A. Emerson, The New York Public School, New York, 1905. 
 
 7 
 
8 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 edge than any discovery that has been made since the invention of 
 the alphabet itself." Governor De Witt Clinton, in his message to 
 the New York Legislature in 1818, drew a parallel between the estab- 
 lishment of the Lancasterian system and the introduction of labor- 
 saving machinery. To the trustees of the Lancaster School of 
 Georgetown, D. C., the system appeared as a sign from God, "that 
 he had not forgotten to be gracious." 1 Lancaster had the good for- 
 tune to secure the patronage or arouse the interest of the powerful 
 and learned of his time. Sydney Smith called George Ill's support 
 of Lancaster the brightest passage in the history of his long reign. 2 
 James Mill, Jeremy Bentham, the Duke of Bedford, Sydney Smith, 
 De Witt Clinton, and Thomas Jefferson were advocates of the system. 
 The extension of the system can be traced in the reports of the Brit- 
 ish and Foreign School Society. It became the basis for elementary 
 education in England; it was adopted as the national system of Ire- 
 land; was used in Scotland, especially in Glasgow and Edinburgh, 
 
 and in the British Colonies, India, West Indies, Can- 
 th Svstem a< ^ a anc ^ Africa. It was more or less employed in all 
 
 the countries of Europe except Turkey. It was widely 
 used in the United States and South America. Lancaster scarcely 
 exceeds the facts in his claim: "The system spread from Thames to 
 Ganges; it has encircled the equator; it has encompassed the poles." 3 
 In New York City, from 1806 to 1853,600,000 children were instructed 
 in Lancasterian schools. 4 
 
 America seemed to be the most favorable field for Lancaster's 
 system. In the words of DeWitt Clinton, "His tree of knowledge 
 is indeed transplanted to a more fertile soil and a more congenial 
 clime. It has flourished with uncommon vigor and beauty; its 
 luxuriant and wide-spreading branches afford shelter to all who re- 
 quire it; its ambrosial fragrance fills the land, and its head reaches 
 the heavens!" 5 
 
 Origin of the System 
 
 Lancaster, at the age of twenty, in the year 1798 opened in his 
 father's house in Southwark, London, a school for poor children. 
 
 1 Report of Georgetown, D. C, Lancaster School, 1812. 
 
 2 Edinburgh Review, XVII, 69. 
 
 3 Lancaster, Epitome, p. 9. 
 
 4 Report of Public School Society, 1853. 
 
 6 Clinton, DeWitt, address to the Free School Society, New York, 1809. 
 
Rise of the Lancasterian System of Instruction 9 
 
 Lacking education, except the most rudimentary, he 
 wsa equipped with a zeal which led him at the early s , , 
 
 age of eight to devote himself to the good of humanity 
 and at fourteen to start for Jamaica to teach the blacks. "He had 
 many of the qualifications of a great teacher — zeal, self-confidence, 
 ingenuity in devising methods, intuitive insight into the natrue of 
 children, an ardent love for them, and rare power of managing them. 
 He threw himself into the work of his new school with characteristic 
 enthusiasm. For the good or delight of his pupils no labour was too 
 severe and no sacrifice too onerous. For them he spent body, mind, 
 and estate (and as much of the estate of other people as they could 
 be induced to part with) ; on holidays he led large parties of them for 
 excursions into the suburbs; on Sundays, from forty to sixty of them, 
 bringing their own bread and butter, used to take tea with him; 
 and during the severe winter of 1799-1800 he fed and clothed some 
 sixty or eighty of them." 
 
 " . . . To a school where there was much to receive and little to 
 pay, and where the master was the embodiment of kindness and 
 generosity, the children came in crowds, and one room after another 
 grew too small." 1 Though aided by the subscriptions of his neigh- 
 bors and fellow Quakers, Lancaster was nearly overwhelmed by his 
 success in attracting pupils. Necessity lead him to utilize the boys 
 who knew a little in teaching the boys who knew less. "Lancaster 
 was a born organizer of children. He left nothing to chance or 
 caprice. To him we owe the pregnant mottoes: 'A place for every- 
 thing and everything in its place,' and 'Let every child at every 
 moment have something to do and a motive for doing 
 it.' Each act of school-life was regulated by a well- 
 considered series of signals and commands, and there were many 
 labor-saving devices." 2 
 
 The government of the school was almost automatic. "Little 
 was left for the master to do except to organize, to reward, to punish, 
 and to inspire. The very essence of the system was the Monitors 
 monitor. When a child was admitted, a monitor as- 
 signed him his class; while he remained, a monitor taught him (with 
 nine other pupils); when he was absent, one monitor ascertained the 
 fact, and another found out the reason; a monitor examined him peri- 
 
 1 Salmon, Joseph Lancaster, p. 5. 
 1 Ibid., p. 9. 
 
10 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 odically, and when he made progress, a monitor promoted him; a 
 monitor ruled the writing paper; a monitor made or mended the pens; 
 a monitor had charge of the slates and books; and a monitor general 
 looked after all the other monitors. Every monitor wore a leather 
 ticket, gilt, and lettered 'Monitor of the First Class/ 'Reading Moni- 
 tor of the Second Class,' etc." 1 The discipline of the school was based 
 upon emulation and shame. Place-taking and prizes were utilized 
 to an extravagant degree. The rod, of which Lancaster had a perfect 
 Discipline horror, was replaced by what in many cases seem to 
 
 be even more questionable devices; boys were labeled 
 with badges of disgrace, shackled, suspended in a sack or basket, 
 tied to desks or posts; while the incorrigible were sometimes tied up 
 in a blanket, and left to sleep at night on the floor in the school-house. 
 "The same desire to economise, which was the first motive for the 
 use of monitors, was also the first motive for changes in methods of 
 
 instruction. It was to avoid the cost of reading-books 
 I ^ruction* ^at Lancaster introduced reading-sheets; it was to 
 
 avoid the cost of paper, pens, and ink that he intro- 
 duced slates; it was to avoid the cost of the arithmetic text-books 
 and the 'cyphering' books into which it was the custom to copy all 
 worked 'sums' that he introduced his wonderful 'plan whereby any 
 child who can read may teach arithmetic with the utmost certainty.'" 2 
 
 Lancaster's School Described by Sidney Smith 
 The Edinburgh Review, an ardent and influential advocate of 
 Lancaster's methods, contains the following description of the new 
 system, "The first or lower class of children are taught to write the 
 printed alphabet, and to name the letters when they see them. The 
 same with the figures used in arithmetic. One day the boy traces 
 the form of the letter, or figure; the next he tells the name, when he 
 sees the letter. These two methods assist each other. When he is 
 required to write H, for example, the shape of the letter which he saw 
 yesterday assists his manual execution — when he is required to say 
 how that letter is named, the shape of the letter reminds him of his 
 manual execution; and the manual execution has associated itself 
 with the name. In the same manner he learns syllables 
 Reading and an( j WO rds ; writing them one day — reading them the next. 
 The same process for writing the common epistolary 
 character, and for reading it. 
 
 1 Salmon, Joseph Lancaster, p. 7. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 12. 
 
Rise of the Lancasterian System of Instruction 11 
 
 " (A) This progress made, the class go up to the master to read — a 
 class consisting perhaps of 30. While one boy is reading, the word, 
 e. g. Ab-so-lu-ti-on, is given out with a loud voice by the monitor, 
 and written down by all the other 29 boys, who are provided with 
 slates for the purpose; which writing is looked over by monitors, and 
 then another word called, and so on; whoever writes a word, spells it 
 of course at the same time, and spells it with much more attention 
 than in the common way. So that there is always one boy reading, 
 and twenty-nine writing and spelling at the same time; whereas, in 
 the ancient method, the other twenty-nine did nothing. 
 
 " (B) The first and second classes write in sand; the middle classes 
 on slates; only a few of the upper boys on paper with ink. This is a 
 great saving point of expense, — in books the saving is still greater. 
 Twenty or thirty boys stand around a card suspended on a nail, 
 making a semicircle. On this card are printed the letters in very 
 large characters; — these letters the boys are to name, at the request 
 of the monitor. When one spelling class have said their lessons in 
 this manner, they are despatched off to some other occupation, and 
 another spelling class succeeds. In this way one book or card may 
 serve for two hundred boys, who would, according to the common 
 method, have had a book each. In the same manner, syllables and 
 reading lessons are printed on cards and used with the same bene- 
 ficial economy. 
 
 "(C) In arithmetic, the monitor dictates a sum, ex. gr. in addi- 
 tion, which all the boys write down on their slates, for example, 
 
 7 2 4 
 
 o^o Arithmetic 
 
 9 4 6 
 
 He then tells them, aloud, how to add the sum. First column — 
 6 and 8 are 14, and 4 are 18; set down 8 and carry 1 to the next 
 column; and so on. In this manner, the class acquire facility of 
 writing figures, and placing them; and, by practising what the mon- 
 itor dictates, insensibly acquire facility in adding. Again they are 
 placed around arithmetical cards, in the same manner as in para- 
 graph (B), and required to add up the columns. This method evinces 
 what progress they have made from the preceding method of dic- 
 tating; and the two methods are always used alternately. 
 
 "It is obvious that a school like this of Mr. Lancaster's, consist- 
 ing of from 700 to 1000 boys, would soon fall into decay, without 
 
12 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 very close attention to order and method. In this part of his system, 
 q , Mr. Lancaster has been as eminently successful as in any 
 
 other; contriving to make the method and arrangement, 
 so necessary to his institution, a source of amusement to the children. 
 In coming into school, in going out, and in moving in their classes from 
 one part of the school to another, the children move in a kind of meas- 
 ured pace, and in known places, according to their number, of which 
 every boy has one. Upon the first institution of the school, there was 
 a great loss and confusion of hats. After every boy has taken his 
 place there, they all stand up expecting the word of command, ' Sling 
 your hats!' upon which they immediately suspend their hats round 
 their necks by a string provided for that purpose. When the young 
 children write in sand, they all look attentively to their monitor, wait- 
 ing for the word, and instantly fall to work, with military precision, 
 upon receiving it. All these little inventions keep children in a con- 
 stant state of activity, prevent the listlessness so observable in all 
 other institutions for education, and evince (trifling as they appear to 
 be) a very original and observing mind in him who invented them. 
 
 "The boys assembled round their reading or arithmetical cards 
 take places as in common schools. The boy who is at the head of 
 Rewards t ^ ie c ^ ass wears a ticket, with some suitable inscription, 
 and has a prize of a little picture. The ticket-bearer 
 yields his badge of honor to whoever can excel him; and the desire 
 of obtaining and fear of losing the mark of distinction, create, as 
 may easily be conceived, no common degree of enterprize and exer- 
 tion. Boys have a prize when they are moved from one class to 
 another, as the monitor has also from whose class they are removed. 
 Mr. Lancaster has established a sort of paper currency of tickets. 
 These tickets are given for merit — two tickets are worth a paper 
 kite; three worth a ball; four worth a wooden horse, etc. 
 
 "It is no unusual thing with me to deliver one or two hundred 
 prizes at the same time. And at such times the countenances of 
 the whole school exhibit a most pleasing scene of delight; as the boys 
 who obtain prizes commonly walk around the school in procession, 
 holding the prizes in their hands, with a herald proclaiming before 
 them, 'These good boys have obtained prizes for going into another 
 class.' The honor of this has an effect as powerful, if not more so, 
 than the prizes themselves. 
 
 "A large collection of toys, bats, balls, pictures, kites, is suspended 
 above the master's head beaming glory and pleasure upon the school 
 
Rise of the Lancasterian System of Instruction 13 
 
 beneath. Mr. Lancaster has also, as another incentive, an order 
 of merit. No boys are admitted to this order but those who dis- 
 tinguish themselves by attention to their studies, and by their en- 
 deavours to check vice. The distinguishing badge is a silver medal 
 and plated chain hanging from the neck. The superior class has a 
 fixed place in the school; any class that can excel it may eject them 
 from this place and occupy it themselves. Every member, both of 
 the attacking and defending classes, feels of course the most lively 
 interest in the issue of the contest. 
 
 "Mr. Lancaster punishes by shame rather than pain; varying the 
 means of exciting shame, because, as he justly observes, any mode 
 of punishment long continued loses its effect. 
 
 "The boys in the school appointed to teach others are called mon- 
 itors; they are in the proportion of about one monitor to ten boys. 
 So that, for the whole school of one thousand boys, ™ . 
 
 there is only one master; the rest of the teaching is 
 all done by the boys themselves. Besides the teaching monitors, 
 there are general monitors, such as, inspectors of slates, inspectors 
 of absentees, etc." 1 
 
 Reasons for the Introduction of the Lancasterian System 
 in New York 
 
 That without royal patronage or the stimulus of religious contro- 
 versy, America should rival England in the adoption and extension 
 of so mechanical a system of instruction as the one just described 
 would seem incomprehensible at this date were it not for the evidence 
 of the extremely inferior and inadequate school facilities in our cities 
 before the introduction of the Lancasterian system. To supply 
 instruction to the thousands of neglected children there was at hand 
 a ready-made plan, remarkably cheap in operation, and, with all its 
 faults, apparently superior in method and discipline to the schools 
 of the day. "Previous to the establishment of the Free School 
 Society in 1806, there were but five charity schools in the City of 
 New York, and these were small and for the ex- 
 clusive benefit of the children of members of the , th C p 
 several religious sects supporting them. The chil- 
 dren of a large portion of the poor population were constantly left 
 a prey to all the evils of ignorance and idleness, and were growing 
 
 Sydney Smith, Edinburgh Review, 1807, Vol. XI, pp. 62-65. 
 
14 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 up in habits calculated to fit them for the tenantry of pauper and 
 prison establishments." 1 
 
 For children of the better classes the educational opportunities 
 were but little superior. Washington Irving, "in his fourth year 
 
 was sent to a school in Ann Street between William 
 S In* I an< ^ Gold, kept by Miss Ann Kilmaster. Here he 
 
 continued upwards of two years, making very little 
 progress beyond the alphabet. From Miss Kilmaster's he was trans- 
 ferred, toward the close of 1789, to a school for both sexes kept by 
 
 Benjamin Romaine, at 198 Fulton Street. Romaine 
 as Teachers ^ad ^ een a S0 ^ (Uer m the revolution, and was a thor- 
 
 ough disciplinarian." 2 The common type of illiter- 
 ate and unprincipled teachers in New York during the first quarter 
 of the century is pictured in the pages of the Academician. "We 
 
 need not expect a salutary change in our instructors 
 Profession" ^ anc * s y stem °f education as long as the business is 
 
 run as an auxiliary to the acquirement of a particular 
 profession." . . . "Not one in a thousand who is a preceptor 
 from necessity, and has a particular post of honor in view bestows 
 the attention which is requisite in the art of teaching, as he is too 
 much occupied in preparing himself for his intended business." 3 A 
 lack of professional standards is indicated by the practice of teachers 
 going around "to beg scholars" "Sir, if you will send your children to 
 me I will teach them better than any other person, and for less, I will 
 take them for two dollars, or for nothing rather than they should go 
 
 to Mr. ." 4 "The effects of low and illiterate preceptors are 
 
 most severely felt in this city. The minds of their pupils, left unex- 
 Im sters ercised, are open to all the vices prevalent among 
 
 the most worthless part of the community. The 
 children have nothing to do but run in the streets, upon the dismis- 
 sion of schools. In the morning they return to lounge out their time 
 in indolence and ignorance. Hence is the contempt in which some 
 schools are held. Children make no improvement. Parents are so 
 thoughtless as to commit their children to the care of illiterate and 
 daring imposters." 5 
 
 1 Report, New York Free School Society, 1823. 
 
 2 Pierre M. Irving, Life and Letters of Washington Irving, 1871, Chap. 
 II, p. 11. 
 
 3 Academician, 1818, pp. 37-38. 
 
 4 Ibid., 1818, p. 208. 
 6 Ibid., p. 226. 
 
Rise of the Lancasterian System of Instruction 15 
 
 The methods of teaching may be inferred from the character of the 
 teacher. "The vague and ill devised methods of teaching in general 
 are fraught with the most serious evils. . . . 
 Our youths are made to languish over books of Memoriter 
 
 words accompanied only by the midnight lamp, 
 without explanation or oral instruction, and compelled to recite these 
 words, not understood, verbatim, on entering school the next morn- 
 ing. This, although a popular method, is one of the most inconsist- 
 ent, absurd requisitions that was ever forced on human beings." 1 
 
 That New York was not unique among our great cities for its inad- 
 equate and inferior educational opportunities during the first quarter 
 
 of the nineteenth century and that the conditions 
 
 , r • i i • i • -j j i. Conditions 
 
 here were fairly typical, is evidenced by compar- j n other Cit' 
 
 ison with Boston schools of the same period. 
 
 Primary schools were not established until 1818. To that time the 
 
 alphabet and reading were taught in dame schools or at home. No 
 
 pupils were admitted to the Grammar School unless 
 
 they could read. Writing was taught in separate ' B 
 
 schools. In 1800 the free schools taught 900 pupils 
 
 and private schools 500; in 1817, the public schools, 2365, and the 
 
 private, 4132. It was estimated that 529 children of school age were 
 
 not in school. 2 
 
 Many of the teachers were old soldiers. Henry K. Oliver says that 
 
 his first school in Boston, in 1805, was kept by 
 
 man, wife, and widowed daughter; poor people, e ^g^ds 
 
 who were patronized to save them from deeper 
 
 want. "By him was I taught my a, b, c, d, e, f, g, my a, b, abs and 
 
 my e, b, ebs, after the old, old, way, in an old book in his old hand, 
 
 and pointing with an old pin to the old letters on the old page, and 
 
 making each of us chicks repeat their several names till we could tell 
 
 them at sight, though we did not know what it was all for." 3 The 
 
 A, B, C's were taught forward and back. Dilworth's Speller was the 
 
 principal text, the Psalter, the only reading book. 4 "There were no 
 
 schools systematically graded, there were no blackboards, no globes, 
 
 or other ordinary school apparatus in schools I attended. I never 
 
 saw a full-sized map or illustration pictures. There was no Warren 
 
 1 Academician, Vol. I, p. 244. 
 
 2 American Journal of Education, Vol. 19, p. 470. 
 
 3 Oliver, H. K., American Institute of Instruction, Lectures, 1871. 
 
 4 American Journal of Education, Vol. 13, pp. 737-752. 
 
16 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 Colburn arithmetic. The method of teaching the science of number 
 was utterly unscientific. No recitation rooms were attached to gen- 
 eral school rooms. In this room we sat, studied, idled, recited, were 
 flogged as the case may be." 1 
 
 Boston Primary Schools, containing fifty to sixty children, were 
 taught on an individual basis, with consequent loss of time. "Let 
 an observer enter any of these not taught on the moni- 
 T - torial plan, and he will see five or ten children around the 
 
 teacher receiving her immediate attention, and all the 
 rest more or less orderly according to the dispositions of the children, 
 and the efficiency of the instructor, but mostly idle and languid. 
 A calculation of the time assigned to the' actual instruction of each 
 scholar . ' . . will give six minutes as the total average." 2 
 Conditions in the Latin School were not much better. "Nobody can 
 be ignorant of the vast amount of time squandered at school, during 
 the time scholars are not saying, and perhaps not even pretending 
 to learn, their lessons. The best regulated schools we have ever 
 seen, in other countries or in this, appropriate but a very trivial por- 
 tion of time to the actual business of tuition. . . . The Boston 
 Latin School, one of the best taught in the country, is an undisputed 
 example of unusual success in the common methods of teaching. 
 But in lower forms, boys who have been to a lesson or two in Latin 
 are then dismissed to Writing School for work which could have been 
 done in unoccupied time in Latin School." 3 
 
 Oliver, H. K., op. cit. 
 
 2 American Journal of Education, 1828, Vol. Ill, p. 289. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 288. Review of Boston School Committee Report on Monitorial 
 Instruction. 
 
Ill 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF THE LANCASTERIAN SYSTEM INTO 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 It was but natural that the public spirited men who formed the 
 New York Free School Society in 1805 should be influenced by the 
 much heralded work of their fellow Quaker in London. 
 The Lancasterian system was put into operation in Adopted by 
 
 their first school, opened 1806, and in every succeeding So ■ ^ 
 
 school. It remained the official system of the schools 
 of the Society until 1853 when the Board of Education assumed con- 
 trol of all the public schools. 
 
 As the New York Free School was the first to employ the Lancas- 
 terian system in America, it has been assumed that the first teacher 
 employed by the society, William Smith, must have 
 learned the system in England. 1 But there is no instruction 
 
 record to this effect. The method of in trod action was 
 no doubt as stated by Lancaster himself in the Baltimore edition of 
 his "Lancasterian System of Education." 2 "In 1802, a Friend by the 
 name of Perkins, from the city of New York, visited Joseph Lancaster 
 in London, and published an edition of his first book upon his return to 
 America. This induced a private teacher to attempt the plan, and B. 
 Perkins continued to give his advice grounded on what he had wit- 
 nessed in practice. Such a degree of success attended this early 
 effort that, in process of time, about three thousand children have 
 been educated in schools in that city. Without undervaluing the 
 aid given to the cause by private individuals, the governor, DeWitt 
 Clinton, has fully established his reputation, as the first public man 
 who officially rendered services to the introduction of a system of 
 which he is a steady friend and supporter." The Benjamin D. Per- 
 kins here referred to was the first secretary of the Free School Society, 
 
 1 Palmer, A. Emerson, New York Public Schools, p. g. 
 
 2 Lancaster, Joseph, The Lancasterian System of Education with improve- 
 ments by its founder, Lancaster Institute, Baltimore, Md., Wm. Ogden Niles, 
 printer, 1821, p. xiv. 
 
 17 
 
18 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 was recognized as their main authority on Lancaster's methods, and 
 was the publisher of the New York edition of Lancaster's "improve- 
 ments in Education." x The first report of the Free School Society 
 tends to confirm Lancaster's statement: "The limited state of funds 
 rendering the utmost economy necessary, the celebrated system of 
 Lancaster recommended itself to their notice as particularly adapted 
 to the occasion. Every inquiry respecting it tended to increase an 
 inclination to make an experiment of it. Happily a teacher who had 
 already adopted it with success and who in other respects appeared 
 well qualified for the undertaking was found." 2 
 
 The trustees took every means to maintain the purity of their 
 chosen system. In 1818, they imported" a teacher, Charles Picton, 
 
 from the parent school in London; in 1820, they 
 London Schools issued a new manual based on that of the British 
 
 and Foreign School Society for 1816; and in 1818, 
 they welcomed the author of the system, Joseph Lancaster. "His ar- 
 rival, about the year 1820, created a sensation among the friends of 
 useful knowledge. Lancaster, by many years' service abroad and by 
 the discussion which arose from his system of instruction, had rendered 
 his name quite familiar at the time of his appearance in New York. 
 It was conceded that he had effected a substantial advance in the 
 means of enlightening the masses, and at a pecuniary expense well 
 worth the action of the economical teacher. The patrons of the com- 
 mon schools, such men as Clinton, Griscom, Eddy and Wood, felt the 
 duty obligatory to pay deference to the philosophical stranger, and 
 give countenance to his suggestions. But he had little to offer that 
 was new, the Lancasterian plan had been already widely tested; it had 
 its friends and opponents." 3 . . . "The very Quakerism of Lan- 
 caster had tended vastly to promote the diffusion of his system, and 
 
 the encouragement of his plans, and the support 
 ancas er in ew ^ rece j ve( j ought to have secured at least his 
 
 temporal independence. But with increased 
 fiscal means his expenditures had increased and the philanthropic 
 man, deserting the rigid and frugal habits of his sect, involved himself 
 in many obligations, and now sought the chances of redemption by 
 
 1 Collins and Perkins, 1807. 
 
 2 Sketch of the New York Free School in Lancaster's Improvements in 
 Education, New York, 1807, p. xxi. 
 
 3 Francis, John W., Old New York, 1866, pp. 185-187. 
 
Introduction of the Lancasterian System Into New York 19 
 
 his transatlantic residence. There was, however, little to do by Lan- 
 caster or for him. Within a short time he became an object of elee- 
 mosynary relief ; yet his Quaker disciples, with characteristic benevo- 
 lence, were not behindhand in contributions. While, however, he 
 could enumerate DeWitt Clinton within his charity 
 
 T ,7\ wc7\ s1"p.r* s 
 
 circle of friends, he felt protected. The latter years Decline 
 
 of his life gave unmistakable evidence of hard times with 
 him. I have rarely seen an object of deeper commiseration among 
 individuals who, according to the world's decision, had made a mark. 
 He who had once figured in England in his chariot and six, felt the 
 want of means to purchase a crutch. An accident terminated his 
 life in New York in 1839. I have indicated that Clinton was especi- 
 ally kind toward Lancaster. It was that sort of kindness that arose 
 from the consideration of the good he had done, and could in no wise 
 originate from a contemplation of the man himself. 
 He was now a mass of obesity, unwieldy, and of feeble Appearance 
 articulation, such as we occasionally see in individuals 
 of objectionable habits, loaded with adipose deposits, 'an aggravated 
 agglomeration of superabundant redundancies.'" 1 
 
 Lancaster himself considered his presence in the United States as 
 an affair of national significance. After official receptions in New 
 York, Albany, and Philadelphia, he visited Congress on the 26th of 
 of January, 1819, when the House of Representatives Plans for a 
 passed a resolution: "That Joseph Lancaster, the National 
 
 friend of learning and of man be admitted to a seat with- System 
 
 in the Hall." 2 In a series of letters addressed to President Monroe, 
 Henry Clay, Speaker of the House, and Representative Bassett, 
 Lancaster develops his ideas for advancing the "general prosperity 
 of this country" by means of the application of his system to higher 
 as well as elementary education and to the education of the Indians. 
 These letters, found in the Astor Library, constitute no doubt the 
 missing pamphlet referred to by Salmon: 3 "Letters on national sub- 
 jects, auxiliary to universal education and scientific knowledge; 
 addressed to Burwell Bassett, late member of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives; Henry Clay, Speaker of the House of Representatives; 
 and James Monroe, President of the United States of America. By 
 
 1 Ibid., p. 187. 
 
 1 Epitome, p. II. 
 
 3 Salmon, Joseph Lancaster, p. 5. 
 
20 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 Joseph Lancaster, founder of the Lancasterian System of Educa- 
 tion." 1 
 
 The first letter is headed "National Institutions" and is addressed 
 to Burwell Bassett, and the Friends of American Education, dated, 
 Norfolk, Virginia, 11th month, 20th, 1819. The author desires to 
 express his gratitude for the honors conferred by Congress by "prov- 
 ing that the general prosperity of this country has been a subject of 
 consideration ever since I landed." The measure advocated for the 
 advancement of art, science and national resources is the foundation 
 of a Washington National Museum. This museum should form a 
 register of national resources, botanical, mineral, geological; and con- 
 tain a collection of designs and engravings/ Patriotism should lead 
 to generous donations. A small tax on sea-captains, merchants and 
 travelers who neglect to bring specimens would secure a constant 
 flow of gifts, and at the same time stimulate the spirit of patriotism. 
 Through exchanges, state and college museums would be extended to 
 every corner of the land, in extending scientific education, promoting 
 agriculture, and aiding the arts and industries. 
 
 The second letter dated, "Washington, 22d of 12th month, 1819," 
 addressed to "Henry Clay, Speaker of the House of Representatives, 
 U. S. A.," begins with a series of references to Cyrus, Solon, Lycurgus, 
 Socrates, Moses, and Numa Pompilius. "These references are 
 made to revive in thy classic mind, the charm of connection which may 
 be found in the sentiments of great men, on subjects 
 Education relating to the rise, progress or ruin of national char- 
 acter." Then follows a tribute to the greatness of 
 America, a prophecy of a still greater nation extending to the Pacific, 
 and a suggestion that this is the critical moment for extending educa- 
 tion and banishing ignorance. "Perhaps the period is already at 
 hand, when the weight of the instructed mind in the nation will be 
 estimated by the statemen as part of its effective strength." As a 
 postscript are inserted the following verses on the Lancasterian 
 system of education recited at a lecture in Congress Hall. 
 
 1 Washington City, printed for the author by Jacob Gideon, Jr., 1820, pp. 
 60. 
 
Introduction of the Lancasterian System Into New York 21 
 
 Lancasterian System as "The Generous Plan" 
 
 The Lion o'er his wild domains 
 Rules by the terror of his eye — 
 The eagle of the rock maintains 
 By force his empire in the sky. 
 
 The Shark, the tyrant of the flood, 
 Pursues his prey with quenchless rage. 
 Parent and young, unweaned from blood, 
 Are still the same from age to age. 
 
 Of all that live, and move and breathe, 
 Man only rises o'er his birth, 
 He looks around, above, beneath, 
 At once the heir of Heaven and earth. 
 
 Force, cunning, speed, which nature gave 
 The various tribes throughout her plan, 
 Life to enjoy — from death to save — 
 These are the lowest powers of man. 
 
 From strength to strength he travels on; 
 He leaves the lingering Brute behind 
 And when a few short years are gone, 
 He soars, a disembodied mind. 
 
 Destined his future course sublime 
 Through nobler, brighter paths to run; 
 With him, the final end of time, 
 Is but eternity begun. 
 
 What guides him in his high persuit, 
 Opens, illumines, cheers his way? 
 Discerns th' immortal from the brute, 
 God's image from the mould of clay? 
 
 'Tis knowledge, knowledge of the soul, 
 Is power and liberty and peace; 
 And, while the celestial ages roll, 
 The joys of knowledge shall increase. 
 
 Aid, then, the gen'rous plan 
 Which spreads the light with universal beams; 
 And through the human desert leads . 
 Truth's living, pure, perpetual streams. 
 
 Behold a new creation rise! 
 New spirit breathed into the clod — 
 Behold the voice of wisdom cries: 
 "Man, know thyself, and Fear thy God." 
 
 Montgomery. 
 
22 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 The third letter is addressed to "James Monroe, President of the 
 United States of America, Washington, 22d of 1st month, 1820." 
 The education of the Indians is the principal topic of this letter. 
 Though Lancaster disclaims any personal acquaintance with the 
 Indians, he ventures to urge the Lancasterian system of instruction 
 as the solution of the Indian problem. It must be acknowledged 
 that many practical suggestions are found in this letter. Indian 
 teachers should be utilized, mechanical and agricultural 
 Education schools should be established, practical instruction 
 should be associated with theoretical, pictures should 
 be largely employed, education should be social. 
 
 The fourth and final letter is addressed to Burwell Bassett, dated 
 "Lancasterian Institute, Baltimore, 29th of 2nd month, 1820." Scot- 
 land is cited as an example of the value of universal 
 Education education. The Lancasterian system offers the means 
 of universal education in America. The new institute 
 at Baltimore is described as an application of the system to higher 
 education. 
 
 New York was the scene of Lancaster's last, as well as his first, 
 educational effort in America. His various attempts at educational 
 leadership in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Venezuela, and Canada are 
 described in the Epitome, and summarized by Salmon. 1 He died 
 in New York in 1838, having been fatally injured in crossing Grand 
 Street after a visit to School No. 7, in Chrystie Street. The critical 
 value of Lancaster's visits may be indicated by his comments entered 
 in school minute books. "Ninth month, 6. — Joseph Lancaster 
 visited this school, and was most highly pleased with the exemplary 
 behavior and order of the very interesting boys and 
 an Inspector vou th who assemble here for instruction. In this 
 school he has found, felt, and seen abundance to delight 
 a father's eye and gratify the best feelings of a father's heart. If he 
 is to take youth like these as a specimen of American native character, 
 truly he may congratulate the citizens of New York and the American 
 nation, that they possess youth of such high hopes and favorable 
 capacity. May they ever do the same honor to their teachers and 
 parents, and the same credit to these schools, and may the love and 
 peace of God dwell with them, and they all become as diamonds of 
 the purest water, enclosed within the pearl of greatest price." 2 
 
 1 Salmon, Joseph Lancaster, Chap. II. 
 
 2 Bourne, History of the Public School Society, p. 697. 
 
Introduction of the Lancasterian System Into New York 23 
 
 "Ninth month, 6.— Joseph Lancaster. The most delightful con- 
 duct and mental attention, good behavior and wise deportment of 
 the highly estimable children and youth in this school, merit from me 
 a tribute of respect which seems almost inexpressible. I have often 
 been highly delighted and gratified with schools, but never more so 
 than in my visit to this school. I congratulate their parents, friends, 
 and teachers on the principles of good conduct, the love of learning, 
 and also rectitude and virtue which I am satisfied are among them. 
 There now are children and youth in this school who do the highest 
 credit to themselves, to their teachers, and to these institutions that 
 the most excellent conduct can do. May they go on and increase and 
 prosper, till heaven shall rejoice and earth be glad for them; till 
 knowledge shall abound in perfection among them, and they grow up 
 to maturity, like their Redeemer, in favor with God and man. 
 
 "Ninth month, 25. — Joseph Lancaster. School much increased. 
 We love to see bees in swarms; it is a sure sign there will be more 
 honey. Found the pupils as busy as bees in their writing with minds 
 intent on working up as much improvement as possible." 1 
 
 1 Ibid. 
 
IV 
 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE NEW YORK LANCASTERIAN 
 SCHOOLS, SCHOOL BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 
 
 When the New York Free School Society was in a position to erect 
 school buildings the Lancasterian arrangement was followed. School 
 Number 1 was erected in 1809, and was one hundred 
 Buildings of an d twenty feet in length and fifty feet in width, cap- 
 So •. able of accommodating five hundred children in the 
 main room. School Number 2, erected in 1811, was 
 eighty feet long and forty feet wide and accommodated three hundred 
 children in the upper school. Each of these buildings had on a lower 
 story living apartments and a school room accommodating one hun- 
 dred and fifty. These rooms were occupied by girls' 
 g schools, also on the Lancasterian plan, conducted by 
 the Female Association. 
 After the development of the Infant School in 1830 the typical 
 New York school building consisted of three stories. The Infant 
 and Primary rooms were on the ground floor, the for- 
 s , , mer fitted with seats rising in tiers, the gallery as it 
 it was called, seating two hundred children; the latter 
 furnished with rows of forms facing the teacher's desk which was 
 placed in the center of the room. The second floor was for the girls' 
 school, the third for the boys'; the plan was the same for both, one 
 large room with two or three recitation rooms. Simultaneous instruc- 
 tion and monitorial methods were still dominant, and led to the reten- 
 tion of the Lancasterian type of building. 1 
 
 School buildings erected by the Board of Education after the new 
 school law of 1842, were made to conform to the model of the old 
 monitorial schools. The County Superintendent of 
 of Education Common Schools, in a report to the Board of Educa- 
 tion, 2 urges that buildings be divided into class rooms, 
 or that at least folding doors, such as were then in use in the primary 
 
 1 Manual, Public School Society, 1850, pp. 123-133. 
 
 2 Document No. 5, 1846. 
 
 24 
 
Organization of New York Lancasterian Schools 25 
 
 department, should be used in the regular schools. The gallery may 
 still be seen in some of the older buildings in New York. The large 
 room has been divided into class rooms, in some cases by curtains 
 only, generally by sliding doors. After practically all traces of the 
 Lancasterian methods had vanished, the large rooms with sliding 
 doors were retained as a feature in the new buildings, until lately, 
 when it became the policy of the building department to plan new 
 buildings with an assembly hall in the basement. 
 
 Public School No. 17 
 The building is 80 by 42 feet front. The buildings erected since this, 
 have some slight deviation from these plans, principally by introducing addi- 
 tional and larger class rooms. 
 
 From Manual of the Public School Society, New York, 1850, p. 123 
 
 The school room on the monitorial plan was in the form of a par- 
 allelogram, the length being about twice the width. At one end was 
 a platform with a teacher's desk, flanked on each side by a small 
 desk for the principal monitors. The middle of the 
 room was occupied with the forms, a passage being The S ^°^ 
 left between the ends of the forms and the walls at 
 least six feet broad, where the children formed half circles for reading. 
 
26 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 Each form seated from ten to twenty. The forms nearest the teach- 
 er's desk were intended for the beginners forming the sand class. 
 These desks had ledges in order to retain sand, and a hole at the end 
 
 Plan of Grammar Department 
 From Manual of the Public School Society, New York, 1850 
 
 of each desk to permit the excess of sand to fall into a drawer. The 
 
 Forms remaining desks were slightly inclined planes, from six to 
 
 seven inches in width. Only the desks of the eighth class 
 
 were supplied with inkstands made of lead and firmly fixed into the 
 
Organization of New York Lancasterian Schools 
 
 27 
 
 Ground Plan of Primary Department, Yards, Wood-Houses, etc. 
 
 A — Primary School room — 39 by 38 feet. 
 B — Infant School room — 39 by 30 feet. 
 C — Room in Stair building for brooms, brushes, pails, &c. 
 J — Boys' Wardrobe, i6}4 by 8 feet. 
 K — Girls' Wardrobe, 12 yi by 8 feet. 
 M — Gallery, 32 by 1 1 feet — seats for 200 children. 
 N, N — Desks, each 16^ feet long — each 12 or 13 scholars. 
 O — Teacher's table. 
 L — Front doorway, or main entrance. 
 
 The stations for the classes, when reading, is in the centre passage, front- 
 ing the desks. 
 All doors open outward. 
 
 From Manual of the Public School Society, New York, 1830 
 
28 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 «' 
 
 o 
 
 CM 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 "ft* 
 
Organization of New York Lancasterian Schools 29 
 
 desks. On the floor of the passage was a series of semi-circles marking 
 the situation of groups which spelled out their reading lessons from 
 the charts on the wall. To this form of groups was 
 
 Scmi-circlps 
 
 given the name of drafts. The alphabet wheel was a 
 device for displaying letters to the sand class which faced the teach- 
 er's desk. This wheel was a circular board about four 
 feet in diameter on which were painted the letters of the *wheel 
 
 alphabet. A circular desk with an oblong opening per- 
 mitted only one letter to be seen at a time. 1 In all except the highest 
 classes, slates were used instead of paper; when not in use they hung 
 upon nails fixed to the desks. For many years after the founding 
 of the Free School Society slates were imported from England. 
 
 Organization of the School 
 
 "The master," says Lancaster, "should be a silent bystander and 
 inspector. What a master says should be done; but if he teaches on 
 this system he will find the authority is not personal, — 
 that when the pupils, as well as the schoolmaster, under- T , e 
 
 stand how to act and learn on this system, the system, 
 not the master's vague, discretionary, uncertain judgment, will be in 
 practice. A command will be obeyed by any boy, because it is a 
 command, and the whole school will obey the common, known com- 
 mands of the school from being merely known as such, let who will 
 give them. In a common school the authority of the master is per- 
 sonal, and the rod is his sceptre. His absence is the immediate signal 
 for confusion and in his absence, his assistants will rarely be minded. 
 But in a school properly regulated and conducted on my plan, when 
 the master leaves school, the business will go on as well in his absence 
 as in his presence, because the authority is not personal. This mode 
 of insuring obedience is a novelty in the history of education." 2 That 
 this plan of rendering the teacher unnecessary was realized in the 
 schools of the New York Society is evidenced by numerous entries 
 in the minute book of School No. 2, showing the school to be in opera- 
 tion in the absence of the teacher. There was complete reduction 
 to system. 
 
 The apparent success of the system in New York is attested in the 
 Report on Monitorial Instruction to the Boston School Committee: 
 
 1 Manual of the New York Free Schools, 1820. 
 
 2 British System of Education, p. 45. 
 
30 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 " The advantages of the monitorial system in comparison with the old 
 system, may briefly be thus stated. To the student it makes learning 
 q , less irksome, by simplifying and facilitating his progress, it 
 
 gives to instruction more interest, by alternation and var- 
 iety of exercise, in which physical and intellectual action are combined; 
 it keeps attention awake and interested, by permitting no moment of 
 idleness or listlessness; its effects on the habits, character and intelli- 
 gence of youth are highly beneficial; disposing their minds to industry, 
 to readiness of attention, and to subordination thereby creating in 
 early life, a love of order, preparation for business, and acquaintance 
 with the relative obligations and duties both of pupils and instructor. 
 To the master also, it renders teaching less irksome and more inter- 
 esting, giving an air of sprightliness and vivacity to his duties, exciting 
 the principles of emulation among his scholars, aiding him by the 
 
 Monitor's Seat and Desk 
 
 From Manual of the Free School Society, 1820 
 
 Economy 
 
 number of assistants he can thus employ, and, by relieving him from 
 the constant necessity of direct supervision of every 
 individual, capacitates him to concentrate his mind and 
 efforts on doings and objects of the most importance, difficulty, and 
 responsibility. To all which it may be added, though a consideration 
 less important yet not to be overlooked, that it is an immense saving 
 both of time and money, in consequence of the far greater numbers 
 which can be taught as well by this mode, as a smaller number can 
 by the former. It will be sufficient under this head to state that in 
 New York, masters, in three distinct schools, teach fifteen hundred and 
 forty-seven boys, being an average of upwards of five hundred each. 
 
Organization of New York Lancasterian Schools 31 
 
 In our schools the same number of boys require seven schools and 
 fifteen instructors. In New York a female teaches a school, on this 
 principle, of four hundred. In our schools the average Efficiency 
 number to an instructress is fifty-six. The success and 
 progressive advancement in those schools, is asserted by men deemed 
 competent judges, to be not less than ours." 1 
 
 The manual of the Lancasterian system, issued by the Free School 
 Society in 1820, contains twelve pages on the duties of the monitors. 
 The manual of the New York Public School Society, as 
 late as 1850, devotes eight pages to this topic. Monitors • lg20 
 were either subordinate or general. The former undertook 
 the instruction of the separate classes and maintained order amongst 
 the pupils instructed. The latter took no part in the instruction of the 
 pupils, but maintained 'order throughout the school. In 1820 the 
 monitors were classified as follows: 
 
 I. Subordinate Monitors II. General Monitors 
 
 1. Monitors of classes I. General monitors of order 
 
 2. Assistant monitors of classes 2. Monitor general of reading 
 
 3. Monitors of reading 3. Monitor general of arithmetic 
 
 4. Draught monitors 4. Monitor general of writing 
 
 5. Monitors of arithmetic 
 
 6. Monitors of writing 
 
 Besides the above there were other officers, such as Dictator, Les- 
 son fixers, Monitor of books, Librarian. 
 
 When the Manual of 1850 was prepared, some modifications had 
 been made in the monitorial system. In 1833, the course of study 
 had been extended to include astronomy, algebra, geome- 
 try, trigonometry and book-keeping; salaries were raised, T ssls , an 
 assistant teachers appointed, and recitation rooms pro- 
 vided. 2 The system of mutual instruction was retained, and the 
 school taught in drafts by monitors, but this plan was 
 now supplemented by class-room instruction and exami- . ? 
 nations by principal and teachers. 3 According to the 
 Manual of 1850 there were: 
 
 Report on Monitorial Instruction to the Boston School Committee, 1828. 
 
 2 28th Annual Report of Public School Society, 1833. 
 
 3 37th Annual Report of Public School Society, 1842, p. 32. 
 
32 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 I. Monitors of instruction II. Monitors of mechanical opera- 
 tions of the school 
 
 1. Monitor general of reading i. Book monitors 
 
 2. Monitor general of dictation 2. Street and yard monitors 
 
 3. Monitor general of arithmetic 3. Monitors of ventilation 
 
 4. Monitor general of writing 4, Fuel and fire monitors 
 
 5. Draft monitors of reading and 
 ciphering 
 
 Teachers were advised to "further promote the well being of 
 the school by extending the management by monitors to minor mat- 
 ters," recording tardy scholars, providing water, etc. 1 
 
 The later organization of the schools and the relation of the teacher 
 and monitors are described in the annual report of the society for 
 1842: "There are in each school a principal, assistant and two junior 
 teachers, denominated first and second monitors; the first being in 
 some cases a 'passed monitor.' The principal and assistant alter- 
 nately have the general government of the school in the main room, 
 and teach divisions in the recitation or class rooms, while the monitors 
 have charge of a division in the recitation rooms, or assist in the main 
 room. Two sets of teaching monitors are chosen monthly from the 
 advanced classes, who are employed in teaching the lower divisions 
 in reading, spelling, definitions, arithmetic and sometimes geography; 
 the teaching monitors who have performed these duties, are received 
 into the recitation room for their own instruction; the classes also 
 which they have taught are in larger divisions, at stated times, per- 
 sonally instructed by the principal, assistant, and paid monitors; 
 part of them in the recitation rooms, and part in the main room; the 
 whole school thus in four or five large divisions receiving extended in- 
 struction, and undergoing a review of the lessons taught them by the 
 monitors. This is sometimes varied by the practice of having part 
 of them thus engaged in the class rooms, while those occupying the 
 main room are engaged in some general exercise, as writing copies 
 on slates or simultaneous instruction in geography on the blank 
 maps of the hemispheres on the walls of the school room." 2 
 
 The growing distrust of the monitorial system is shown in several 
 of the reports of the Public School Society. "The trustees have long 
 1 imitations of keen aware that, however peculiarly appro- 
 
 Monitorial System priate the monitorial system may be, and is, to 
 
 1 Manual of the Public School Society, 1850, pp. 73-75. 
 
 2 37th Annual Report, Public School Society, 1842, pp. 46-47. 
 
Organization of New York Lancasterian Schools 33 
 
 a school of several hundred children under charge of a single 
 teacher, conducted with primary reference to a very limited ex- 
 penditure, and confined in its course to the rudiments of knowledge — 
 to give adequate and appropriate instruction to all the scholars re- 
 quired the employment of additional teachers, and especially so if 
 a new liberal course of study were introduced. . . . The trustees 
 have decided to employ a well qualified assistant teacher in each of the 
 Public Schools, and to introduce several new branches of study." 1 
 
 " By modifications adopted in the revised system of mutual instruc- 
 tion, that only right principle of teaching, 'mind acting on mind' is 
 brought effectually into operation on all pupils, for although this is 
 somewhat operative under the course of monitorial teaching by the 
 Lancasterian and Madras systems, yet not sufficiently so to give con- 
 fidence to either as a thorough system of instruction, their mechanical 
 processes doing well, only to a limited extent; the varied plans, how- 
 ever, of Dr. Bell for the extension of mutual instruction, being more 
 in the spirit of the science of teaching than those of Lancaster, may 
 favorably except the Madras System, from the full force of this obser- 
 vation, while both wrought into one, with modifications, may effect 
 improved results. They are thus modified in the Public Schools, by 
 which like advantages are given to all, by personal instruction from the 
 teachers, and the review of monitor's work, checking neglect, and 
 prompting him to efficiency in his duties." 2 
 
 Classification of Pupils 
 
 Though Lancaster mechanized the process of instruction, he de- 
 veloped a flexible plan of grading and promotion. Indeed the me- 
 chanical nature of the Lancasterian plan of instruction 
 readily permitted an extremely flexible plan of grading , Subjects 
 and promotion. Pupils were classified separately for 
 reading and arithmetic and were promoted whenever proficient in 
 the work of a class. To recommend for promotion was the work of 
 the monitors. The annual reports of the Free School Society and of 
 the Public School Society give statistics of promotion. One of the 
 last tables of this kind appears in the 42nd report, 1848, page 11: 
 
 1 28th Annual Report, 1833. 
 
 2 420! Annual Report, 1848, p. 43. 
 
34 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 "Children promoted: 
 
 3878 from the 1st to the 2nd class 
 3423 from the 2nd to the 3rd class 
 3748 from the 3rd to the 4th class 
 3286 from the 4th to the 5th class 
 2000 from the 5th to the 6th class 
 2427 from the 6th to the 7th class 
 1808 from the 7th to the 8th class 
 1 123 from the 8th to the 9th class 
 3230 to writing on paper 
 3906 to addition and subtraction 
 3024 to multiplication and division 
 1934 to compound of first four rules 
 12 1 6 to reduction 
 1996 to proportion 
 15 1 6 to practice 
 1588 to interest 
 
 N. B The first class learns the alphabet; the ninth class is the highest 
 reading class. Of the children in the Public as distinguished from the Primary 
 Schools and Primary Departments there are now — 
 
 8742 learning Geography 
 5493 learning Grammar 
 
 66 learning Book-keeping 
 1242 learning History 
 3040 learning Astronomy 
 461 learning Algebra 
 59 learning Geometry" 1 
 
 With the decline of the monitorial system this flexible system of 
 
 grading and promotion was gradually replaced by the 
 jn^o-e fa mg present class system. In the Ward Schools of 1855 
 
 the classes were as follows: 
 Class 5, alphabet and its combinations into words and syllables; 
 lessons on objects and common things. Class 4, read and spell print, 
 definitions, Roman numbers, tables in addition. Class 3, simple 
 
 rules in arithmetic including multiplication; reading 
 School^ continued; slate writing. Class 2, arithmetic through 
 
 simple subtraction; geography commenced; writing 
 and drawing on slate and blackboard. Class 1, tables of weight, 
 measures, etc.; simple division; mental arithmetic; geography; ele- 
 mentary science and vocal music. 
 
 Class 5, review geography, etc. Class 4, grammar commenced; 
 fractions. Class 3, United States history. Class 2, mineralogy, 
 
 J 42d Annual Report, Public School Society, 1848, p. 11. 
 
Organization of New York Lancasterian Schools 35 
 
 chemistry, geology. Class 1, algebra, geometry, 
 
 natural history, general history and book-keeping. 1 Schools 
 
 The grading of the Public Schools in 1867 was as 
 
 follows : 
 
 Primary Schools 
 
 Fifth Grade — Alphabet Class — alphabet and elementary sounds; 
 
 counting and adding by ones and twos. Lessons in common objects. 
 
 Fourth Grade — Primer Class — reading and spell- 
 
 r i i i t t i t ■ , Primary Schools 
 
 ing from charts, blackboards and primers; ele- - m lg6 
 
 mentary sounds. Adding by twos, threes, fours 
 and fives; also taking away ones, twos and threes from greater num- 
 bers. Tables. Lessons in morals and manners. 
 
 Third Grade — The last half of the First and first half of the Second 
 Reader. Simple definitions; also spelling by elementary sounds; use 
 of common marks in sentences read. Roman numbers through C, 
 D and M. Numeration through 100,000,000; addition through ex- 
 amples of six or seven short columns; tables through 6 times 12. 
 
 Second Grade — Second Reader. Spelling — meaning of words; their 
 use in short sentences; punctuation continued. Through subtraction 
 and multiplication by one figure; tables through 12 times 12. Draw- 
 ing and writing on slates — from copies on blackboard. Morals and 
 manners continued. 
 
 First Grade — Reading. Lessons same grade as the last half of Sec- 
 ond Reader. Spelling and definition — use of words in oral sentences. 
 Through multiplication and division by two figures; simple applica- 
 tions. Tables — divisions, time, weights and measures and Federal 
 money. Geography — outline maps — the hemispheres, North and 
 South America; definitions and description. 2 
 
 Grammar Schools 
 
 Sixth Grade — Third Reader. Arithmetic — through simple rules 
 and Federal money — practical applications. Outlines of North 
 America including United States. 
 
 Fifth Grade — Reading similar to sixth. Arith- . g6 * 
 
 metic — through common fractions; practical 
 applications and analysis. Full knowledge of the United States and 
 other divisions of North America. 
 
 Fourth Grade — Fourth Reader. Spelling and definitions, pre- 
 
 1 Report of New York City Superintendent of Common Schools, 1855. 
 
 2 Boese, Public Education in the City of New York, 1869, pp. 134-5. 
 
36 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 fixes. Arithmetic through decimal fractions, exercises in calculation. 
 Geography — South America. Grammar commenced. 
 
 Third Grade — Fourth Reader. Spelling and definitions from the 
 reading lessons, instruction in prefixes of derivative words. Arith- 
 metic — through the compound rules and reduction. Geography 
 both local and descriptive, through Europe. English grammar — 
 the analysis and parsing of sentences with simple phrase or clause 
 adjuncts. United States History — early discoveries and colonial. 
 
 Second Grade — Fifth Reader. Spelling — definitions, from the 
 reading lesson, etymology. Arithmetic — through percentage. Ge- 
 ography — local and descriptive, through Asia, Africa and Oceanica. 
 English Grammar — analysis and parsing, correction of false syntax. 
 History — war of the Revolution. Algebra (boys only) — through 
 fractions. 
 
 First Grade — Reading, spelling and etymology continued. Arith- 
 metic — problems in interest, discount, etc., (boys, through evolution). 
 Geography reviewed, with outlines in physical geography. English 
 grammar continued. History — outlines completed and reviewed. 
 Astronomy. 1 
 
 School Sessions 
 
 The long vacations of the present were unknown in the schools of 
 the Free School Society and the Public School Society. The author- 
 Vacations * zec ^ holidays were the first of January, the first of May, 
 the fourth of July, and the twenty-fifth of December. 2 
 Saturday was a half holiday, afterwards an entire holiday. 3 The 
 reading of the minutes of the school committees reveals the fact that 
 in the early days of the schools the length of the summer vacation 
 was contingent upon the cleaning and whitewashing of the schoolhouse 
 or a visitation of cholera or other epidemics. The official summer 
 vacation in 1826 and later was three weeks in August. 4 
 
 The hours of daily sessions varied in winter and summer. In 
 1807 they were eight to twelve and three to six, from May to Novem- 
 ber; nine to twelve, and two to five from December to 
 Hours April. 5 According to the by-laws of 1826 and 1836, the 
 
 hours were nine to twelve, and two to five, from March 
 to November; and nine to three, with a half hour at noon from De- 
 cember to February. * 
 
 1 Boese, Public Education in the City of New York, 1869, pp. 137-140. 
 
 2 By-laws of the Public School Society, 1826-1836. 
 
 3 4 Ibid. 
 
 5 Sketch of New York Free School, 1807. 
 
Organization of New York Lancasterian Schools 37 
 
 Order of Exercises in Grammar Schools 
 
 A definite assignment of time for the daily exercises is not given 
 in the early manuals of the society; but, as the Manual of 1820, in 
 most particulars, closely follows the Manual of the British and Foreign 
 School Society of 1816, which does contain a daily program, it is pos- 
 sible by a comparison of the two manuals to gain a general idea of 
 the daily routine in a New York school of about 1820. 
 
 In 1820 the Society required the teacher to hold a class for monitors 
 from six to eight or from seven to nine a. m. At 8.45 the Monitor 
 General of Order opens the doors for the monitors, and at A M 
 
 9, admits the children. After the reading of the Scriptures, Admission 
 the Monitor General of Order calls over the names of the Scriptures 
 monitors and appoints others in place of absentees. He directs the 
 monitors to give out pencils to the boys of their classes. The next 
 command is "Clean slates." After the slates are sufficiently cleaned, 
 the Monitor General gives a signal to leave off by blowing 
 
 his whistle. The pupils then put their hands behind them, prepara- 
 The next command is "Monitors inspect." The monitors tion for 
 examine the slates of their classes, and then stand on their 
 benches to show the Monitor General that the inspection is finished. 
 
 At the command, "Monitors begin," the monitor of the D - . .. 
 eighth class dictates a word; then the monitors of the 
 seventh, sixth, fifth, fourth, third and second in succession. The class 
 monitors mark their class registers and bring the lists to the Monitor 
 General, who enters the numbers in the school register. At 
 the close of the muster, the direction of the school is taken M 9 * 
 by the Monitor General of Reading, who appoints the 
 reading monitors for the day, hangs up his charts or reading boards, 
 by which the children are to form semi-circles, and directs 
 the drafts (groups) to their places. Each draft is under 
 the charge of a monitor of reading. Classes one to four ea ing 
 always read the large boards composing part of the spelling book. 
 Classes five to eight read boards of connected reading in the morning, 
 and spelling lessons in the afternoon. 
 
 At the direction, "Monitors repeat," the Reading Moni- 
 
 • i ■ -i 10.00 
 
 tors take down the boards and question their pupils. Review 
 
 The pupils are lined up against the wall and the Monitor- 
 General of Reading distributes merit tickets to each one who I0 - * 5 
 wears the badge designating him to be first in the class. 
 
38 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 Classes 1 to 5 have writing until the end of the session. Classes 
 
 10.30 6 to 8 have arithmetic. The time is divided between 
 
 Writing s i a te work at the desks and work in drafts. The Moni- 
 
 itor-General of Arithmetic directs the movements of the 
 
 drafts, and distributes the reward tickets. 
 
 Orders for closing are given by the Monitor-General of Order, 
 Dismissal who distributes merit tickets to those who have behaved 
 well, and detains those who have behaved badly. The 
 orders of dismissal are: Look, Out, Front, Put on hats, Hands down, 
 Look, Go. Each class marches out with the class monitor at the 
 head. 
 
 2 p. m. Dictation » 
 
 2.30 Muster, Reading 
 
 3.00 Review 
 
 3. 15 Close of Reading 
 
 3- 15 Writing 
 
 Order of Exercises in a Primary School, about 1850 
 
 qam Reading of the Scriptures, not to exceed five minutes* 
 Reading of Rules and Persuasive Charge. Inspection of 
 pupils for cleanliness. 
 
 Reading and spelling in drafts. These exercises are con- 
 ducted by the Draft Monitors under the direction of the 
 Assistant Teacher and the Monitor- General of the Reading. The 
 drafts contain six children. Large lesson charts are used. 
 
 Dictation. This is conducted by the Assistant Teacher or 
 by the Monitor-General of Dictation. The school is pre- 
 pared by the following orders: Attention, Take Slates, Clean Slates, 
 Hands Fixed, Take Pencils. The dictator then names the words 
 on the board; those who are to write the word repeat it in concert. 
 The teacher then names the letters; these are repeated by the class, 
 and after the children name the letters as pointed out by the teacher, 
 they are told to write. The teacher then passes to the other classes 
 in succession, and leaves the correction of mistakes to the monitors. 
 With due rapidity each class may spell eighteen words during the 
 half hour. 
 
 I0 Recess and oral instruction. The pupils are permitted to 
 
 go to the playground where they are allowed free play or 
 
 "little amusing games of exercise under the direction of the teacher." 1 
 
 1 Manual, 1850, p. 121. 
 
Organization of New York Lancasterian Schools 39 
 
 The oral instruction consists of lessons on common things — object 
 
 lessons. 
 Reading and spelling in drafts. 1 1 . oo 
 
 Writing copies, drawing, etc. Slates are generally used for l l 
 
 writing in the Primary School, though writing in sand is 
 
 followed to some extent as late as 1842. 1 One side of the slate is 
 
 ruled with horizontal lines, and also oblique guide lines. The copy 
 
 consists of a printed alphabet board. 2 The procedure is similar to 
 
 that of the dictation exercises. Every thing is done in order, and 
 
 all details are attended to by monitors. 
 
 Recess for lunch. 12.00 
 
 Oral instructions in tables and common things. Various 
 
 methods are employed according to the class — the numeral 
 
 frame, the blackboard, charts and dictation. 
 
 Reading and spelling in drafts. ip.m. 
 
 Dictation for writing on slates. 1 . 30 
 
 Reading and spelling in drafts. 2.00 
 
 Dictation. 2.30 
 
 In addition to the above program the principal or teacher may be 
 
 engaged in giving instructions to the monitors or in teaching a class. 
 In 1852 the program of a Primary School under the Public School 
 
 Society remained practically the same: 
 Reading of the Scriptures and other exercises 9 a. m. 
 
 Read and spell (Monitors) 9.30 
 
 Dictation (Slates) 10.00 
 
 Recess and oral instruction 10.30 
 
 Read and spell in drafts 1 1 . 00 
 
 Writing copies and drawing 1 1 . 30 
 
 Recess for lunch 12.00 
 
 Oral instruction in tables and common things 12.30 
 
 Read and spell in drafts 1 . 00 
 
 Dictation (Slates) 1.30 
 
 Read and spell in drafts 2.00 
 
 Dictation 3 2 . 30 
 
 According to the Manual of 1850, page 90, the order of exercises 
 
 of the upper schools (the last three classes of the nine courses) was as 
 
 follows: 
 
 1 37th Report of Public School Society, p. 43. 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 Report, New York City Superintendent of Common Schools, 1852. 
 
40 
 
 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 Time Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday 
 
 9.00 Read and prepare for exercises 
 
 9.05 Astronomy Astronomy 
 
 Geography Geography Geography Geography Geography 
 
 10.00 Arithmetic Arithmetic Arithmetic Arithmetic Arithmetic 
 
 10.45 Recess. Take attendance and ventilate thoroughly 
 
 11.00 Dictation Dictation Dictation Dictation Dictation 
 
 1 1 . 45 Writing Compo- 
 
 on paper sition 
 12.30 Recess — D inner 
 
 Writing Compo- Writing 
 
 on paper sition on paper 
 
 1. 00 Grammar Drawing Grammar Drawing 
 
 2.00 Reading 
 
 2-45 
 3-00 
 
 Reading Reading Reading 
 
 History History 
 
 Absentees sent for; closing school 
 
 Grammar 
 Reading 
 
V 
 
 METHODS OF TEACHING 
 
 Reading 
 
 In reading, the school was divided into eight classes: 1st class learn- 
 ing the alphabet; 2nd class, words and syllables of two letters; 3rd 
 class, words and syllables of three letters; 4th class, Eieht 
 
 words and syllables of four letters; 5th class, reading Classes for 
 lesson of one syllable; 6th class, reading lesson of two Reading 
 
 syllables; 7th class, the Testament; 8th class, the Bible. 1 
 
 The only business of the first class was to learn the letters of the 
 alphabet. Two methods were employed: (1) Writing from dicta- 
 tion. The children were seated on the forms belonging 
 to the first class; opposite them was a large board or p p, e 
 
 alphabet wheel which displayed the letters to be written. 
 Roman characters were used. At the dictation of the monitor the 
 letter was traced, with a short stick, in the sand. The monitor exam- 
 ined the work and smoothed out that which was badly 
 done. To facilitate learning a beginner was placed next Reading and 
 to a child who had made some progress. (2) Reading Combined 
 from boards. The children stood in semicircles and 
 named the letters pointed out by the monitors. If a mistake was 
 made a change of place occurred. 
 
 The steps employed in learning the alphabet are thus described in 
 an early account of the New York Free Schools: 
 
 "Ten children can be accommodated at this table; each scholar 
 has a stick given to him about the thickness of a quill, and four inches 
 long, with which he is to write the letters on the sand. 
 The alphabet is divided into three parts, viz., the per- T . , 
 
 pendicular letters, I H T L E F i and 1, form the first 
 lesson; the triangular letters, AVWMNZKYXvwkyz and x 
 form the second; and the circular letters, OUCJGDPBRQS, 
 abodpqgcmnhtursf and j, form the third class. These are 
 in succession placed before the class, which is under the direction of a 
 
 1 Manual of the Lancasterian System, New York, 1820, p. 20. 
 
 41 
 
42 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 monitor, who, with an audible voice, desires them to form the first 
 letter; each scholar now makes his best effort, which, perhaps, is a 
 very awkward one; but the monitor pointing out the defects and oc- 
 casionally printing the letter for them, teaches them to retrace it; 
 after repeated trials upon the same letter, the class is soon able to 
 form it readily, and with neatness. The next letters of the lesson 
 are in succession placed before them, and taught in the same manner. 
 It may be necessary to observe, that on no account whatever must a 
 pupil pass on to another letter, until he is able to print the first with 
 neatness. In being thus exercised in forming the letters, the pupil 
 will in a short time know them; and he is not only enabled to print 
 letters, but also learns them sooner than in the usual mode of teaching. 
 If the class is continual in its application to forming letters on the sand, 
 it will be found that the employment will be insipid and burdensome. 
 It should therefore be varied by having the class several times a day 
 called from their seats and formed into a circle around a lesson, which 
 is printed in large letters, and suspended from the wall, in 
 Board such a manner that the whole class can view it. The moni- 
 tor then points to the first letter, and asks aloud, 'What 
 letter is that?' The boy at the head of the class answers first, when, 
 if he should make a mistake, the question is put to the second boy, 
 and so on until some one in the class answers aright; in 
 Taki which case the boy takes precedency in the class. This 
 exercise soon perfects them in the knowledge of their letters 
 and is also a pleasing relaxation." 1 
 
 In 1842 these methods were still considered "very intellectual." 
 "The alphabet is taught by varied methods; by the printed lesson 
 sheet, by single letters on binder's boards, and 
 Intellectual ^y tracing the letters in white sand, lightly 
 
 covering a part of the writing desk painted 
 black for the purpose. This is called the sand desk. This method, 
 beside being a useful one in varying the exercises of the abcedarians, 
 is well calculated to aid mental development, calling into exercise 
 analysis and comparison, and is a very intellectual method of teaching 
 the alphabet." 2 
 
 "The children having learned their letters are removed to a higher 
 class by the inspecting monitor, and are taught to spell and read 
 
 1 Account of Free School Society, 1814, pp. 51-52. 
 
 2 37th Annual Report, Public School Society, 1842, p. 42. 
 
Method of Teaching 
 
 43 
 
 2 
 
 
 03 
 
 IT 
 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
44 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 monosyllables. This class also makes use of the 
 Class y sano - WI "i tm g- The monitors direct the pupils to 
 
 make two letters, b-a, and teach them that b-a spells 
 ba. In the circles the class is drilled in pronouncing the words pre- 
 viously written in the sand. When a class has arrived at the dignity 
 Slates °^ a wor d of two syllables, slates are substituted for 
 
 sand. Later the expert syllabic readers are introduced 
 to the Testament." 
 
 There was nothing incidental about the teaching of reading and 
 writing — it was the sole occupation of the younger children. "While 
 
 the children are too young, or too inexperienced to be 
 Variety taught Arithmetic, their spelling, reading, and writing 
 
 should continue without any intermission." 2 This con- 
 stituted the school work for the six-year-old children until the influ- 
 ence of the Pestalozzian movement was brought to bear in the founda- 
 tion of the Infant School. 
 
 Books were used in only the two highest classes of the primary 
 schools. For the others, Lancaster's economical plan of wall charts 
 
 was employed. According to the minutes of the com- 
 Material mittee for Public School No. 2, classes visited read the 
 
 New Testament (John 15 was read in 1824 by children 
 six and eight years of age), Isaiah, Parnell's Hermit, Goldsmith's 
 Traveler, Gray's Elegy and Murray's English Reader. 
 
 According to the Manual of 1850, the alphabet was taught in con- 
 nection with reading. Although the sand writing of the lowest 
 
 classes had given way to the use of slates, the general 
 Methods method does not seem to have departed very widely 
 
 in 1850 from the earlier Lancasterian form. The three lowest 
 
 classes were taught from lesson cards, twenty-four 
 lessons of spelling and easy reading. The first four cards had the 
 alphabet on the margin. "The syllables and words comprising 
 these first lessons are to be spelled by pointing out the letters on the 
 margin, and naming them, and then pronouncing or reading the 
 syllables or words in the reading lesson, when pointed out." 3 This 
 was done in drafts according to the monitorial plan. "The lively, 
 natural and intelligible popular tales of Miss Edgeworth are especially 
 
 1 Account of Free School Society, 1814, pp. 52, 55. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 Manual, 1850, p. 21. 
 
Method of Teaching 
 
 45 
 
 Moveable Stand. 
 
 Alphabet- Wheel. 
 
 Bench with holes for Hats. 
 2 
 
 From Manual of the Free School Society, 1820 
 
46 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 useful as early reading lessons." 1 Before reading a lesson all difficult 
 words are to be pronounced and spelled, with repronunciation of 
 the syllables until the completion of the word. 
 
 Nearly half a century of Lancasterian system with Lancaster's 
 motto, "A place for everything and everything in its place," promi- 
 nently displayed in every school room, resulted in mechanical refine- 
 ments which surpassed even those of the noted founder of the system. 
 For example, see Book Manual of 1850, as follows: 
 
 "The pupil should stand erect — his heels near together, — toes 
 
 turned out, — and his eyes directed to the face of the person speaking 
 
 to him. Fig. 1. Represents the Book-Monitor with a 
 
 M j pile of books across his left arm, with the backs from him, 
 
 and with the top of the page to the right hand. 
 
 "Fig. 2. The Book-Monitor, with the right hand hands the book 
 to the pupil, who receives it with the right hand, with the back of 
 the book to the left, and then passes it into the left hand, where it is 
 held with the back upwards, and with the thumb extended at an 
 angle of forty-five degrees with the edge of the book (as in Fig. 2), 
 until a further order is given. 
 
 "Fig. 3. When the page is given out, the book is turned by the 
 thumb on the side; and, while held with both hands, is turned with 
 the back downwards, with the thumbs meeting across the leaves, 
 at a point judged to be nearest the place to be found. On opening the 
 book the left hand slides down to the bottom, and thence to the middle 
 where the thumb and little finger are made to press on the two oppo- 
 site pages. If the pupil should have thus lit upon the page sought 
 for, he lets fall the right hand by the side, and his position is that of 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 "Fig. 4. But, if he has opened short of the page required the 
 thumb of the right hand is to be placed near the upper corner of the 
 page, as seen in fig. 4. while the forefinger lifts the leaves to bring 
 into view the number of the page. If he finds that he has not raised 
 enough, the forefinger and thumb hold those already raised, while 
 the second finger lifts the leaves, and brings them within grasp of the 
 thumb and finger. When the page required is found, all the fingers 
 are to be passed under the leaves, and the whole turned at once. 
 Should the pupil, on the contrary, have opened too far, and be obliged 
 to turn back, he places the right thumb, in like manner, on the left 
 hand page, and the leaves are lifted as before described. 
 
 1 Manual, 1850, p. 32. 
 
Method of Teaching 
 
 47 
 
 < 
 
 a 
 w 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 03 
 
 CO 
 
 CO 
 
48 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 "Fig. 5. Should the book be old, or so large as to be wearisome to 
 hold, the right hand may sustain the left, as seen in fig. 5. 
 
 "Figs. 6, 7. While reading, as the eye rises to the top of the right 
 hand page, the right hand is brought to the position seen in fig. 4, 
 and, with the forefinger under the leaf, the hand is slid down to the 
 lower corner, and retained there during the reading of this page, as 
 seen in fig. 6. This also is the position in which the book is to be 
 held when about to be closed; in doing which, the left hand, being 
 carried up to the side, supports the book firmly and unmoved, while 
 the right hand turns the part it supports over on the left thumb, as 
 seen in fig. 7. The thumb will then be drawn out from between the 
 leaves, and placed on the cover; when the right hand will fall by the 
 side as seen in fig. 2. 
 
 "Fig. 8. But if the reading has ended, the right hand retains the 
 book, and the left hand falls by the side, as seen in fig. 8. The book 
 will now be in position to be handed to the Book-Monitor, who re- 
 ceives it in his right hand, and places it on his left arm, with the back 
 towards his body. The books are now in the most suitable situation 
 for being passed to the shelves or drawers, where, without being 
 crowded, they should be placed with uniformity and care. 
 
 "In conclusion, it may be proper to remark, that however trivial 
 these minute directions may appear to some minds, it will be found 
 on experience, that books thus treated, may be made to last double 
 the time that they will do, under the usual management in schools. 
 Nor is this attainment of a correct and graceful mode of handling a 
 book, the only benefit received by the pupil. The use of this manual 
 is calculated to beget a love of order and propriety; and disposes 
 him more readily to adopt the habit generally, of doing things in a 
 methodical and systematic manner." 1 
 
 An early number of the Academician gives an interesting instance 
 of imitation of Lancasterian methods of teaching spelling and writing. 
 "To accommodate our pupils with class 
 Lancastrian Methods telegraphs or tables on which they write 
 their exercise, we have suspended against 
 the wall in the school room large slates or boards, stained black, about 
 four feet square on which they write with pencils or fine chalk. The 
 classes composed of eight or ten each, after they have performed the 
 regular duties of the school, assemble in a circular form around the 
 
 Manual, Public School Society, 1850, pp. 97-98. 
 
Method of Teaching 49 
 
 telegraphs and each one writes down his lesson before his class com- 
 panions, who are always ready to criticise any fault or inaccuracy he 
 may commit, and he who corrects the error takes the precedence. 
 This group of inspectors detects and corrects all mistakes. It is 
 impossible for any one to pass over his lesson carelessly, without being 
 reminded of it and compelled to correct omissions. The 'Juvenile 
 Expositor' furnishes them with ample exercises. Each pupil holding 
 it in his hand, except the one who is to perform his lesson in writing 
 in the presence of his class. In this manner they go through all their 
 lessons, making alternately one writer, one class leader or dictator 
 and eight or nine inspectors." 1 
 
 An experience in the life of Rowland Hill will serve to illustrate 
 the weak point in the teaching of reading on the Monitorial Plan: 
 "I remember how, at the age of eight, I was myself 
 set for a short time to teach some smaller children M ea ." es . s ? p , e 
 to read. The book we used was Mrs. Barbauld's 
 "Early Lessons." We came to the word mezereon. I was ashamed 
 to own that I did not know how it was pronounced. With great 
 gravity I informed the class that this was a word that no one knew 
 how to read. So far as I can remember there was no doubting Thomas 
 present." 2 
 
 The educational results were as should have been anticipated. 
 "Thousands of the children," said Commissioner Wood," leave school 
 without being able to read or write. History and R , 
 
 geography should be taught by reading books. Chil- 
 dren read miserable twaddle. What I want to do is to make the 
 children interested, I want the children to educate themselves. In 
 our system of education we do not generate in the children a desire 
 and love of self-culture. Without that they will go forth in the 
 world without being educated and instructed at all." 3 
 
 Dictation 
 
 In the Lancasterian plans, dictation was employed in the teaching 
 of spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic. The results of dictation 
 were tested by interrogation in drafts. With the introduction of 
 
 1 Academican, Vol. I, p. 114. 
 
 2 Hill, G. B., Life of Rowland Hill, p. 54. 
 
 3 Commissioner Wm. Wood, in address delivered at the organization meet- 
 ing of the Department of Public Instruction, New York, 1871. 
 
50 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 teachers, charts and books, the necessity for dictation would appar- 
 ently diminish to a very considerable extent. But, as is 
 Tj ar y the case with so many subjects in the schools, the disap- 
 
 pearance of a practical value is the occasion for proclaim- 
 ing an educational value. In 1850 dictation was required three half 
 hours daily in the primary schools and forty minutes daily in the 
 upper schools. The subjects for dictation were letters, 
 in 18^0 syllables, words, occasionally entire sentences, bills and 
 
 receipts. The words were spelled by the dictator. 
 As a statement of value from the standpoint of formal discipline 
 the Manual of 1850 cannot be outdone: "Every teacher and assistant 
 is called upon to make this exercise (Dictation) a matter 
 Discipline °^ caxe ^ study, on account of its high utility, as a 
 means of mental and physical culture. It awakens the 
 attention, excites intellectual activity, and develops the dormant 
 energies of children more effectually, and more agreeably, than can 
 be done by any other school exercise whatever. You have in it — 
 silence, the first requisite of good order, the erect, easy, and appro- 
 priate posture — the eye all alive to catch the first signal, — the muscles 
 all set and braced, for the quick and exact movement. As the eye 
 rests on the word on the board, the mind begins its operations; when 
 it is pronounced, the ear lends its aid; — when each letter is enunciated, 
 the analyzing process is required, and the memory is laid under con- 
 tribution; — when the response of each falls upon his ear, another im- 
 pulse is given; and, finally, there is the manual process of writing the 
 word on the slate. In these successive steps, we find the eye, the 
 ear, the tongue and the hand, aiding and impelling the mind through 
 a series of exercises of the highest importance in expanding and train- 
 ing the intellect. During Dictation, when properly and energeti- 
 cally performed, (and it must be done with dispatch), the child can 
 get no chance to play, sleep, be idle, or do mischief. The process is, 
 itself, the best and most perfect drill for order." 1 
 
 The mechanical appliances for dictation indicate the firm position 
 
 held by Lancasterian devices for nearly half a century. The following 
 
 is a list of words for the purpose of dictation: — "the 
 
 Boards Boards on which they are printed are % °f an mcn m 
 
 thickness, all of the same width, but of four different 
 
 lengths— each board has a brass socket inserted in the lower edge, 
 
 1 Manual, Public School Society, 1850, pp. 25-26. 
 
Method of Teaching 
 
 51 
 
 to prevent its wearing by moving on the pivot on which it is placed 
 when in use. They are kept in a box 19>£ by 14>^ and 6 inches deep — 
 on the sides of the box are grooves, for the purpose of separating the 
 Boards, and preventing them from rubbing. The Dictation Boards 
 are also used as writing copies. 
 
 
 
 
 "First Set 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 by 6 
 
 
 
 
 is 
 
 
 no 
 
 
 so 
 
 
 in 
 
 it 
 
 sea 
 see 
 
 go 
 
 be 
 bee 
 
 Second Set 
 8 by 6 
 
 sow 
 
 of 
 off 
 
 inn 
 
 dig 
 
 
 hot 
 
 
 boy 
 
 
 cat 
 
 fig 
 
 
 not 
 
 
 man 
 
 
 rat 
 
 tax 
 
 
 dog 
 
 
 bad 
 
 
 eye 
 
 wax 
 
 
 hog 
 
 
 lad 
 
 
 ear 
 
 ink 
 
 
 pen 
 
 Third Set 
 ii by 6 
 
 son 
 
 
 sun 
 
 pink 
 
 
 rain 
 
 
 cake 
 
 
 hand 
 
 rose 
 
 
 snow- 
 
 
 bake 
 
 
 feet 
 
 pail 
 
 
 look 
 
 
 ship 
 
 
 ford 
 
 hail 
 
 brave 
 cave 
 
 gaze 
 
 head 
 hair 
 
 boat 
 
 Mary 
 girl 
 
 bird 
 
 
 
 
 Fourth Set 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 14 by 6 
 
 
 
 
 father 
 
 
 leaf 
 
 
 flour 
 
 
 calf 
 
 mother 
 
 
 leaves 
 
 
 flower 
 
 
 calves 
 
 jump 
 
 
 lard 
 
 
 brother 
 
 
 uncle 
 
 quick 
 
 
 follow 
 
 
 sister 
 
 
 aunt 
 
 beef 
 
 
 fifth 
 
 
 butter 
 
 
 cheese 
 
 mutton 
 
 
 ninth 
 
 
 cream 
 
 
 milk" 1 
 
 Writing 
 In addition to the employment of writing in connection with read- 
 ing and spelling, the children, under the direction of monitors, imi- 
 tated copper-plate copies. The claim of the Manual of 1814 
 (p. 56) that the pupils attain a considerable degree of per- Copies 
 fection by writing on slates, is open to question in view of 
 
 1 Manual, Public School Society, 1850, pp. 117-118. 
 
52 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 a report of 1818. "The children are very deficient in writing and 
 
 much more so than some years ago." 1 It does not 
 
 Results seem that much progress had been made by 1825, 
 
 when the committee of School Number 2 found it 
 
 necessary to regrade the school "according to proficiency in writing." 
 
 They found that "some boys in the upper classes though well advanced 
 
 in reading and spelling were found unable to write with facility what 
 
 was dictated to their class, so that their further improvement was 
 
 much retarded." 2 
 
 In 1850 writing in the primary schools was still confined to sand 
 
 and to slates which were ruled horizonally and obliquely. The 
 
 script characters were displayed on a large board. 
 
 • r T Y^5 Copies were also written on the slates by the teacher, 
 
 in 1850 r J 
 
 The slate work of the lowest classes continued to be 
 in Roman characters. In the upper schools the more advanced 
 pupils were promoted to writing on paper. The copies were taken 
 from large copy boards, with the inscriptions of an edifying tendency: 
 "Thou God seest me." "Religion is the foundation of peace." 
 "Emulation is laudable." "Neglect no means of improvement." 
 
 Monitors were still in use to aid in the mechanical side, but the 
 instruction was given by teachers. The principal change in method 
 was the supplementing of dictation and imitation by interrogation. 
 
 "Q. What should be the form of those capital letters whose bottom 
 curves turn to the left? Ans. A circular form. 
 
 Q. How high should the curves be formed? Ans. 
 Writing Taught Ha]f ^ ^ h ^ ^ j itself. 
 
 by Questions ° 
 
 Q. What form should be given to those letters 
 
 which end with a curve turning to the right? Ans. The form of 
 capital O. 
 
 Q. How high should this curve be made? Ans. Half as high as 
 the letter. 
 
 Q. With what characters should we commence the capitals F, H, 
 K and T, etc.? Ans. A character similar to the semi-capital N. 
 
 Q. With what characters do we end the n, V, W? Ans. With a 
 character similar to small i." 3 
 
 1 Report of Committee on New York Free School, 1818. 
 
 2 Minutes of Committee of Public School Number 2, Apr. 26, 1825. 
 
 3 Manual, 1850, p. 114. 
 
Method of Teaching 53 
 
 Arithmetic 
 
 The classification for arithmetic was entirely independent of the 
 classification for reading. Promotions also were independent. Year 
 
 after year until 1848, the reports of the Free School 
 Promotion 11 Society state the number of promotions during the year 
 
 from each of the nine reading classes, and in separate 
 lists the promotions in arithmetic according to the following classes: 
 
 (1) Addition and Subtraction (5) Reduction 
 
 (2) Addition and Subtraction (6) Rule of Three 
 
 (3) Multiplication and Division (7) Practice 
 
 (4) Compound of Four First Rules (8) Interest 
 
 The arithmetic classes did not include the younger children, who 
 were occupied with only reading and writing, and spelling. 
 
 The teaching was entirely monitorial. Pupils first learned to 
 copy figures from the blackboard. Addition was taught by the dicta- 
 tion of numbers to be added and also the answers. As 
 the monitor read from his key and inspected the slates, Method 
 
 the operation was deemed infallible. This new method 
 of teaching arithmetic, Sydney Smith declares to be the greatest 
 of Lancaster's improvements, and "applicable to the whole circle 
 of human knowledge." 1 So completely was the plan elaborated that 
 "any boy of eight years old who can barely read writing, and numer- 
 ate well, is by means of the guide containing the sums, and the key 
 thereto, qualified to teach the first four rules of arithmetic, simple 
 and compound, if the key is correct, with as much accuracy as Mathe- 
 maticians who have kept school for twenty years." 2 
 
 "Another method of teaching the simple rules of arithmetic, and 
 one which should be frequently resorted to, is in the use of the black- 
 board. The class having written the sum on their 
 slates, and attended to casting it up, are now called up Blackboard 
 by the monitor to exercise in that manner. The same 
 sum is written with chalk on the board, large enough to be seen by 
 the whole class. The monitor points to the first columns, when the 
 head boy adds aloud, 4 and 5 are 9 and 6 are 15 and 7 are 22, put down 
 2 and carry 2 to the next. The monitor stands by the board with a 
 
 1 Edinburgh Review, Vol. 17, pp. 74-75. 
 Ibid. 
 
54 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 piece of chalk, and sets down the several products, as they are found 
 by the boys who add the columns in their turn; and a new example is 
 given when the first is well understood. When a boy in adding makes 
 a mistake, the next boy or any boy in the class, who discovers it, 
 should take precedency of him. This excites attention and laudable 
 ambition." 1 "This account of the method of teaching addition will 
 be sufficient in arithmetic; as the principle is applicable to all the 
 other rules, and may with superior advantages, be adopted by every 
 teacher." 2 Monitors were still employed in 1850 in teaching arith- 
 metic, but under the supervision of the master. At this time the 
 monitor was supposed to be able to explain the operations on the 
 board. x 
 
 At first glance nothing seems more inexplicable than the extrava- 
 gant claims for the most wooden of all methods called educational. 
 "We have seen a class of girls whose ages average not more than 
 nine, by the force of memory and a few plain rules, multiply seven or 
 R j. eight figures by an equal number, enumerate, and announce 
 accurately the product amounting to quintillions and then 
 extract the square root of this product and state the root and the 
 remainder without varying a figure from the truth." 3 The impres- 
 sion made upon a visitor to Lancaster's Borough Road School was 
 that, "There is hardly anything in his school so calculated to produce 
 an effect upon the spectator. The children seem to have caught the 
 knowledge of arithmetic at once, without the usual process of learn- 
 ing." 4 
 
 The last sentence from Bernard suggests a clue to the superiority 
 of the new method. Note the usual process of learning: "According 
 to the notions that long and generally prevailed, it was deemed a 
 sufficient foundation for knowledge in the sciences to teach children 
 to repeat by rote the names and signs of numbers from one to one 
 thousand or upward. They were then, though with some difficulty, 
 
 taught to distinguish and to name the corres- 
 in A "th t' ponding figures and to divide them into units, 
 
 tens, thousands, etc. . . . The rules which 
 
 1 Lancaster, British System of Education, Washington, 1812, p. 44. This 
 was the method employed in the schools of the Free School Society and, 
 according to the Manual of 1814, p. 57, "it has been found very expeditious." 
 
 2 Account of Free School Society, 18 14, pp. 58-59. 
 
 3 Griscom, Monitorial Instruction, p. 49. 
 
 4 Bernard, New School, p. 96. 
 
Method of Teaching 55 
 
 he was compelled to commit to memory successively at every step 
 as he advanced, were composed in terms utterly beyond his compre- 
 hension; and as they were never explained to him, he gained nothing 
 by repeating them but an exercise of the memory. Ideas upon the 
 subject might be accidentally acquired, and where a notion of the 
 advantages to be derived from the knowledge of arithmetic had been 
 early impressed upon the mind, they would be sought for and ob- 
 tained. But when there was no such stimulus to exertion, all must 
 have been performed mechanically, and as whatever is not clearly 
 understood is soon forgotten, we need not be surprised, that of the 
 numbers who have been thus taught the art of ciphering without 
 any clear notion respecting the principles on which they worked, so 
 few should have retained any of the little they at school acquired." 1 
 
 "The vague and ill devised methods of teaching in general, are 
 fraught with the most serious evils. . . . Our youth are made 
 to languish over books of words, accompanied only by the midnight 
 lamp, without explanation or oral instruction, and compelled to recite 
 these words, not understood, verbatim, on entering school the next 
 morning. This although a popular method, is one the most incon- 
 sistent and absurd requisitions that was ever enforced on human 
 beings." 2 "The pupil simply worried through his arithmetic, through 
 rules and mechanical operations. There was no knowledge of the 
 subject and no mental gain." 3 
 
 It is not difficult to discover the superiority of Lancaster's method 
 to the method in vogue at that time. Instead of the long prelimi- 
 naries and the learning of numbers and rules the pupils were at once 
 set to work in the operations of arithmetic. The children were given 
 something to do, though they were left to the direction of the moni- 
 tors who knew little more than themselves. The child had some 
 opportunity of learning arithmetic. The inadequacy of the Lancas- 
 terian plan was discovered when comparison was made with the more 
 intelligent methods of Pestalozzi and Warren Colburn. 
 
 Science and Object Teaching 
 
 The earlier Lancasterian schools do not appear to have had any 
 provision for these subjects, which were not easily adapted to moni- 
 
 1 Academician, 1818, Vol. I, pp. 281-282, from Hamilton's Hints. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 244. 
 
 3 Carter, Letters on the Free Schools of New England in American Journal 
 of Education, 1827, Vol. II, p. 30. 
 
56 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 torial methods of instruction. However, in advance of 
 iJr °° any formal plans for teaching natural science, collections 
 
 of objects were formed. Lancaster's interest in the 
 subject is indicated by the fact that within a year after he came to 
 America he proposed the foundation of a National Museum at Wash- 
 ington for extending scientific education, promoting agriculture, and 
 aiding the arts and industries, thus anticipating the idea of the Smith- 
 sonian Institution and the Department of Agriculture. Lancaster 
 proposed a tax on sea-captains, merchants and travelers who neglected 
 to bring in specimens. 1 In a measure following his suggestion, the 
 African Free School in 1828 issued a circular inviting "captains of 
 vessels and other gentlemen traveling in oub own or foreign countries 
 to contribute to the school museum." 2 
 
 Object teaching came in with the establishment of the Infant 
 Schools in 1828. These schools followed the Pestalozzian rather than 
 the Lancasterian model, and were taught by "females" 
 s , , with some monitorial assistance. The daily program pro- 
 
 vided for conversation about common objects; and reading 
 was taught in association with objects and pictures, i A visitor thus 
 describes the instruction in Infant School No. 1: "Underneath the 
 picture may be placed the letters c, a, t; the child is soon taught to 
 spell cat, and thus at once learns its letters, the name of its favorite 
 animal, and how to spell it. Thus I observed in the infant school, 
 in children of about eighteen months old, one that could scarcely 
 stand alone, who, on a picture of a cat being placed on the stand, would, 
 as the monitor pointed with his stick, spell c, a, t. The same with 
 dog, cow, horse, etc. up to elephant, crocodile, rhinoceros, and other 
 animals of which they had only seen the pictures. It soon becomes 
 easy to make them acquainted with the natural history of these 
 animals, and an infant learns the difference between the names of an 
 elephant and a phaeton, and how to spell them much sooner than 
 some persons who ride in one of their own. Thus children acquire 
 ideas of things along with their names. They are sensible of this 
 acquisition and are delighted with it. Happiness and satisfaction 
 are depicted on their countenances, and intelligence -begins to mark 
 their features. From objects near at hand, and within the range of 
 sight, the transition is easy to objects remote, but still material. 
 
 1 Letters on National Subjects, Washington, 1820. 
 
 2 Andrews, History of the African Free School, New York, 1830. 
 
Method of Teaching 57 
 
 Thus an idea of a mountain, an island, an isthmus, etc. is more quickly 
 and perfectly comprehended by an infant on inspecting figures, or 
 with a picture, than it can be by a youth at an academy, assisted by 
 all the definitions which the school can furnish, without a picture or 
 model. By means of models the infant acquires ideas of astronomy 
 and of all the other objects of the material creation." 1 
 
 Astronomy was the first science to be introduced into the upper 
 schools. 2 It is reported by Andrews that two of his boys, aged 
 fifteen and thirteen years, calculated "correctly (ac- Astronomy 
 cording to the rules given for that purpose) the distance 
 of each planet from the sun, its magnitude compared with that of 
 the earth, and the degree of Light and Heat received at each planet." 3 
 The character of the instruction, apart from the mathematical side, 
 may be inferred from the examination of a ten-year-old boy in 1826. 
 
 "Q. What is the earth? A. It is a planet, and the third, in the solar system. 
 
 Q. What surrounds the earth? A. The atmosphere. 
 
 Q. Of what does the earth consist? A. Of land and water. 
 
 Q. What shape has the earth? A. It is round. 
 
 Q. How do you know it is round? A. Because we can see the tops of ships 
 masts first at sea. 
 
 Q. Does the earth stand still or move? A. It moves on its axis, and has its' 
 motion round the sun. 
 
 Q. What takes place from these motions? A. Its motion round the sun pro- 
 duces the change of seasons, and its motion on its axis, the succession 
 of day and night. 
 
 Q. If the earth turns round, why are we not turned heels up at midnight? 
 A. Because the attraction of gravity draws all bodies towards the center 
 of the earth. 
 
 Q. Does any other planet obey the laws of gravitation? A. Yes, Sir, Mars, 
 as well as the other smaller planets, called asteroids, Jupiter, etc. 
 
 Q. Has the earth any satellite? A. Yes, the moon is the earth's satellite. 
 
 Q. Has any other planet a satellite, or moon? A. Yes, Saturn has seven and 
 Jupiter has four, and they all gravitate towards their respective prin- 
 cipals. 
 
 Q. Have we any antipodes? A. Yes, Sir, they are the people directly under 
 us, they have their feet opposite to our feet." 4 
 
 To relieve the monotony of the catechetical memoriter method of 
 teaching astronomy, dramatization was introduced. "In astronomy, 
 
 1 American Journal of Education, 1828, Vol. Ill, pp. 690-693. 
 
 2 28th Annual Report, Public School Society, 1833. 
 
 3 History of the African Free School, p. 97. 
 
 4 Ibid., pp. 145-146. 
 
58 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 the pupils may sometimes personate the sun, 
 Dramatization , ,1 , 1 t it • 
 
 in Astronomy moon and earth, — so as to represent by their 
 
 own positions and movements, many of its im- 
 portant phenomena; and at the same time, give the derivation of the 
 scientific terms, such as solstice, tropic, and equinoctial; — while the 
 teacher will often, in the midst of these illustrations, repeat the requi- 
 sition of 'Spell it'— 'Define it.'" 1 
 
 Upon the suggestion of Mr. Josiah Holbrook, the trustees in 1844 
 approved a plan of instruction in " sensible objects" and the forming 
 
 of collections. Not less than ten thousand elemen- 
 pj tary cabinets of geology were collected, assorted 
 
 and labeled by the pupils. 2 ,-The collection for the 
 Primary Schools included quartz, feldspar, mica, granite, hornblend, 
 sienite, pudding-stone, burr-stone, sand-stone, a crystal of quartz, 
 granular lime-stone, compact lime, statuary marble, gypsum, hydrau- 
 lic lime, rhombic spar, serpentine, precious serpentine, soap-stone, 
 talc, asbestos, lava, pumice-stone, coral, organic-remains, iron ore, 
 anthracite coal and bituminous coal. 
 
 In the Manual of 1850 the term "object lessons" is used with a 
 remarkable extension in meaning, including the names of the letters, 
 rules of grammar, the nature of the soul and the benevolence of the 
 Creator. The author of this course must have been as devoid of 
 humor and as innocent of the scientific spirit as Lancaster himself. 
 "The first lessons should be on things with which they are most 
 familiar; letters and words, the things they wear, eat and use. For, 
 
 although they are familiar with their names and 
 
 Object lessons, or uses, nevertheless they are quite ignorant of their 
 Instruction in , , , , r™ • _ _i. 
 
 Commo Th' es nature and character. Ihe acquirement, then, 
 
 of such knowledge, will be a new and continual 
 
 source of pleasure to them. Begin with letters, the signs of sounds: 
 
 the human voice, the nature of speech, and construction of language 
 
 by syllables, words and sentences. Make such lessons, as they are 
 
 continued, a means of presenting the elementary stages of grammar: 
 
 the names of all things as being nouns; the words that are added to 
 
 them to express their kind and quality as being adjectives: requiring 
 
 them to give an example of each; — all actions, as verbs, — those done 
 
 to us as well as by us; pronouns, the little words taking the place of 
 
 l 40th Annual Report, Public School Society, 1846, p. 28. 
 1 Ibid., p. 18. 
 
Method of Teaching 59 
 
 nouns to prevent repetition; prepositions as words expressing the 
 relation of things, etc., etc. These if illustrated by actions, as 
 speaking, walking, and singing, and by significant motions, would 
 never be forgotten; for instance, by motion of their hands above 
 their heads, below their chins, by their side, behind their backs; and to 
 make the preposition emphatic, say — above, below, by, on, behind, 
 show the relation of my hands and head, my hands and side, etc. 
 They would thus be prepared to understand the rules of grammar 
 which say, 'Prepositions express some relation of different things,' 
 and so on of other rules. Next proceed to form and structure of the 
 body — speak of the soul, of the external senses, of the moral sense, 
 — the social duties; with evidence of the benevolence of the Creator 
 as blended with everything connected with animated nature. Such 
 ideas should pervade these lessons generally. Proceed with the 
 manner in which natural life is sustained; then the products of the 
 Earth, edible substances; roots, grain, fruit, etc., and artificial things. 
 The Earth's structure, the starry Heavens. Hints of all these in 
 their order, if the lessons are short and simple, would soon impress 
 their minds with a great amount of useful knowledge. The diligent 
 teacher of these things, will find a satisfaction in knowing that the 
 time they (sic) have devoted to these short oral lessons, has been 
 profitably bestowed. Beside the common division of various sub- 
 stances into animal, vegetable, and mineral, they may be again 
 divided into organic and inorganic. The first comprises those 
 beings, which either have, or once had life, and the organs or instru- 
 ments by which it is sustained, — such as the organs of breathing, for 
 circulating blood or sap, and digesting food for the growth of every 
 part. The second comprises those objects which never had life, or 
 means of sustaining it. . . . The inorganic kingdom comprises 
 minerals, metals, air and water. The first two are substances from 
 the interior of the earth, though sometimes found on the surface; 
 they are those dug from a pit in the earth, that is a mine, — hence 
 called minerals. . . . All substances may also be classed as 
 natural or artificial. The natural are creations or creatures of God, 
 the creator. Artificial are such as made by the art of man, they are 
 called manufactures, from manus, a hand and factum, to make. 
 . . . Honey, wax, oil, etc. are natural substances. Paper, cloth, 
 brick, etc. are manufactured or artificial substances. . . . Ani- 
 mals may be divided into mammals, those nourishing their young with 
 milk. This class includes, 1st all animals with four feet, or quadru- 
 
60 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 peds, . . . 2nd Quadrumana, or four handed as monkeys, etc., 
 3d Cetacea, or whale kind, 4th Bi-manus or two handed, as man. 
 The next class are birds or bipeds, animals with two feet. These 
 feed on seeds, and some of them on insects and on flesh. Next 
 Reptiles. ... Of this class are lizards, frogs, etc. Next 
 fishes, or those which live in the water, having fins instead of hands 
 or feet for motion. Then insects, or those divided into three parts, 
 such as bugs, beetles, etc. Next vermes, or worms — which class are 
 soft bodied animals destitute of limbs, some of them provided with 
 shells, as polypus, etc. And lastly, Mollusca, as having no bones 
 and being soft fleshed as oysters, clams, etc. This general classifica- 
 tion of the animal kingdom, will excite a love of nature, so charac- 
 teristic of the young, and which is desirable by all means to cultivate 
 . . . will draw the mind from vain and trifling thoughts to those 
 which are solid and useful." 1 
 
 This lavish feast to satisfy infant hunger for knowledge was no 
 doubt the natural result of the prevailing tendency to systematize 
 
 educational procedure and to rely for a knowledge of 
 Ch'ld Studv child nature upon the literature of the Infant School 
 
 movement. The child was seen only from the adult 
 point of view and through the medium of a distorted Pestalozzianism. 
 The New York High School, opened in 1825, had an introductory 
 class "to receive children of the earliest age, and to introduce them, 
 by gentle steps and by allurements best suited to their infant tastes, 
 to the portals of learning." Children were received "as soon as 
 they can walk and pronounce with tolerable distinctness words which 
 are repeated to them, and have sufficient vivacity to notice what is 
 passing around them." 2 
 
 This pseudo-Pestalozzianism invaded the sacred portals of the 
 home and even there laid allurements for the youth of tenderest 
 
 years. Little Edward Eustace, aged three, is brought 
 J 1 a : n . in in the arms of his mother, who proceeds to illustrate 
 
 her method: "Mrs. E. — 'Now Edward, run and fetch 
 mamma your stool. Show me what you can do with it.' Edward — 'I 
 can set it down, mamma, and lift it up.' Mrs. E. — 'So you can! Do 
 something more with it.' He turns it, drags it, slides it, leans it, etc. 
 Between, over, under, before, behind, etc., are taught in the same 
 
 1 Manual of 1850, pp. 54-57. 
 
 2 Griscom, Monitorial Instruction, p. 43. 
 
Method of Teaching 61 
 
 way." 1 Here is the life story of a bright boy nourished on the Infant 
 School plan. Porter Brinsmade, born February 28, 
 1827, in Hartford, Connecticut. From the age of 4 Cultivated 
 months, his eyes were directed to surrounding objects, 
 until names of articles became familiar. At ten months he learned 
 the alphabet from blocks. (He could not utter the sounds, but 
 would pick out the letters called for.) He took no delight in toys, 
 but in pictures and books. Geography was a favorite study before 
 his second birthday. Then he became interested in geometry. His 
 mother devoted herself to him. Love of knowledge was a passion. 
 He was often told that to his Father in Heaven he was indebted for 
 what he most loved; and with an affecting earnestness, and graceful 
 gesture of his little hand he would say "Thank God." Porter died 
 at the age of 2 years, 5 months. 2 
 
 By a system of exchange with the schools of other cities, the school 
 collection was enlarged, an interest in collecting developed, and 
 opportunity afforded for practice in correspondence. Exchange of 
 Some interesting letters are found in the Fortieth Specimens 
 
 Report of the Public School Society, 1846. 
 
 New York, July 24th, 1845. 
 Dear Friends: 
 
 We, the girls of Public School No. 15, send you three sets of minerals; 
 each containing six specimens. On Monday the 21st, between three and four 
 hundred families connected with our school, were supplied with similar sets, 
 which were collected by the boys, and labelled by the scholars of the several 
 departments. The Mica was sent to us by the children of the Orphan Asylum 
 at Bloomingdale. We are going to send some specimens to several primary 
 schools, and try to interest them also. We take great pleasure in sending them 
 to you; and hope that you will be pleased with them. We would have en- 
 closed some geometrical diagrams if we had had sufficient time to prepare them; 
 but we hope to have another opportunity of sending them. 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 Susan A. Black, for the girls of P. S. No. 15 
 To the girls of Mr. Salisbury's School, Syracuse. 
 
 Syracuse, August 20th, 1845. 
 Dear Friends: 
 
 We hail you as sisters. We are glad a correspondence is now open be- 
 tween us, and we haste to acknowledge the reception of the box of minerals 
 presented by you. In return we send you eighteen specimens of Plants 
 gathered in the vicinity of our village. Our class in Botany numbers sixteen. 
 
 1 American Journal of Education, 1829, Vol. IV, pp. 497-506. 
 
 2 Ibid., 1838, Vol. V, pp. 199-206. 
 
62 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 We have analyzed fifty species of plants this term, and find ourselves in- 
 creasingly interested in the pursuit of so pleasing and profitable study. We 
 are exceedingly pleased with the minerals, and will gratefully receive any 
 specimens of mapping, penciling, painting or geometrical diagrams with 
 which you may favor us. While we thank you, we will endeavor in our re- 
 sponse to return an ample equivalent. We love the study of Natural Science, 
 — and are taught by our Teacher to regard the field of nature as our Heavenly 
 Father's own library, from which, he would not only have us gather lessons of 
 wisdom and instruction, but in which every object should seem to us to mirror 
 forth his perfections, and enforce his claim upon the affections of our young 
 hearts. 
 
 Hoping to hear from you again, we remain, 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 Eliza Fritcher, on behalf of Girls' Public School No. 7, Syracuse. 1 
 
 During the early days of our public school system, as we have 
 seen, every method or device employed seemed to give rise to the 
 most extravagant expectations. The ex- 
 Exchange of Specimens change f specimens and letters was no ex- 
 and Letters a Means of . ,,,. , T i ., roo 
 
 Averting Civil War ception to this rule. In a letter of S. S. 
 
 Randall, at one time deputy state superin- 
 tendent of common schools for the State of New York, is an interesting 
 anticipation of the school children of New York, by these letters and 
 specimens, averting the civil war which was then imminent. "I 
 should do equal injustice to my own feelings, and to the warm hearts 
 and generous spirits of the children of Virginia, if I failed to express 
 to you, my dear young friends, some of the reflections which this 
 novel and interesting embassy from the children of the North to the 
 South, has excited. In my judgment, it is destined, under the blessing 
 of Divine Providence, to exert a stronger, more beneficial, and enduring 
 influence upon the integrity and perpetuity of our glorious Union, 
 
 than any, and perhaps than all other agencies combined 
 
 And while the minds of good men in every section are seriously 
 alarmed, lest in an evil and inconsiderate hour, some rash hand may 
 be put forth to sunder the bonds of brotherhood, which have joined us 
 together as one people, and are to us our only safeguard and highest 
 treasure — the spectacle of forty thousand children from the Empire 
 State in the North, extending the hand of fraternal amity and kind 
 regards to their brethren and sisters of the 'Old Dominion' in the 
 South, affords a sure guaranty for the indivisibility and perpetuity 
 of the Union." 2 
 
 1 40th Annual Report, Public School Society, 1846, pp. 30-31. 
 
 2 43d Annual Report, Public School Society, 1849, p. 32. 
 
Method of Teaching 63 
 
 Manual Training 
 
 Although Lancaster was interested in some forms of manual train- 
 ing, especially in the making of straw hats and in sewing for girls, 1 
 no real plan of manual training except sewing for 
 girls was developed in connection with the monitorial Tr i ' <* 
 
 system, and no facilities were provided in the schools. 
 In some of the schools an attempt was made "to encourage the 
 scholars in the productions of their little works of art, 
 and to excite some degree of competition." School E ° r , 
 
 fairs were held, at which were exhibited articles that 
 the pupils made at home. "Much pleasure is afforded by the exhi- 
 bitions of such first beginnings; among the articles produced by the 
 boys, will be found wagons, carts of various descriptions, wheelbar- 
 rows, tables, chairs, benches, sleighs, candle stands, bedsteads, 
 cradles, fire engines, hooks and ladders used at fires, with carriage 
 for the same, ships, brigs, sloops, boats, houses, anchors, hammers, 
 crowbars made of lead, specimens of carved wood, and in one instance 
 a complete set of carpenter's tools, neatly fitted into a chest five 
 inches long." 2 
 
 School Libraries 
 
 Only one month after the laying of the cornerstone for the new 
 Henry Street building of School Number 2, in November, 1810, 
 the sum of one hundred dollars was appropriated for the purchase of 
 books for a circulating library attached to the school, and additions 
 were requested from members of the Society. 3 This 
 act was typical. It became the policy of the trustees ji'sHf 8 T 
 
 to equip the schools with libraries. In 1818 it was de- 
 cided to place books to the value of fifty dollars in each of the four 
 schools then in operation, the use of the library to be limited to the 
 best scholars, who should form a "Class of Merit." 4 Until about 
 1847 books were loaned only as a reward for good conduct and pro- 
 ficiency. Library opportunities were then extended to all, "as a 
 happy means of reforming the vicious, careless and 
 
 indolent." 5 To what extent these classes availed T a ° 
 
 Influence 
 themselves of their new opportunities it is not possible 
 
 to say. 
 
 1 Lancaster, Improvements in Education, 1807. 
 
 2 Andrews, New York African Free School, 1830, pp. 109-110. 
 
 3 Account of Free School Society, 1814, p. 15. 
 
 4 Report of Committee on State of New York Free Schools, 18 18, p. 8. 
 ° 41st Annual Report, Public School Society, 1847. 
 
64 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 In March, 1846, the number of readers was 4284, and the circula- 
 
 lation 67,108. There were about 260 volumes in each building, a 
 
 total of 5220 volumes. The Forty-first Annual 
 
 ™8 4 r 6 n ' s Reading Re P° rt of the Public Sch ° o1 Societ y> m7 > 
 
 contains an appendix on libraries. The cata- 
 logue of books is especially interesting to the student of children's 
 literature, particularly as the comparative popularity of each book is 
 indicated by the number of times it was drawn. Miss Sedgwick 
 heads the list with 1247 readers for "Poor Rich Man and Rich Poor 
 Man." Dana's "Two Years before the Mast" found 920 readers. 
 The " Elephant in a Wild State " was not neglected by 698 adventurous 
 pupils. "Sanford and Merton" was not then outgrown by Ameri- 
 can youth. Goldsmith's were the popular histories. Few school 
 boys of to-day know the story of "Pitcairn's Island" then read by 
 526. Natural philosophy seemed to appeal to youths of more tender 
 years than at the present day. A touching anecdote is related by 
 Charles E. Andrews, teacher of the African Free School. "A little fel- 
 low, 10 years of age, belonging to the school, was asked among other 
 things, by Doctor Samuel L. Mitchill of this city, whether any other 
 planet beside the earth had a satellite or moon. He answered, 'Yes 
 Sir, Saturn has seven, and Jupiter has four, and they all gravitate 
 towards their respective principals.' He then asked how he came to 
 know so much about these subjects. Answer: 'From reading books, 
 sir, in the school library.'" 1 
 
 1 Andrews, History of the African Free School, p. 104. 
 
VI 
 
 RELIGIOUS AND MORAL EDUCATION 
 
 The non-sectarian character of the Lancasterian movement which 
 aroused in England the bitter opposition of zealous partisans such as 
 Mrs. Trimmer and the other supporters of Dr. Bell, served at first 
 to strengthen the Free School movement in New York and later to 
 facilitate the final merging into the Public School Non _ 
 
 System. The act of incorporation of the Free School sectarian 
 Society (1805) states that the society is instituted Schools 
 
 "for the establishment of a Free School for the education of the poor 
 children who do not belong to, or are not provided for, by any religious 
 society." The object, as stated, was to implant in the minds of such 
 children the principles of religion and morality. 
 
 Religious education was duly provided for in the Rules for the 
 
 Government of the Schools: 1 (1) The reading of the Scriptures was 
 
 required morning and evening. (Rule VI) (2) All 
 
 scholars were directed to attend school on the first c ea - *" g ° 
 
 bcnptures 
 
 day of the week, "That they there be divided into 
 classes, and proceed under charge of monitors, to such places of 
 public worship as may be designated by the parents or guardians." 
 (Rule VII). This is evidently Lancaster's solution of 
 the problem of religious instruction: "On being ad- Attendance 
 mitted into school, the children of churchmen should be 
 registered as such and the children of dissenters as such. That on 
 Sundays they should assemble at the school in the morning and after- 
 noon, previous to the hour for Divine Service, and the children of 
 each denomination be conducted from thence to their respective 
 places for worship." 2 
 
 The requirement of Sunday attendance and the marshaling of 
 children to church apparently proved too great a burden to the school, 
 for by 1819 the rules were modified; "It is expected that parents see 
 
 1 Account of Free School Society, 1814. 
 
 1 Lancaster, Instructions for Forming a Society for the Poor, p. vi. 
 
 65 
 
66 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 that their children regularly attend some place of worship." 1 Efforts 
 were made to hold parents to their duty. Reports of church or 
 Sunday School attendance were made to the trustees. In 1828 the 
 school visitor found that 1500 out of 1700 families sent their children 
 to Sunday School. 2 The school buildings were used for Sunday 
 Schools. 
 
 (3) Opportunity for denominational instruction was not limited 
 to Sundays. Tuesday afternoons were devoted to instruction at 
 Catechism school in the principles of the Christian religion. The 
 
 several churches were invited to send suitable persons 
 to catechise and instruct. (Rule X) 3 "An association of more than 
 fifty ladies of the first position and character, and belonging to the 
 
 different religious denominations in the city, volun- 
 f Lad'e teered their services, and they accordingly met at the 
 
 schools to examine the children in their respective 
 catechisms." 4 A suggestion as to the activity of this committee is 
 found in the minutes of Public School Number 1; "On February 2nd, 
 1813, a committee of twenty-four ladies, of the Presbyterian, Episco- 
 pal, Methodist, Associate Reformed, and Reformed Dutch Churches, 
 attended to catechise the children. On the 9th, thirty, and on the 
 16th, forty ladies attended to give religious instruction. Bishop 
 Hobart opened the exercises with prayer. One afternoon in the week 
 was devoted to these religious services." 5 
 
 In 1814, "the number of children educated in the peculiar tenets 
 of each religious community" was: 
 
 "Presbyterians 271 Baptists 119 
 
 Episcopalians 186 Dutch Church 41 
 
 Methodists 172 Roman Catholic 9" 6 
 
 In a memorial presented to the Legislature in the session of 1823 
 the trustees (pages 20-21) claimed that they were not neglectful in 
 educating the children in the leading principles of the Christian faith. 
 Four measures are mentioned: 
 
 1 Address to Parents, New York Free School Society, 1819. 
 
 2 Seton, S. W., Report of School Visitor, 1829. 
 
 3 Account of Free School Society, 18 14. 
 
 4 Bourne, Public School Society, p. 27. 
 6 Ibid., p. 681. 
 
 6 Ninth Annual Report, Free School Society, 1814. 
 
Religious and Moral Education 67 
 
 1. Reading of the scriptures. 
 
 2. Enforcing of church attendance. 
 
 3. The trustees address the children upon their moral and religious 
 duties. 
 
 4. The adoption of a non-sectarian catechism. 
 
 The Deputy Superintendent of Common Schools, William L. 
 Stone, in his report to the Board of Education of the City and County 
 of New York, 1843 (pages 9-10), was able to state concerning the 
 common school law prohibiting sectarian doctrine, that "the fell 
 spirit of sectarianism has never entered into the schools of the Public 
 School Society. Catechisms and sectarian books are rigidly excluded." 
 Sectarian instruction received a different interpretation by the Com- 
 missioners of School Monies in the Ninth Ward, who in this same year, 
 1843, caused the Board of Education to direct the omission of several 
 selections from "Popular Lessons": 
 
 Son of God 
 
 "The son of God who came from heaven 
 The erring world to save, 
 Who says, 'repent and be forgiven, 
 And live beyond the grave!' 
 
 By actions holy and serene 
 
 He won his father's love; 
 And though superior far to men 
 
 Was harmless as a dove. 
 
 He raised the dying from the bed; 
 
 He made the blind to see; 
 He made the tombs give up their dead, 
 
 And set the prisoner free!" 1 
 
 Religious Reading — Punishment of Sin 
 
 "If I do wrong, my troubled heart 
 Shall vainly seek the bed of rest; 
 Peace will from my pillow fly, 
 Sleep will shun my weary eye, 
 Angry foes will then proclaim, 
 All my folly and shame; 
 And my friends who once my love partook 
 Pass me with a stranger's look. 
 
 1 New York Education Document No. 2, p. n. 
 
68 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 Fast my burning tears will flow, 
 
 Wearily my days will go; 
 
 And with cold and shuddering gloom 
 
 I shall see the opening tomb. 
 
 Parents will with bitter pain 
 
 See their labor spent in vain; 
 
 Will mourn the child they cannot save, 
 
 And seek shelter in the grave. 
 
 When the aim of death destroys 
 
 All my false and fatal joys, 
 
 In that hour of deep despair 
 
 God will not regard my prayer. 
 
 I shall see the blest afar, 
 
 Radiant as the morning star, * 
 
 While with aching steps I go 
 
 To the darker realms of woe." 1 
 
 An illustration of the religious exercises is given in the Manual 
 of 1830. After the salutation of the teacher to the 
 Exercises school, and expression of their dependence upon God 
 
 for sparing them to meet again, the exercise pro- 
 ceeds: 
 
 " Teacher. How shall we feel to our heavenly Father for these mercies? Ans. 
 
 Truly thankful. 
 Teacher. What example have we for this in the Holy Scriptures? Ans. 
 
 Psalm c. 4, 5:' — Be thankful unto Him, and Bless His name, for the Lord is 
 
 good. His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations.' 
 Teacher. Children, who is good? Ans. The Lord is good. 
 Teacher. To whom should we be thankful? Ans. Be thankful unto him. 
 Teacher. Whose name should we bless? Ans. Bless His name. 
 Teacher. What is said in this Psalm, of God's mercy? Ans. His mercy is 
 
 everlasting. 
 Teacher. What is said of God's truth? Ans. His truth endureth to all 
 
 generations. 
 Teacher. What is God's truth? Ans. His Holy Laws. 
 Teacher. Psalm XXXIV. 11: 'Come, ye children, hearken unto me; I 
 
 will teach you the fear of the Lord.' My dear children, tell me, who has 
 
 watched over you, and preserved your lives through the past night? Ans. 
 
 Psalm III. 5: 'I laid me down, and slept. I waked for the Lord sustained 
 
 me.' 
 Teacher. Does God always see you? Ans. Proverbs XV. 3: 'The eyes of 
 
 the Lord are in every place.' 
 Teacher. Does God know your very thoughts? Ans. Psalm CXXXIX. 
 
 I, 20: 'Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted 
 
 with all my ways.' 
 
 1 New York Education Document No. 2. 
 
Religious and Moral Education 69 
 
 Teacher. Does God hear all you say? Ans. Psalm CXXXIX. 4: 'For 
 there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it alto- 
 gether.' 
 
 Teacher. Does God require the young to serve him? Ans. Ecclesiastes 
 XII. 1: 'Remember thy creator in the days of thy youth.'" 
 
 The plan of instruction for 1842 says that the following rules are 
 recited daily, after the reading of the scriptures. According to the 
 Manual of 1850 the repetition is occasional only. After this exercise 
 the scholars are personally inspected as to cleanliness, before repairing 
 to their seats. 
 
 " 1 st — I must be silent when the bell rings. 
 
 2nd — I must always mind my teachers. 
 
 3rd — I must come every day, and be here when school goes in. 
 
 4th — I must not be idle. 
 
 5th — I must not lie. 
 
 6th — I must not steal. 
 
 7th — I must not swear. 
 
 8th — I must not be angry. 
 
 9th — I must not strike or hurt any one in anger. 
 10th — I must be pleasant and kind to all. 
 nth — I must forgive all who offend or injure me. 
 1 2th — I must be clean in my clothes, my face, and my hands. 
 13th — I must be decent in all my ways. 
 14th — I must not destroy my books or lessons. 
 15th — I must not tear nor break any of the furniture of the school. 
 1 6th — I must remember these rules and try to keep every one of them." 
 
 In the Primary department, the following is added: 
 
 Persuasive Charge 
 
 " Teacher. My dear children, the intention of this school is to teach you to be 
 
 good and useful while in this world, — that you may be happy 1 here and in 
 
 the world to come. 
 Teacher. What is the intention of this school? We therefore first teach you 
 
 to 'remember your Creator in the days of your youth.' What do we first 
 
 teach you? 
 Teacher. It is our duty to teach you this, because we find it is written in the 
 
 Holy Bible. Why is it our duty to teach you this? 
 Teacher. The Bible directs us to 'train you up in the way you should go.' 
 
 What good book directs us to train you up in the way you should go? 
 Teacher. Therefore my children — You must obey your parents. 
 
 1 Happiness in this world is suggested in the Manual of 1850, not in the 
 Manual of 1842. 
 
70 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 School. I must obey my parents. 
 
 Teacher. You must obey your teachers. 
 
 School. I must obey my teachers. 
 
 Teacher. You must never tell a He. 
 
 School. I must never tell a lie. 
 
 Teacher. You must never steal the smallest thing. 
 
 School. I must never steal the smallest thing. 
 
 Teacher. You must never swear. 
 
 School. I must never swear. 
 
 Teacher. 'God will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.' 
 
 School. 'God will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.' 
 
 Teacher. God always sees you. (Slowly, and in a soft tone.) 
 
 School. God always sees me. 
 
 Teacher. God hears all you say. 
 
 School. God hears all I say. 
 
 Teacher. God knows all you do. 
 
 School. God knows all I do. 
 
 Teacher. You should fear to offend him, for he is most holy. 
 
 School. I should fear to offend him, for he is most holy. 
 
 Teacher. You should depart from evil, and learn to do well. 
 
 School. I should depart from evil, and learn to do well. 
 
 Teacher. May all you, dear children, while attending this school, learn to be 
 
 good and useful in this world. 
 School. May we all while attending this school, learn to be good and useful 
 
 in this world. 
 Teacher. And with God's blessing, may you be happy in this world and in 
 
 that which is to come. 
 School. And with God's blessing, may we be happy in this world and that 
 
 which is to come." 1 
 
 The children then sing a hymn by Dr. Watts, as follows: 
 
 "Let children that would fear the Lord 
 
 Hear what their teachers say, 
 With reverence meet their parents' word, 
 
 And with delight obey. 
 
 Have we not heard what dreadful plagues 
 
 Are threatened by our Lord 
 To him who breaks his father's laws, 
 
 And mocks his mother's word? 
 
 1 The Manual of 1850 says: "The pupils, at each repetition place the right 
 hand, opened, upon the breast, which gesture seems to make the sentiment 
 more impressive." 
 
Religious and Moral Education 71 
 
 But those who worship God, and give 
 
 Their parents honor due, 
 Here on this earth they long shall live, 
 
 And live hereafter too." 1 
 
 Moral Training 
 
 The moral aim of the Free School Society was pronounced. Accord- 
 ing to the act of incorporation, the purpose in its foundation was the 
 implanting of the principles of religion and morality and the develop- 
 ing of habits of industry and virtue. The means to this end were 
 religious instruction, the daily reading of the "Rules" and "Per- 
 suasive Charge," direct instruction in morals and man- 
 ners, the library, circulars to parents, the school visitor, E ^"d 
 above all the monitorial organization of the schools and 
 the system of rewards and punishments. That the ultimate aim 
 was not lost sight of is evident by the references to social and moral 
 improvement in various reports of the society. These reports further 
 indicate some measure of success. How much it is necessary to 
 discount these reports it is not possible to say, as we cannot estimate 
 the amount of elimination of undesirable pupils. In a memorial 
 presented in 1823 the trustees of the Free School Society report that 
 of the fourteen thousand children who had been on their register, 
 but one had been pointed out as having been arraigned in a criminal 
 court, while without the provisions of these schools such children 
 had been growing up in idleness and pernicious associations, and were 
 on the way to "the Alms House, The Hospital, The Bridewell, The 
 Penitentiary and the State Prison." The principal of the African 
 Free School reports in 1830, that of the several thousand colored 
 children educated in that school, only three had been convicted in 
 the criminal courts. 
 
 In addition to the regular religious instruction, the recitations of 
 the Rules and Persuasive Charge, and the addresses of the trustees, 
 there was available a course of reading lessons prepared by the British 
 and Foreign Society, including the following titles: "Of God Al- 
 mighty"; "Of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ"; 
 " Of the Word of God" ; " Of the Light, Spirit and Grace of R eadin § 
 
 .Lessons 
 
 God"; "Of Worship and Religion"; "Of Parents"; "Of 
 Children"; "Of Master and Servants"; "Of Husbands "and Wives"; 
 
 1 Bourne, History of the Public School Society, p. 644. 
 
72 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 "Of Elders," etc., etc. 1 Much assistance in occasional lessons on 
 manners was derived from a text-book published in New York, "The 
 School of Good Manners," 2 School exhibitions were the occasions 
 for didactic efforts on the part of pupils. 
 
 A Moral Dialogue 
 
 "(William) Good morning, James, where are you going so early? 
 
 (James) I am going to school, William. 
 
 (William) To school! Why, do you go so soon as this? I am not going yet 
 this long while. 
 
 (James) That may be your pleasure, William; this is mine. 
 
 (William) Not altogether my pleasure either, James; for I have been teasing 
 my mother for my breakfast for some time, and she says, 'No hurry, child, 
 no hurry'; and sends me to play a little longer. 
 
 (James) Well, I love to be obedient to my parents, and know it to be my duty; 
 but I really think, that if I could not get my breakfast in time for early 
 school, I should run off without it; for, half an hour's study over my sum 
 or any other part of my exercises at school, is of more consequence to me 
 than even my breakfast. 
 
 (William) I have tried that, James, but I find that if I adopt such a plan, 
 I may go without, not only my breakfast, but my dinner also; for, although 
 my parents are, perhaps, as kind and indulgent as any parents can be, in 
 other respects; yet, in this, they seem to take but little concern. I have often 
 thought it a great pity, that they have not to pay three or four dollars a 
 quarter for my schooling, as our neighbor George's parents have to pay for 
 his; I think, then, they would reckon every half hour that I were absent 
 from school, a loss of money at least. They don't think of what Doctor 
 Franklin says, that, 'Time is money,' nor do they consider that time spent 
 at school is to me more precious than money. 
 
 (James) Why, William, you both please and distress me. I am pleased to 
 find, that the late hours at which you are noted for going to school, is not 
 your fault, and am, at the same time, greatly distressed to hear that your 
 parents, being so much older, and who ought to — 
 
 (William) Stop, James! I can't hear a word against my dear parents, I 
 can excuse them, because they have but little learning themselves, and 
 don't know the value of it; nor do they know how much time it takes to 
 make one a good scholar. 
 
 (James) But, pray William, does it not subject you to great trouble at school; 
 when you attend late, what does the master say? 
 
 (William) Why he says a great deal, and I often wish my parents could hear 
 what he says, I think they would be more particular about the passing 
 hours of the day. He says, among other things, that he knows of several 
 boys, that are now great truants who used to be good boys, but, owing to 
 the want of care in their parents, have become very troublesome by absence 
 from school. 
 
 1 1 6th Annual Report, Free School Society. 
 
 2 Andrews, History of African Free School, p. 112. 
 
Religious and Moral Education 73 
 
 (James) I can't see how that can be; surely, their parents don't wish them to 
 do so; they must be very much grieved, I should think, to see their children 
 do what is so much to their own disadvantage, and be so troublesome to 
 their teacher. 
 
 (William) That may be too, James, and yet, their parents may be frequently 
 the real cause of their bad conduct, though insensible of it at the time. 
 
 (James) How so, William? Do be more particular. 
 
 (William) Well, I will. You must know, our school is governed by such 
 regulations as must be strictly observed by all concerned, which not only 
 ensure good order throughout the school, but which are calculated to 
 bring us on, in our learning, with greater speed. Whenever a scholar dis- 
 tinguishes himself by orderly conduct, or by excelling in the performance 
 of his exercises, he is noticed by the master, by Tickets of Reward; but, if 
 any of us misbehave, or come late to school, we are fined and have to pay 
 back our tickets. If we have none to pay with, we are necessarily punished. 
 Now it is required that when a scholar has been detained till a late hour 
 at home, or for a day or two, that he bring a note, or some of the family 
 call and explain to the teacher, so that no fault may be laid to the charge 
 of the supposed delinquent, all this, however, is neglected by many of our 
 parents, and we are sent off without anything to excuse us, and we, being 
 sometimes disbelieved by the master, are accordingly punished, and there- 
 by discouraged. 
 
 (James) What you have said, William, I think of so much importance, that 
 I shall endeavor to remember it, and profit by the information you have 
 given me, and am glad to find you capable of entering so thoroughly into 
 such an interesting subject." 1 
 
 As one means of securing the cooperation of the parents in the moral 
 training of children, an address to parents was issued in 1819. This 
 circular refers to the force of example, the importance 
 of steady attendance, the need of industry and frugality, Parents 
 
 the improper use of spiritous liquors, necessity for 
 cleanliness, observance of public worship on Sunday, religious instruc- 
 tion by parents, the reading of the Bible, the principles of Christianity, 
 observance of the rules of the school, including church attendance. 
 
 Not satisfied with this impersonal method of reaching the home, 
 the society enjoined upon the trustees the duty of visiting the par- 
 ents in order to impress the duty of school and church 
 attendance and to overcome the indifference of the par- Parents 
 
 ents to the welfare of their children. In 1827, the society 
 appointed a school visitor, who gave his entire time to this work. 
 "The trustees also called into requisition the aid of the visitors of 
 
 1 Andrews, History of the African Free Schools, 1830, pp. 136-138. 
 
74 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 the American Tract Society, whose regular monthly visits, in the 
 distribution of tracts, were calculated to exert a valuable influence." 1 
 
 Moral Training Through Monitorial Government 
 
 All other means of moral training were, in the Lancasterian schools, 
 subordinate to the moral influence of the monitorial system. The 
 plan seemed perfectly adapted to cultivate those habits which were 
 most desirable in the recipients of charity — order, industry and 
 obedience; and as the scope of the schools was enlarged, it was put 
 forward as meeting the moral needs of all classes. " How well adapted 
 is such a system to all the purposes of Common Schools, in a common- 
 wealth! The economy of its expenditures gives facility to the exten- 
 sion of education, so vitally important in a Republican form of govern- 
 ment. How suitable for the children of the people, is the training 
 of the physical powers, conferring a heathful vigor to the body, 
 while through the admirable feature of mutual instruction, from con- 
 stant requisition on their mental resources, there is an energetic 
 development of mind, which is characterized by a proper independence 
 of thought and action, all the while guarded from any evil tendency, 
 by the necessary vigilance and constant checks imposed by the moni- 
 torial management of the school, and continual attention to a strict 
 drill conducive to habits of industry, order, and submission to the 
 laws, so that the teacher's representative is not only cheerfully 
 obeyed, but respected. These salutary influences, together with 
 method and neatness in all the arrangements, not only give efficiency 
 to instruction on this system, but by cultivating self-respect and 
 habits of obedience, give peculiar moral advantages that meet the 
 wants of Common Schools that are to educate those who are to sus- 
 tain in turn our free institutions." 2 "But these benefits are slight, 
 
 ou ,. compared with its moral influence. In the old system, 
 
 Obedience ...... 
 
 the relation in which he stood toward the master, neces- 
 sarily exacted from him habits of submission, having for its ob- 
 ject the will (often very arbitrary) of an individual, and fear gener- 
 ally for its motive, was of too servile a nature to exalt or develop 
 the moral being. The submission under the Mutual Instruction 
 System, is paid cheerfully, though to a child, often inferior in position 
 and age; and is the expression of the purest and noblest feelings of 
 
 1 Bourne, Public School Society, p. 622. 
 
 2 42c! Annual Report, Public School Society, 1848, p. 42. 
 
Religious and Moral Education 75 
 
 our nature, love of order, respect for law, and a deep conviction of 
 the power and rights of intellectual superiority. There are few, 
 however humble, who have not, under their direction, at one period 
 or other of life, one or more individuals, and thus are called upon to 
 give proofs of good feeling, patience, just and discreet exercise of 
 authority; under the old systems the child always called on to obey 
 had no opportunity of practising these virtues. The system of 
 Mutual Instruction, on the contrary, by alternately placing him in 
 the position of teacher and of taught, of superiority and inferiority, 
 naturally enforces the exercise of the qualities demanded by each, 
 on one side the duties of humility and obedience, and on the other, 
 the mildness, and impartiality, which ought always to be inseparable 
 from the exercise of power." 1 
 
 Sydney Smith was astonished and delighted to find Lancaster's 
 school a "perfect machine," made pleasant and interesting by "an 
 air of military arrangement." 2 An observer of the well- Order 
 
 drilled infant department in School No. 1 was moved to 
 tears, and his "heart beat as though it would burst from its narrow 
 tenement." 3 When boys are occupied they can do no wrong, — "The 
 grand moral advantage of this system is that it places and keeps boys 
 in a condition in which there is little opportunity of doing 
 wrong. Their attention is constantly fixed; they are 
 never idle; they never deviate from a regular course, whence the habit 
 is formed of doing every thing in its proper time and place." 4 
 
 A very different estimate of the value of the monitorial machinery 
 was made by educators who were able to see below the surface. "In 
 order to avoid expense, the National and Lancasterian Schools are 
 taught by the boys themselves, the master being rather a governor 
 than a teacher. This part of the system is admirably adapted to 
 answer its purpose; but it has essential defects which 
 render it unfit for general adoption. As the process of Mechanical 
 instruction is carried forward by boys, it becomes nec- 
 essary to mark out the duties of the teacher with as much minuteness 
 as those of the learner. Indeed, the duties of each must be made per- 
 fectly mechanical. There must be no doubt or hesitation on the part 
 of the master or pupil, for doubt would produce delay and dispute, 
 
 1 Account of Free School Society, Wyse on Education Reforfn pp. 45-46. 
 
 2 Edinburgh Review, 1807, p. 82. 
 
 3 American Journal Education, 1828, Vol. Ill, p. 690. 
 
 4 Quoted in Griscom's Monitorial Instruction, p. 145. 
 
76 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 and consequently throw the whole machine into disorder. Hence 
 there can be no appeal to the reasoning powers; for reasoning can nev- 
 er be reduced to a mechanism. From the necessity which exists that 
 all the boys should move exactly together, individual order is as much 
 to be discouraged as individual inertness. Every boy must conform 
 to the average motion of the school. In short, the system has all the 
 excellencies and all the defects of military discipline. It produces 
 habits of attention, order, and subordination — most valuable quali- 
 ties to the class of society whose interests it has in view." 1 "Some 
 well meaning persons, but men who did not look below the surface of 
 things, and were utter strangers to the subject of public instruction, 
 having by chance visited some of those semi-barbarous manufactur- 
 ing towns of England, where for want of anything better, they are too 
 happy to have Lancasterian schools, mistook for a masterpiece of per- 
 fection, that which is only the infancy of the art of teaching and were 
 even dazzled with the exhibition of vast numbers of children taught 
 by one master, assisted by little monitors chosen from among the pu- 
 pils themselves. Seeing children thus governed by children, they 
 found a species of self-government, which they thought would be a 
 useful preparation for the infusion of the democratic principle. . . 
 . Other persons were pleased with the system on account of its 
 cheapness, and then the eye was caught by the mechanical order 
 and precision in the school exercises. The children went through 
 their evolutions, according to a signal given by a child, as the differ- 
 ent parts of machinery in a factory are set in motion by a crank." 2 
 
 The moral influence of the monitorial plan in the New York schools 
 was summed up by the County Superintendent of New York County, 
 
 William A. Walker, who refers to it "as a system 
 f M IT'"' °^ education; regarding its influences upon the 
 
 mind and upon the heart both of the teacher, 
 the pupil, and the community; its adaptation to the present state of 
 the public mind and our social conditions; and even its relation to an 
 enlightened economy, I am constrained to believe that it is radically 
 and deplorably erroneous." 3 
 
 1 Hill, Plan of Government for Boys, London, 1822 (reprint 1894), pp. 204- 
 205. 
 
 2 Victor Cousin, On the State of Education in Holland, London, 1838, 
 
 P. 33- 
 
 3 Report of County Superintendent of Common Schools, New York, 1846. 
 
Religious and Moral Education 77 
 
 Punishments and Rewards 
 
 In devising various forms of punishment, Lancaster showed mar- 
 velous ingenuity. Judged solely by the list of tortures, he would ap- 
 pear to take delight in the exercise of a fiendish malev- 
 olence toward youth. But Lancaster was most kind- 
 hearted, and even his use of outlandish forms of punishment was due 
 to his efforts to find substitutes for flogging towards which he had the 
 greatest aversion. To what extent Lancaster's devices for punishment 
 were employed in the New York schools it is not possible to say, since 
 teachers and school trustees seldom manifest Lancaster's frankness 
 in this direction. A hint, however, as to the type of punishment 
 used is found in Hosack's "Life of DeWitt Clinton": "As no corporal 
 punishment was permitted, it was found necessary to make an example 
 of children by using a small apartment with barred windows, and 
 styled the Bridewell, which answered the purpose. After one punish- 
 ment the thought of it proved sufficient." 1 The tendency to sub- 
 stitute other inducements for the rod was certainly adopted by the 
 Free School Society, and formed a contrast to the usual practice at 
 that time. 2 Some quotations from the "Epitome," will indicate 
 the "Instruments and Modes of Punishment," advocated by Lan- 
 caster. 
 
 "On a repeated or frequent offence, after admonition has failed, the 
 lad to whom the offender presents a card, places a wooden log round 
 his neck, which serves as a pillory, and with this he is 
 sent to his seat. This log may weigh from four to six .. r 
 
 pounds, some more and some less. The neck is not 
 pinched or closely confined; . . . it is chiefly burthen-some by the 
 manner in which it encumbers the neck, when the delinquent turns to 
 the right or left. While it rests on his shoulders, the equilibrium is 
 preserved; but on the least motion one way or the other, it is lost, and 
 the log operates as a dead weight. Thus he is confined to sit in his 
 proper position, and go on with his work. 
 
 "When logs are unavailing, it is common to fasten the legs of the 
 offender together with wooden schackles; one or more, according 
 to the offence. The schackle is a piece of wood mostly 
 a foot long, sometimes six or eight inches, and tied to c h k i 
 each leg. When shackled, he cannot walk but in a very . 
 
 1 Hosack's Life of DeWitt Clinton, p. 174. 
 
 2 Lancaster, Epitome., p. 76. 
 
78 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 slow measured pace; being obliged to take six steps when confined 
 for two when at liberty. Thus accoutred, he is ordered to walk 
 around the school room, till tired out . . . he is glad to sue 
 for liberty, and promise his endeavor to behave more steadily in 
 future; with this he is sent to his seat, and goes on with his work. 
 Should not this punishment have the desired effect, the left hand is 
 tied behind the back, or wooden schackles fastened from elbow to 
 elbow, behind the back. Sometimes the legs are tied together. 
 This is an excellent punishment for boys who offend by leaving their 
 seats, and wander about the school room. 
 
 "Occasionally, boys are put in a sack, or in a basket, suspended to 
 the roof of the school, in sight of all the pupils, who frequently smile 
 
 at the bird in the cage. This punishment is one of 
 Basket ^ e most terrible that can be inflicted on boys of 
 
 sense and abilities. Above all, it is dreaded by the 
 monitors; the name of it is sufficient, and therefore, it is but seldom 
 resorted to on their account. 
 
 "Frequently old offenders are yoked together, sometimes by a 
 piece of wood that fastens around their necks; and thus confined, 
 
 they parade the school, walking backwards . . . be- 
 Caravan * n & obliged to pay very great attention to their foot- 
 
 steps, for fear of running against any object that 
 might cause the yoke to hurt their necks, or to keep from falling down. 
 Four or six can be yoked together in this way. 
 
 "Proclamation of the faults of an offender before the school. When 
 a boy is disobedient to his parents, profane in his language, has corn- 
 Labels mitted any offence against morality, or is remarkable 
 
 for slovenliness, it is usual for him to be dressed up 
 with labels, describing his offence, and a tin or paper cap on his head. 
 In that manner he walks around the school, two boys preceding him, 
 and proclaiming his fault; varying the proclamation according to the 
 different offences. 
 
 "When a boy comes to school with dirty face and hands, and it 
 seems to be more the effect of habit than accident, a girl is appointed 
 
 to wash his face in the sight of the whole school. 
 Dirtv Face ^is g enera ^y creates much diversion, especially 
 
 when (as previously directed) she gives his cheek 
 a few gentle taps of correction with her hand. One punishment of 
 this kind has kept the boys' faces clean for two years. 
 
 "Few punishments are so effectual as confinement after school 
 hours. It is, however, attended with one unpleasant circumstance. 
 
Religious and Moral Education 79 
 
 In order to confine the boys in the school- 
 
 ,, ill ., . ,, ,j. , Confinement after 
 
 rooms, after school hours, it is often needful School Hours 
 
 that the master, or some proper substitute for 
 him, should confine himself in school, to keep them in order. This 
 inconvenience may be avoided by tying them to the desks, or putting 
 them in logs, etc. in such a manner that they cannot loose themselves. 
 These variations in the modes of unavoidable punishment, give it the 
 continual force of novelty, whatever shape it may assume. Any 
 single kind of punishment, continued constantly in use, becomes 
 familiar, and loses its effect. Nothing but variety can continue the 
 power of novelty. Happily in my institution, there are few occasions 
 for punishment; and this conduces much to the pleasure it affords 
 me. The advantage of various modes of correction is that they can 
 be inflicted, so as to give much uneasiness to the delinquents, without 
 disturbing the mind or temper of the master. 
 
 "The object of these different modes of procedure is to weary the 
 culprit with the log; or by placing him in confinement of one kind or 
 another, till he is humbled, and likely to remove the cause of complaint 
 by better behavior in the future. When he finds how easily his 
 punishments are repeated, . . . that he, himself is made the 
 instrument, . . . and no respite or comfort for him, but by 
 behaving well, it is more than probable that he will change for the 
 better. It is also very seldom that a boy deserves both a log and a 
 shackle at the same time. Most boys are wise enough, when under 
 one punishment, not to transgress again immediately, lest it should 
 be doubled. They are mostly so prudent as to behave quite well, 
 in hopes of being set at liberty from the one they already suffer, 
 which is mostly in a few minutes. It ought to be understood in 
 school, that whatever mode of punishment a master may adopt, on a 
 repetition of the fault, a repetition of the punishment will unavoid- 
 ably ensue; this will prevent recurring too often to modes of punish- 
 ment which are not effectual without interrupting the pupil's attention 
 to business, as the log, the shackle, the badge of disgrace; . . . 
 at the same time the offenders are the instruments of their own pun- 
 ishments. Lively, active tempered boys, are the most frequent 
 transgressors of good order, and the most difficult to reduce to reason; 
 the best way to reform them is by making monitors of them'. It diverts 
 the activity of their minds from mischief, by useful employment, 
 which, at the same time adds greatly to their improvement. I have 
 experienced correction of any kind only to be needful in proportion 
 
80 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 as boys were under the influences of bad example at home. Nothing 
 is, unhappily, more common than for parents to undo, by their bad 
 example at home, all the good their children obtain at school. 
 
 "The following punishment is most tremendous; when a boy is 
 found to deserve punishment, instead of recurring to the rod, make 
 him a bashaw of three tails. The use of a famous coat, called a fool's 
 coat, is well known in schools; let such a coat be suspended in public 
 schools, the name of the offender printed in large letters, that the 
 whole school may read, and fasten on it the words "Bashaw of three 
 tails," also on the back of the coat, and three birchen rods suspended 
 from the tail of the coat at due and regular distances. This punish- 
 ment is excellent for the senior boys, and will not need many repeti- 
 tions. Sometimes an idle boy may have a pillow fetched from a 
 feather bed, and placed on the desk for him to lay his head on, as 
 if asleep, in the face of the school. A boy wandering from his seat 
 may be placed under a hen-coop. A go-cart is another excellent 
 punishment for an idle boy, but rocking in a cradle is better. Exhibi- 
 tions of this sort soon bring a large school into order." 1 
 
 The following observations at the close of Lancaster's list of 
 punishments show his hatred of the rod and his desire to mitigate the 
 terrors of the schools of that day. 
 
 ' "The Rewards and Punishments before Described, have 
 
 been tried eor thirteen years, among many thousand children, 
 
 . , , and have been attended with beneficial 
 
 Lancaster's Hatred „ 
 
 of the Rod EiTECT - 
 
 "The reader must know, that there are in 
 
 this wicked world many Knights of the Rod, who wish to perpetuate 
 
 the reign of ignorance among the lower classes of society, whom they 
 
 .are pleased to consider 'doomed to drudgery of daily labor, ,' and that 
 
 'learning to write and cypher,' will render them 'discontented with 
 
 their lot.' These plead with mighty virulence, for every mode of 
 
 punishment that can embitter learning, and make school hateful to 
 
 boys. The sinking empire of the rod is tottering daily to ruin; and 
 
 many and bitter are the lamentations of its partizans. One of these 
 
 hired advocates of ignorance, in silly phrensy, imagined that the 
 
 apparatus of logs, shackles, caravans, etc. were all implements of 
 
 slavery; and he had the temerity to misrepresent one of the greatest 
 
 enemies of slavery, a Friend, a Quaker, as an abettor of cruelty; these 
 
 1 Lancaster, Epitome, pp. 68-76. 
 
Religious and Moral Education 81 
 
 things, which have been so seldom used, as hardly to be known among 
 the happy children in my school, and which, when resorted to, are 
 described as answering their effects 'mostly in a few minutes,' froze 
 his heart with horror, and almost frightened him out of his remaining 
 senses. Neither he, nor any other conspirators against the educa- 
 tion of youth, consider the more degrading severity of the lash, which 
 these punishments have for years contributed to annihilate. The 
 guillotine in France, during the reign of terror, and the rod in the 
 hands of the advocates of ignorance, are alike." 1 
 
 It was to such a 'Knight of the Rod' that Washington Irving was 
 sent from his sixth to his fourteenth year, 1789 to 1797, Benjamin 
 Romaine, a soldier of the revolution, whose school was at 198 Fulton 
 Street. "Another trait which was mentioned by a female schoolmate 
 in after life, was his unwillingness to witness the chastisement of the 
 other boys. The standing punishment inflicted on truants was 
 horsing or hoisting, so called, and as the culprits had to be untrussed, 
 it was always administered after school when the girls had been dis- 
 missed. But little Irving, she said, could not endure the spectacle; 
 the sight of the unlucky urchin shrinking under the rod was too much 
 for his nerves, and he finally insisted on leaving with the girls, and was 
 permitted." 2 
 
 Following the principles of Lancaster, the Public School Society 
 
 discontinued, without entirely forbidding, corporal punishment and 
 
 based their government upon rivalry, shame, 
 
 , • ... .,i ,i , , i Punishment in New 
 
 and acquisitiveness; with the resort to expul- York Public Schools 
 
 sion in the case of incorrigible pupils. "The 
 
 discipline of the school is enforced by shame, rather than by the 
 infliction of pain." 3 According to DeWitt Clinton, "The punish- 
 ments are varied with circumstances; and a judicious system of 
 rewards, calculated to engage the infant mind in the discharge of its 
 duty, forms the key-stone which binds together the whole edifice." 4 
 Events proved that the wise Clinton had overestimated the dis- 
 ciplinary effects of the system as well as the educational value of 
 instruction by monitors. The finer feelings 
 were blunted, evil passions aroused, the nerv- p . . 
 
 ous systems of the young children subjected 
 
 1 Lancaster, Epitome, pp. 76-77. 
 
 2 Irving, P. M., Life and Letters of Washington Irving, 1871, Chap. II, 
 pp. H-X2. 3 By-laws of 1826, 1836, and 1841. 
 
 4 DeWitt Clinton, Address, 1809. 
 
82 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 to undue strain, and physical injuries sustained that were more 
 objectionable than pain inflicted by the rod. The invention of 
 the teacher was taxed to find newer and still newer substitutes for 
 corporal punishment. Finally it become necessary to warn the 
 teachers against the very measures that had earlier been cited as a 
 proof of the humane spirit of the schools. " Yet every caution should 
 be taken, lest resort be had to objectionable substitutes for the use 
 of the rod; some of which may be equally painful to the corporal 
 system — sometimes more injurious, and even dangerous, and not 
 unfrequently hurtful from their moral effects — and, therefore, some 
 of them certainly improper to be used. The sustaining of wearisome 
 burdens, unnatural and long-continued attitudes of restraint, public 
 exposures and badges of disgrace, are of this class of punishments. 
 Some of these, with judicious modifications of the usual methods by 
 which they are practiced, and having due regard to their moral effect 
 on the delinquent, may be used, but only under careful limitations, 
 and with great circumspection and judgment; for it requires a skilful, 
 discreet, and conscientious teacher to use them safely and to advan- 
 tage. It is ever to be borne in mind that they are best suited to little 
 children, and to boys; and not adapted to the discipline of girls — in 
 whom a nice sense of shame, and a delicate sensibility to reputation, 
 should be carefully cherished. With them, such punishments tend 
 to blunt those feelings which it is the teacher's duty most carefully to 
 cultivate as among the best safe-guards to female character. Can 
 punishments of this class, then, be safely ventured upon, without 
 extreme vigilance on the part of the teacher? How hazardous in 
 its moral effect to leave a child publicly exposed, and liable to be 
 neglected by the teacher, till the current of feeling begins to turn! 
 Observe, that this ebbing again of the passion must be nicely watched. 
 It is only by a careful attention to this critical point, that punishment 
 by public exposure can become, as it sometimes does, a powerful 
 means of discipline, especially in the training of little children. But 
 it becomes worse than useless, if not thus rightly used; for, be it 
 remembered, that while the teacher may be here and there, the tide of 
 feeling may change, and the first surge of its backward course excite 
 pride, anger, and malevolence. And though this should be but a 
 small degree, every moment's continuance of the punishment or 
 exposure beyond the salutary point, inflicts a moral injury that sur- 
 passes tenfold any possible good which the teacher can hope to derive 
 from it as a means of discipline. It also renders the punishment alto- 
 
Religious and Moral Education 83 
 
 gether ineffectual for another occasion, thereby throwing the teacher 
 into a new perplexity for other substitutes for corporal punishment." 1 
 "The Keystone of the whole edifice," according to Clinton, was the 
 the system of rewards. Labels of honor, as well as those of disgrace 
 were used, "To obtain the enviable epithet of 'Good Rewards 
 
 Boy' or 'Good Girl' which, with much parade and 
 solemnity, is conferred upon those who merit that distinction, is the 
 general ambition." 2 More substantial gifts, such as balls, books, 
 knives, scissors, combs, mittens and money were bestowed in redemp- 
 tion of tickets of merit. There was a complete system of payment 
 and fines. The Monitor General received eight tickets daily; other 
 monitors, two to four. The stick fixer on promotions received one. 
 The teacher gave one thousand additional tickets per month. The 
 tickets were valued at one eighth of a cent. The fines were : talking, 
 four tickets; disobedience, eight tickets; truancy, twenty tickets; 
 fighting, fifty tickets. The prizes were books, tops, marbles, etc. 3 
 This plan "was found to produce unhappy results; for, while it stimu- 
 lated to exertion on the one hand, it promoted rivalry and mutual 
 jealousy on the other; — and it moreover discouraged the unsuccessful, 
 creating in them feelings of enmity and dislike towards their fellows 
 and even their teachers." 4 To this conclusion the trustees of the 
 schools were no doubt led by the discovery that the rewards fell into 
 the hands of the strong and the cunning rather than the meritorious. 
 In some cases the monthly distribution was anticipated by the steal- 
 ing of the gifts from the master's desk. 5 The trustees reported an 
 improved discipline in the schools, and incidentally a saving in ex- 
 pense, through the discontinuance of the system of tickets and gifts. 
 
 For pecuniary rewards was substituted a form of 
 
 i_'n (i t_- t_ £ j i-li * Discontinuance 
 
 certificate which formed a valuable passport, of Gifts 
 
 introducing the holders of them, after leaving 
 
 school, into desirable situations as clerks and apprentices." 6 
 
 Many features of the so-called self-government plans of to-day 
 
 were anticipated in the New York schools nearly a century ago. It 
 
 1 Manual, Public School Society, 1850, pp. 11-12. 
 
 2 Sketch of New York Free School, prefix to Lancaster, Improvements in 
 Education, New York, 1807, p. xxx. 
 
 3 Manual of Free School Society, 1820. 
 
 4 Report, Public School Society, 1847, pp. 8-9. 
 
 5 Minutes of Public School No. 2. 
 
 6 Report, Public School Society, 1847, p. 9. 
 
84 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 is to be remembered that the monitorial system itself 
 Government" was ^^ated as a plan of self-government, that is, a 
 government of the school by the pupils rather than 
 by the teacher, and the moral effects claimed were the same as those 
 claimed by modern advocates of the various forms of pupil govern- 
 ment. "The boys who prove themselves worthy, are chosen to fill 
 places of trust and authority over other boys; so that it may be safely 
 affirmed that a boy educated agreeably to this system, cannot fail 
 to be made practically acquainted with the elementary principles of 
 civil government, and thereby preeminently qualified to become a 
 good citizen." 1 John Griscom had no doubt that in a school of 
 five hundred boys, well regulated under a plan of monitorial superin- 
 tendence, there would be less quarreling, noise, turbulence, bad lan- 
 guage, or ill manners of any kind, than is usually witnessed in a 
 school of forty which has no other supervision than that of the teacher. 2 
 The jury system; a form of currency used for rewards and fines, 
 and convertible into cash; police and health officers; measures that 
 
 are considered distinctive of the modern "school city," 
 o U1 ? supplemented the monitorial system. The organization 
 
 of the Class of Merit is thus described by Andrews in his 
 "History of the African Free School," one of the Lancasterian schools 
 under the care of the Public School Society: "This class is composed 
 
 of such boys as are the best behaved, and most advanced 
 M • in their learning; they are distinguished in school, by a 
 
 medal suspended to the neck, on which are engraved 
 the words 'Class of Merit.' This class has a regular meeting on 
 the 1st Tuesday in each month, to transact business, and to hear the 
 reports of standing and other Committees. It is allowed one hour 
 each session to conduct its business. Its officers are a Chairman, 
 Secretary, Register, and Treasurer. The class, by a vote, determines 
 in what branch of learning a member shall excel, to entitle him to 
 the Chair, at the next succeeding meeting — the teacher always decid- 
 ing. . . . The class appoints a Committee at each stated 
 meeting, whose duty it is to take notice of the general deportment of 
 the members, when out of school, and to report to the class, if they 
 discover anything in the conduct of a member, immoral or unbecom- 
 ing, and the member so reported is dealt with in such manner by the 
 
 1 New York Free School Society, 1824 (19th Report). 
 
 2 American Lyceum National Convention, 183 1, p. 40. 
 
Religious and Moral Education 85 
 
 class, as the circumstance of the case may require, such as suspension, 
 expulsion, or otherwise, (in such cases the teacher is always first 
 consulted) ; even reproof by. the Chairman has often been found to 
 have a beneficial effect. Another Committee observes the appearance 
 of the members in school, as it respects cleanliness, and report, if 
 occasion require; and a third is called the Health Committee, who, 
 on hearing of the sickness of any member, visit him and render ser- 
 vices of kindness, and report on such subjects, every regular meeting. 
 This little society operates in a small sphere, similarly to those in- 
 stitutions, established among men, which are intended to call into 
 action the best feelings of the heart." 1 
 
 1 Andrews, New York African Free Schools, pp. 81-84. 
 
84 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 is to be remembered that the monitorial system itself 
 Government" was initiated a s a plan of self-government, that is, a 
 government of the school by the pupils rather than 
 by the teacher, and the moral effects claimed were the same as those 
 claimed by modern advocates of the various forms of pupil govern- 
 ment. "The boys who prove themselves worthy, are chosen to fill 
 places of trust and authority over other boys; so that it may be safely 
 affirmed that a boy educated agreeably to this system, cannot fail 
 to be made practically acquainted with the elementary principles of 
 civil government, and thereby preeminently qualified to become a 
 good citizen." 1 John Griscom had no doubt that in a school of 
 five hundred boys, well regulated under a pla*n of monitorial superin- 
 tendence, there would be less quarreling, noise, turbulence, bad lan- 
 guage, or ill manners of any kind, than is usually witnessed in a 
 school of forty which has no other supervision than that of the teacher. 2 
 The jury system; a form of currency used for rewards and fines, 
 and convertible into cash; police and health officers; measures that 
 
 are considered distinctive of the modern "school city," 
 g 1 ? supplemented the monitorial system. The organization 
 
 of the Class of Merit is thus described by Andrews in his 
 "History of the African Free School," one of the Lancasterian schools 
 under the care of the Public School Society: "This class is composed 
 
 of such boys as are the best behaved, and most advanced 
 M • in their learning; they are distinguished in school, by a 
 
 medal suspended to the neck, on which are engraved 
 the words 'Class of Merit.' This class has a regular meeting on 
 the 1st Tuesday in each month, to transact business, and to hear the 
 reports of standing and other Committees. It is allowed one hour 
 each session to conduct its business. Its officers are a Chairman, 
 Secretary, Register, and Treasurer. The class, by a vote, determines 
 in what branch of learning a member shall excel, to entitle him to 
 the Chair, at the next succeeding meeting — the teacher always decid- 
 ing. . . . The class appoints a Committee at each stated 
 meeting, whose duty it is to take notice of the general deportment of 
 the members, when out of school, and to report to the class, if they 
 discover anything in the conduct of a member, immoral or unbecom- 
 ing, and the member so reported is dealt with in such manner by the 
 
 1 New York Free School Society, 1824 (19th Report). 
 
 2 American Lyceum National Convention, 183 1, p. 40. 
 
Religious and Moral Education 85 
 
 class, as the circumstance of the case may require, such as suspension, 
 expulsion, or otherwise, (in such cases the teacher is always first 
 consulted) ; even reproof by. the Chairman has often been found to 
 have a beneficial effect. Another Committee observes the appearance 
 of the members in school, as it respects cleanliness, and report, if 
 occasion require; and a third is called the Health Committee, who, 
 on hearing of the sickness of any member, visit him and render ser- 
 vices of kindness, and report on such subjects, every regular meeting. 
 This little society operates in a small sphere, similarly to those in- 
 stitutions, established among men, which are intended to call into 
 action the best feelings of the heart." 1 
 
 1 Andrews, New York African Free Schools, pp. 81-84. 
 
VII 
 
 SCHOOL INSPECTION AND TRAINING OF TEACHERS 
 
 Examinations and Exhibitions 
 
 Local school committees were required "to meet at their respec- 
 tive schools every Thursday afternoon from three to five o'clock, 
 for the purpose of inspecting the schools, and examin- 
 
 Examinations ing the cnildren in tneir learning." 1 The faithful 
 performance of this exacting duty, as shown in the 
 minutes of the committees, is indicative of the devotion to the cause 
 of education of the active members of the Public School Society. 
 Minutes of the Committee of the New York Public School No. 2, in 
 Henry Street, cover a period of forty years. A few of the entries 
 are copied as suggestive of the methods of inspection and examination. 
 Under date of October 28, 1812: "Premiums were given to deserving 
 monitors, in proportion to their tickets presented, for their attention 
 to the silence and attention of their classes. The money amounting 
 to two dollars and twenty five cents was furnished by the teacher." 
 Under date of September 30, 1818: "Present, Whitehead Hicks. The 
 school much in its usual order. The scholars' tickets were redeemed 
 with suitable prizes furnished by the committee of supplies. The 
 teacher reports that the monitors of the select class have regularly 
 attended school since the last report." 2 
 
 "New York Free School No. 2, December 2nd, 1818: Present, White- 
 head Hicks. Examined the writing of some of the children, but 
 principally devoted the time of this afternoon to the giving out of 
 prizes, to those children who had tickets. The prizes were furnished 
 by the committee of supplies, and highly calculated to be useful to 
 the children, consisting of mittens, combs, scissors, etc. The teachers 
 report that the monitors of the select class have attended the school 
 regularly and also to the discharge of their duties since the last report. 
 The number of children present 294." 
 
 "New York Free School, October 14, 1818: Present, Whitehead 
 Hicks. Examined the writing generally and was satisfied with the 
 
 1 By-laws of the Public School Society, 1826, p. 12. 
 
 2 Minutes, Public School No. 2, 1811-1853. 
 
 86 
 
School Inspection and Training of Teachers 87 
 
 performances of the scholars. The order of the school was satisfac- 
 tory. Agreeable to the resolutions of the Board, ten dollars was 
 presented to the Monitor General of Order (Walter Palmer), as a 
 reward for his assiduity and attention to the discharge of the duties 
 of his office. Ten dollars in clothing was also given to each of the 
 monitors of the select class for the regular attendance in school, and 
 discharge of their duties, during the last two quarters, ending the 
 second of this month. The teachers of the Select Class report that 
 the monitors have been regular in their attendance since the last 
 report. The number of scholars present 289." 1 
 
 "New York Free School, 2nd August, 1819: Present, Benjamin 
 Marshall and, by his proxy, Lyman Spatoiss. Admitted two boys and 
 and four girls; total six. School was dismissed to give the children 
 an opportunity to witness the ascent of a balloon." 
 
 "New York Free School,' December 16, 1824. Present, James 
 Roosevelt and Jos. Grinnell. Agreeable to notice given last week, 
 ten boys of the 9th class came foward as competitors for the prize 
 of one dollar, to be awarded to the one that should speak a piece of 
 poetry best. The committee had great enjoyment in hearing the 
 whole number recite the piece and found it difficult to decide who 
 performed best, after fully considering all circumstances the prize 
 was awarded to Robert Hoey, and a small reward given to Richard 
 Woolgar, John Crosley and S. Bloodgood. Much to the credit of 
 the other Boys they were quiet and orderly while the competitors 
 were reciting. A request was received from Susan Swain to hear her 
 grandson recite the 17th Chap, of 1st Kings, which was attended to 
 and he performed very well. The Girls' school is in good order." 2 
 
 During the year covered by the 35th Annual Report of the Public 
 School Society, 11,844 visits were made by the trustees. The annual 
 examination, which was a great event in each Lan- 
 casterian school, was attended by the trustees, city Examinations 
 officials, and the public generally. Such an event 
 is recorded by Andrews: "The exercises of the examination were as 
 follows: 1st, A class of six boys and six girls read the 53d Chapter of 
 Isaiah. 2d, A lesson from the English Reader, by six boys and six 
 girls. 3d, ' Creation,' spoken by a boy. 4th, Writing and ciphering 
 books exhibited. 5th, Address to Susquehannah. 6th, A class of 
 
 1 Minutes, Public School No. 2, 1811-1853. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
88 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 girls in addition. 7th, A class of boys in subtraction. 8th, A class 
 of girls in compound multiplication. 9th, A class of boys in simple 
 division. 10th, Do. in the Rule of Three. 11th, Exhibition of the 
 the Sewing School, with the articles of their manufacture. 12th, 
 CIII Psalm in concert. 13th, A recitation — subject, 'Africa.' 14th, 
 Girls' arithmetical table class. 15th, Drawing upon the board, before 
 the company, an accurate map of the United States, after which a 
 critical examination in American Geography. 16th, Examination 
 of a Grammar Class. 17th, The following table of promotions for 
 the last year, was read by a lad, viz: ... In conclusion, the 
 following piece prepared for the occasion was spoken by a young pupil: 
 'I am a little fellow, and know but little. — This is my first appearance 
 before you my friends, as a public speaker, and it becomes me to be 
 the last, and say but little. All things must have a beginning and an 
 end. I am come to begin my public speaking, and to end the present 
 exercises, which I hope have been performed to your satisfaction. Be- 
 fore I take leave of this respectable audience, I feel a desire to bear my 
 small testimony in favor of the advantages which are derived from a 
 constant attendance at school, and a close application to study while 
 in school, even by the youngest scholar. I am but seven years old, and 
 I think I have learned considerable since last examination. I was then 
 entirely ignorant of writing; I now present you with these humble spec- 
 imens of my attainments in that art. I was then also unacquainted 
 with the use of figures; I have since gone through simple addition, sub- 
 traction, multiplication, and division; I have some knowledge also of 
 the compound rules. I say not these things to magnify my little self 
 into something great, but to the credit of the Lancasterian plan of 
 instruction, and for the encouragement of all my little school-mates 
 to improve the time while they have the advantage of an early edu- 
 cation.'" 1 
 
 LINES 
 
 "On the manner of conducting a Monitorial School, spoken at a public 
 Examination. (Taken from an English publication, altered). 
 
 'Before we take a pen in hand, 
 We learn to write upon the sand; 
 And when the alphabet we know, 
 We write on slates — six in a row. 
 An easy lesson is prepar'd, 
 As, AB, ab — ARD, ard. 
 
 1 Andrews, History of African Free School, 1830, pp. 43-44. 
 
School Inspection and Training of Teachers 89 
 
 And those who spell, or read, the best, 
 
 Have some reward above the rest. 
 
 When we in spelling well succeed 
 
 We do appointed lessons read. 
 
 The Holy Bible is the source 
 
 Of each gradationary course. 
 
 A semicircle draught of six, 
 
 Whose eyes must on the lesson fix; 
 
 With hands behind, attentive stand, 
 
 Read — till they hear a fresh command. 
 
 Our places, then, at desks, we take, 
 
 (For standing long, our legs would ache.) 
 
 Rehearse the Tables, Grammar too, 
 
 And many more things have to do. 
 
 Our monitor demands a "Look," 
 
 "Clean slates," "Prepare," then takes his book, 
 
 Gives out a word, when all in class 
 
 Write, one each other to surpass. 
 
 Six words are written, — then "Show slates," 
 
 (Which must be rang'd like rows of plates 
 
 On dresser shelves) — the slates are clean, 
 
 That words may be distinctly seen. 
 
 ***** 
 
 'When we can shape the letters well, 
 
 And do the rest in class excel, 
 
 With pen and ink in books we write, 
 
 And think we're almost men — or quite. 
 
 At times, through carelessness we blot, 
 
 A fine in tickets, then's our lot; 
 
 But if the book throughout is fair, 
 "Reward in tickets then's our share. 
 
 ***** 
 
 'We chant the parts of speech, and tenses; 
 Or, in a slow, responsive air, 
 As monks and nuns would say a prayer; 
 Thus, by frequent repetition, 
 We gain this useful acquisition. 
 We mind our stops in every clause, 
 
 'We learn by Lindley Murray's rules, 
 'Our Regulations, wise and good, 
 
 Teach us to fear and serve our God; 
 
 T' attend the worship of the Lord, 
 
 And reverence his Holy Word.'" 1 
 
 1 Andrews, History of the African Free School, 1830, pp. 139-142. 
 
90 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 Such exhibitions, in Lancasterian and other schools, were planned 
 
 to display to an admiring community the remarkable work of the 
 
 schools. But in the general chorus of praise, it is possible to find, 
 
 here and there, a note of criticism. "Of all the plans which are 
 
 adopted to wheedle a credulous community out of their money and 
 
 their children out of their precious time, public 
 Criticism of Public ■,., ... i .-, , r • ,. 
 
 Exhibitions exhibitions or plays are the most fascinating 
 
 and deceptive. They interest the heart, and 
 engross the whole attention of the youth, and after all that can pos- 
 sibly be acquired by them has been attained, it may be said truly, 
 in regard to the pupils, that they have sustained a heavy, and, in 
 many instances, an almost irreparable loss. Indeed from the mo- 
 ment that the teacher has concluded upon having an exhibition, 
 every other part of the business of his school is in a great measure, if 
 not altogether, neglected. From that time the important branches 
 of orthography, reading, writing, grammar, geography, arithmetic, 
 etc. are thrown aside as matters of trivial importance. And for 
 what purpose it may be asked is all this mighty innovation introduced? 
 Why is the whole system and arrangement of the school turned topsy- 
 turvey, and all those studies which have been heretofore deemed use- 
 ful, discontinued? The answer is, that children may be taught the 
 art of spouting. Thus, teachers, instead of endeavoring to initiate 
 their pupils into those branches of learning which serve as steps to 
 raise them to a knowledge of the important art of composition, or 
 of committing their own thoughts to writing in an orderly and accurate 
 manner, cause them to murder, as it were, their precious time, in 
 learning by rote, pieces which are far above their comprehension, and 
 with the meaning of which, little or no pains are taken to make them 
 acquainted." 1 
 
 The Training of Teachers 
 
 Until the foundation of the Normal College in 1870, the only train- 
 ing for the teachers in the New York Public Schools was secured 
 
 through the monitorial system. Monitors were 
 
 Monitors Become j , i ■, • -vr -17- i 
 
 T , drawn upon to open new schools in New York 
 
 and other places. The first teacher of School 
 
 No. 2 was John Missing, assistant in No. 1. Shepherd Johnson, a 
 
 monitor in No. 1, took charge of No. 3. The experiment in New 
 
 York aroused great interest throughout the country, various commit- 
 
 1 Juvenile Mirror and Teachers Manual, New York, 1812, pp. 267-268. 
 
School Inspection and Training of Teachers 91 
 
 tees visited its schools, and many calls for teachers were received. 
 " Henry Cooper and Francis Windsor, formerly scholars and monitors- 
 general in School No. 1, have become teachers and are now actively 
 engaged in that capacity; the first in Philadelphia, and the latter in 
 Burlington, New Jersey, having a school under his direction composed 
 of about 50 boys. It may be proper to remark that Francis Windsor 
 is but fifteen years old." 1 With the arrival of Charles Picton who 
 was trained in the Borough Road School in London, and who was 
 brought to New York in 1818 to take charge of School No. 4, and to 
 maintain the purity of the system, the trustees made an effort to 
 extend their system of training. "With deep solicitude for diffusing 
 the means of education among the poor, and for the 
 general extension of the Lancasterian system through- Sk Weeks 
 out the country, the trustees invite all those persons 
 who are desirous of obtaining a knowledge of this method of instruc- 
 tion to repair to the schools under their charge, where in the space 
 of six or eight weeks, a competent knowledge of the Lancasterian 
 Methods of instruction can be obtained without fee or reward." 2 
 Mr. Picton, in a letter to the general committee of the British and 
 Foreign School Society, February 10, 1819, reported eleven teachers 
 trained in New York, during the previous year. They supplied 
 schools in New York; Greenwich; Long Island; Schenectady; Mt. 
 Holly, New Jersey; and Savannah, Ga. 3 Governor DeWitt Clinton, 
 in his message to the Legislature in 1818, recommended that a suffi- 
 cient number of teachers be trained to supply all our common schools, 
 by sending intelligent young men to the Lancasterian Seminaries in 
 New York, where they would be instructed gratuitously. Lancaster, 
 who visited the New York schools before opening the Model School 
 in Philadelphia, was evidently not pleased with the "mush-room" 
 plan of training teachers in six weeks. He wrote that he "does not 
 approve of idle innovations in the system. Mush-room teachers 
 often attain a partial knowledge of the mechanism of tuition, and 
 there they stop." 4 In order to provide for the monitors additional 
 
 1 From letters of trustees of New York Free School Society to British and 
 Foreign School Society. In report of British and Foreign School Society, 
 1823, p. 146. 
 
 2 Letters from Board of Trustees of New York Free School Society, in 
 Report of British and Foreign School Society, 18 19. 
 
 3 Report of British and Foreign School Society, 1819. 
 
 4 Letter to Burwell Bassett, February 29, 1820. 
 
92 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 instruction in arithmetic, English, grammar and 
 Morning Schools , , , c ,. . , , 
 
 f M tors g e °g ra phy, teachers were, for a time, required to 
 
 hold a morning school from six to eight. 1 "In 
 1834, the number of Primaries having greatly increased, and occasion- 
 ing the employment of very many monitors, who, from the elementary 
 character of those schools, were cut off from the opportunity of further 
 improvement, it was suggested by the Committee on Teachers, that 
 this deficiency might be supplied by establishing a school for their 
 especial benefit, to be held on the last day of the week. Such a school 
 was then organized, when it was soon perceived that in its successful 
 
 operations it might prove the foundation of a 
 Saturday and Evening -vr , , 1 t ■,• ™ r 
 
 Normal Schools Normal School of- peculiar excellence for 
 
 training and supplying teachers for the in- 
 stitution, better fitted than any other for its purposes. The plan 
 was accordingly extended, and another opened for the monitors of 
 the male school, which from November to March should be held 
 five evening sessions per week; and another for the improvement of 
 the monitors of the Female Colored Schools, embracing several 
 Primaries, in which were girls employed under the like disadvantages. 
 A proposition was soon after carried into effect to receive and admit 
 to the privileges of these schools such of the pupils of the 9th class of 
 the upper schools as from peculiar intelligence, industry, and decided 
 taste for the pursuits of learning, might be recommended by the 
 teacher as solicitous of such advantages. These in the normal schools 
 are denominated 'cadets'; and those qualified by advancement, and 
 desirous of such a station, are appointed as monitors, under pay. 
 When duly prepared for a limited examination before the committee, 
 they are, if approved, promoted to the station of 'passed monitors,' 
 and continuing their course of instruction, are in a regular progress 
 of promotion to that of assistant teachers, after a full examination by 
 the committee, and thence to the rank of principal, as vacancies occur. 
 The normal schools now contain two hundred pupils, under the charge 
 of nine teachers, and have already (1842) furnished the schools with 
 a considerable number of teachers. The number of 'cadets' gradually 
 increases and the attendance of the monitors, and the general interests 
 of the establishment, are on the advance." 2 "The normal school for 
 females was held on Saturday from nine a. m. to two p. m. The 
 
 1 By-laws of the New York Free School Society, 1818. 
 2 42d Annual Report, Public School Society, 1848, p. 32. 
 
School Inspection and Training of Teachers 93 
 
 studies were grammar, geography, astronomy, arithmetic, and natural 
 philosophy, etc. The school for male pupils was held five evenings a 
 week, and had the same studies with the addition of Latin." 1 
 
 In an address at the opening of the Normal College building in 
 1873, Superintendent Henry Kiddle described the earlier provisions 
 for training teachers. "Thirty-seven years ago the Public School 
 Society adopted, and applied the principle of normal instruction, in 
 the special arrangement which it made for the inexperienced and un- 
 trained teachers employed in schools under its management. 
 The Society was obliged to pay low salaries; it employed female 
 teachers generally at $25 for the first year. It was impossible to 
 secure trained teachers. TJie principal part of the work was per- 
 formed by pupil teachers, that is, teachers five days in the week and 
 pupils on the sixth. Considering the imperfections the results 
 were remarkable." 2 According to Commissioner Isaac Bell the results 
 were remarkable only in being entirely inadequate. "The committee 
 formed supplementary classes in nearly all of the female departments 
 
 of the public schools — many of them small and 
 
 j 1,1 i , i .i No Professional 
 
 expensive; and although teachers were mamly Trainine 
 
 appointed from them, there was no pretense even 
 
 of imparting instruction in methods and principles of teaching. There 
 
 was no training in government and discipline, and therefore thousands 
 
 of children were compelled to suffer loss and injury before these 
 
 teachers acquired the necessary tact and power to manage their 
 
 classes." 3 
 
 1 43d Annual Report, Public School Society, 1849, p. 6. 
 
 2 Address of Henry Kiddle at the opening of Normal College building, 1873. 
 
 3 Commissioner Isaac Bell in address delivered at organization meeting of 
 Department of Public Instruction, New York, 1871. 
 
VIII 
 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 
 
 The Lancasterian system of instruction was the official system of 
 the New York Public Schools from their foundation in 1806 until 
 1853, when the schools of the Public School Society were taken over 
 by the Board of Education. Until the estab- 
 Moritorfal System lishment of ward schools in 1843, the system 
 
 constituted a practical monopoly in the field 
 of public education; it was supported mainly by taxes, administered 
 by a self-perpetuating body of trustees. Teachers were forbidden to 
 make any departure from the plans laid down in the by-laws and 
 manuals. The system's final breakdown must, therefore, be ascribed 
 not to any limitation in the experimental period or to unfavorable 
 conditions, but to its inherent weakness. 
 
 The adoption of this system by the Free School Society was due 
 primarily to its cheapness, and to the impression made by the com- 
 pleteness of its organization. It appeared to 
 
 easons or oice ^ Q particularly adapted to charity schools 
 such as were proposed by the society. The 
 editor of the Academician considered that the Lancasterian system 
 was adapted to charitable institutions where there were many pupils, 
 but that the Pestalozzian plan was superior for the private schools, 
 as it " addresses itself to the understanding and elicits thought." 1 One 
 contributor to the Academician in 1818, whose observations are very 
 clear and complete, had two children in Pestalozzi's school. The 
 relative importance of the two systems is thus estimated: "Although 
 we are willing to allow that children may teach children and thereby 
 diffuse a limited knowledge of a few elementary branches of education 
 among the poorer classes of the community, yet we are by no means 
 convinced that the popular system now in vogue is destined to be the 
 American National System. The pioneers Bell, Lancaster, and others 
 are preparing the public mind for the introduction of a more philo- 
 sophic and permanent system. The world is indebted to Lancaster 
 
 1 Academician, 1818, Vol. I, p. 270. 
 
 94 
 
Summary and Conclusion 95 
 
 for an improved organization of charity schools and the adaptation 
 
 of his system to rigid economy, but the immortal Pestalozzi and his 
 
 disciple Fellenberg have brought to perfection a system of mental 
 
 culture, industry, and economy which, when known in all its details 
 
 to the American people, will, we hesitate not to predict, be embraced 
 
 and adopted in all places of systematic education." 1 
 
 The history of the Lancasterian movement in New York City and 
 
 in the United States tends to confirm the position of the United 
 
 States Commissioner of Education that we are 
 
 , . ,. , • j ,. , re - Blind Adherence 
 
 not an mventive people m educational affairs. . .. g stem 
 
 It required a trial of nearly half century to prove 
 that the scheme of an ignorant, but talkative, London schoolmaster 
 was a failure so far as practical results were concerned, and that it 
 was without foundation in sound theory. In the field of education 
 the critical as well as the inventive powers of the intellectual and 
 public spirited leaders of the first half of the nineteenth century 
 seemed to lie dormant. However much we may admire the philan- 
 thropic spirit of the devoted trustees of the Free School Society and 
 the Public School Society, a study of their reports cannot fail to leave 
 the impression that they were maintaining an institution with the 
 machinery that their wisdom deemed appropriate. In the words of 
 the secretary and historian of the society, "It was their constant aim 
 to preserve in all its integrity a scheme of popular education rendered 
 eminently honorable by the names of the distinguished men who had 
 been interested in it from its inception, and to hand it down to their 
 successors in a form massive and enduring, and as faultless as practi- 
 cal wisdom, enlightened philanthropy, and liberal endownment could 
 make it." 2 
 
 In tracing the decline of the Lancasterian system in New York 
 it is necessary to distinguish between the failure of the system of 
 instruction and that of the society which gave it 
 
 support. The dissolution of the society was due e V u G °i c U - 1° 
 
 .,..". school Society 
 
 mainly (1) to religious controversy, (2) to its un- 
 democratic organization, and (3) to the evident failure of the system 
 with which it was identified. If one private organization should 
 receive public funds for the support of schools, why should similar 
 support be denied to the schools under the care of- the various 
 churches? The history of the Public School Society is a series of 
 
 1 Academician, 1818, Vol. I, p. 341. 
 
 2 Bourne, History of the Public School Society, p. 527. 
 
96 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 addresses to the public, appeals and remonstrances to the city council 
 and the legislature, public debates, and contests at the polls to main- 
 tain their monopoly. The account of this controversy constitutes 
 most of the material in Bourne's volume of 768 pages. A settlement 
 was reached by the legislative prohibition of the extension of the 
 Society's schools, thus forcing union with the Board of Education. 
 The undemocratic organization of the schools in New York City 
 was pointed out by Governor Seward in his message to the Legislature 
 in 1842. "In the public school system of the city one hundred per- 
 sons are trustees and inspectors, and, by continued con- 
 M , sent of the Common Council, are the dispensers of an 
 
 annual average sum of $35,000, received from the com- 
 mon school fund of the State, and a sum equal to $95,000, derived 
 from an indiscriminating tax upon the real and personal estates of 
 the city. They build school-houses chiefly from the public funds, 
 they appoint and remove teachers, fix their compensation, and pre- 
 scribe the moral, intellectual, and religious instruction which one 
 eighth of the rising generation of the State shall be required to re- 
 ceive. Their powers, more effective and far-reaching than are exer- 
 cised by the municipality of the city, are not derived from the com- 
 munity whose children are educated and whose property is taxed, 
 nor even from the State, which is so great an almoner, and whose 
 welfare is so deeply concerned, but from an incorporated and per- 
 petual association, which grants upon pecuniary subscription, the 
 privileges even of life-membership, and yet holds in fee-simple the 
 public school edifices, valued at eight hundred thousand dollars. 
 Lest there might be too much responsibility, even to the association, 
 that body can elect only one half of the trustees, and those thus selected 
 appoint their fifty associates." 1 
 
 A committee of the Legislature reported that "it can no longer 
 be concealed or denied that the failure of the public schools to accom- 
 plish the object contemplated by their establishment, 
 ., g • results, in a great degree, from a disinclination on the 
 
 part of many parents to entrust these schools with 
 the education of their children. The fact is, indeed, so abundantly 
 shown in the number of petitions now before the Legislature for a 
 change in the present system, that it requires no additional proof. 
 During the last sixteen years, the Public School Society, as it appears 
 
 1 Bourne, History of the Public School Society, p. 498-499. 
 
Summary and Conclusion 97 
 
 from its own admissions, has had to defend its monopoly against the 
 struggles of discontented masses of the population. Evidence more 
 conclusive and affecting is seen in the multitudes of children in the 
 streets and on the wharves of the city, growing up to the rights and 
 responsibilities of citizens, but strangers to the simplest elements 
 of learning, and acquiring the education of vice. . . . There is 
 something exceedingly incongruous with our republican habits of 
 thinking, in the idea of taking the children of a population approach- 
 ing half a million of souls, taxing them at the same time for the support 
 and maintenance of the schools, and, when both the children and 
 taxes are furnished, withdrawing both out of the hands of guardians 
 and taxpayers, and handing them over to the management of an 
 irresponsible private chartered company. Such a concentration of 
 power into mammoth machinery of any description is odious to the 
 feelings, and sometimes dangerous to the rights, of freemen." 1 
 
 As has been already noted the monitorial system owed its long life 
 in New York to the support of a powerful corporation and dated its 
 downfall as an official system of instruction 
 from the dissolution of the society to which it Monitorial System 
 owed its support. Though the Public School 
 Society never lost confidence in the system with which "Providence" 
 had favored them, they were gradually compelled by circumstances 
 to limit its field. It was difficult to secure a supply of monitors, and 
 very few children remained in school after the age of eleven. Of 
 those who were mature enough to become monitors, few could be 
 induced to remain after their parents discovered that more money 
 could be earned in other occupations. An attempt to hold monitors 
 until twenty-one as apprentices was found to exceed the authority 
 of the society. The manifest superiority for young children of the 
 schools established by the Infant School Society in 1827, led to the 
 withdrawal of the four lower classes of the monitorial school and the 
 formation of primary schools and primary departments, and the sub- 
 stitution of women teachers for boy monitors. In the upper schools 
 the introduction of astronomy, algebra, geom- 
 etry, trigonometry and book-keeping necessi- Teachers M u ^|^ 
 tated the employment of more teachers. How- 
 ever, the mechanism of the monitorial plan was, as far as possible, 
 retained, and defended on grounds of formal discipline. Notwith- 
 
 1 Bourne, History of the Public School Society, pp. 504-505. 
 
98 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 standing the manifest failure to secure the confidence of the com- 
 munity and of the great numbers of children growing up in the 
 streets as vagrants, the society continued to claim that their system 
 was the true basis for free institutions and that the pupils were 
 "guarded from any evil tendency by the necessary vigilance and 
 constant checks imposed by the monitorial management of the 
 school." 1 
 
 One cannot but conclude that, in the effort to maintain a system, 
 the Public School Society was led to overlook the real problems of 
 education and to put forth false claims of efficiency — intellectual, 
 moral and social — and to rely upon the weight of authority and a 
 superficial display in examinations and school exhibitions. In the 
 reports of the society one looks in vain for any evidence of real insight 
 as to any phase of their vast undertaking. While enormous changes 
 were taking place in the economic, social, and religious conditions of 
 the population, the guardians of the youth and the future of the city, 
 year after year in the same phrases proclaimed the saving virtue of 
 
 the monitorial system. "Never was there 
 Failure of Benevolent ■, , . ... ,• , ,,. , , 
 
 Despotism in Education a clearer case of an institution established 
 
 for the noblest ends and administered by 
 a body of eminent people in an almost faultless way at last becoming 
 a practical hindrance to education." 2 
 
 As the trial of the Lancasterian system was world wide, and under 
 all conditions the failure pronounced, the grand experiment in New 
 York is not of special significance in the general verdict. What this 
 experiment did especially exemplify is the insufficiency of benevolent 
 despotism in the province of education. 
 
 Beneficial Results of the System 
 
 While it seems surprising that the monitorial system was so long 
 maintained in New York, there is less occasion for criticism regarding 
 the introduction of the system when there is taken into consideration 
 the lack of educational facilities at the beginning of the nineteenth 
 century, the crude methods employed, and public indifference towards 
 the education of the masses in all the great cities of Europe and 
 America. In London, Paris, and Berlin, as well as in New York and 
 
 1 42d Annual Report, Public School Society, 1848, p. 42. 
 2 Reverend A. D. Mayo, In Report of United States Commissioner of Edu- 
 cation, 1 897-1 898, p. 460. 
 
Summary and Conclusion 99 
 
 Philadelphia, the only provision for the education of the poor was 
 made by the churches or private philanthropy. It was not until 
 the middle of the century that municipal organization included the 
 modern plans of police and fire protection, street paving, cleaning, 
 etc. No city in the earlier part of the century could have undertaken 
 a system of public schools as maintained at pres- Education of 
 
 ent. It was largely through the cheapness of the Community to 
 monitorial plans that the community was gradually Support of 
 
 led to assume the expense of public education. In 
 1823, 4090 pupils were taught at an expense per pupil of Sl.SO. 1 
 Under the Board of Education, expenses based on average attendance 
 rose to $12 in 1851 and $30.54 in 1867. 2 
 
 In place of the crippled soldier and the needy mistress of the Dame 
 School the new system supplied young and enthusiastic teachers and 
 monitors trained to control large groups of children. The training, 
 however, can hardly be compared with that of the 
 modern normal school. Six weeks practice as ^ea^ers 
 
 monitors was deemed sufficient to insure proficiency. 
 In the so-called normal schools of the society none but academic sub- 
 jects were taught, the professional training being secured solely from 
 the routine of monitorial practice. 
 
 In contrast with the unorganized and uneconomical methods of the 
 schools of the times, the Lancasterian school presented a model of 
 system and order, and an organized scheme of classi- 
 fication and promotion. Besides, reading, spelling Organization 
 and writing were taught in the same schools and in 
 intimate association. Beginners in arithmetic were not compelled 
 to commit to memory meaningless definitions, though there was no 
 provision for teaching the idea of number or an understanding of the 
 mathematical processes. In contrasting the discipline of the modern 
 
 ^schools with the brutality associated with the school- 
 
 , ri _,j , ,., , , Milder Forms of 
 
 master of a hundred years ago, great credit must be Punishment 
 
 given to the monitorial system for the stress laid 
 
 upon moral incentives rather than upon an indiscriminate use of 
 
 corporal punishment. 
 
 1 Report, Free School Society, 1824. 
 
 2 New York Citizens Association, Report of Committee to Examine System 
 of Public Instruction, 1869. 
 
100 Lancasterian System in the Schools of New York City 
 
 Evil Effects of the System 
 
 Like the history of many another educational reform the course of 
 the Lancasterian movement in New York presents a period of vitality 
 under the direction of enthusiastic reformers, then a stage of excess 
 of formalism, and finally, after the loss of official recognition and sup- 
 port, a survival of phases, outgrown in theory, but maintained by tra- 
 dition and custom. All the favorable comments upon 
 avery o ^ mon jj- or j a i S y S tem apply to the first period. An 
 estimate of the total influence of the system cannot but 
 be unfavorable. Its consequences, direct and indirect, are still felt 
 in the schools with respect to the ideals of the community and the 
 standards of the teacher. Conformity to system and uniformity in 
 school administration and method became a fetish. The faithful 
 adherence to the manuals or the syllabi prepared by the school authori- 
 ties rather than adaptation to the interests of the pupils and the com- 
 munity became the prime duty of the teacher. This traditional 
 allegiance, the result of many years of an unquestioning routine, 
 remains a serious obstacle to the success of progressive administrations. 
 Upon the theory that the principal is not a teacher but an adminis- 
 trative officer, schools have become far larger than even the limit set 
 
 by Lancaster, which was a thousand; and the princi- 
 Oreanization P a ^ remauis what he was in the Lancasterian school, 
 
 the director of the school organization, not the teacher 
 and guide of each pupil. 
 
 Though the teacher has long since supplanted the monitor, present 
 practice has not entirely departed from the old monitorial ways, 
 
 particularly in connection with studies susceptible to 
 Instruction mechanical and memoriter methods of learning. The 
 
 spell of Lancaster has hindered all reform movements. 
 Pestalozzian methods which were supposed to be used in the infant 
 schools were cast in the Lancasterian mould. The imparting of 
 information rather than training in observation and eliciting of thought 
 became the aim. There was developed a catechetical method of 
 teaching which could readily be acquired by the monitor or by the 
 unskilled teacher. With the introduction of the higher studies into 
 the grammar grades, a similar adjustment was made to the capacity 
 of the monitorial type of teacher. The chopping up of all subject mat- 
 ter into easy mechanical stages, and the estimation of pupils' attain- 
 ments on the basis of memory became the almost universal practice. 
 
Summary and Conclusion 101 
 
 Even the teacher with the zeal of youth and trained "by the modern 
 methods of pedagogy is apt to be overpowered by having his atten- 
 tion directed to the practice of the schools as it has been rather than 
 as it may be. 
 
 On the side of intellectual discipline the term monitor has disap- 
 peared and the old ideals are being slowly displaced, but on the side 
 of moral discipline the monitorial system remains strong- Discioline 
 ly intrenched. According to the Lancasterian system 
 the chief virtue of the school was submission to authority. The 
 method employed was that of military organization in the hands 
 of the pupils themselves. Apart from obedience, order and cleanli- 
 ness, the moral influence of the school was neutral or negative. So 
 long as the government rested in the hands of the monitors, the teach- 
 er had no opportunity to inculcate higher moral standards than those 
 of the youthful monitors, and considered himself free from responsi- 
 bility. It is astonishing that after realizing the inadequacy of the 
 monitorial system in instruction, both the community and the teacher 
 should be indifferent to its results in the far more important field of 
 morals. A careful study of the monitorial schools shows that the 
 failure of the system was even more pronounced on the moral side 
 than on the intellectual. 
 
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