Andrew Bell (1753–1832) was a Scottish Anglican priest and educationalist who pioneered the Madras System of Education (also known as "mutual instruction") in schools and was the founder of Madras College, a secondary school in St. Andrews

[edit] His life and work

Andrew Bell was born at St Andrews in Scotland on 27 March 1753 and attended St Andrews University where he did well in mathematics and natural philosophy, graduating in 1774.^[1]

In 1774 he sailed to Virginia as a private tutor and remained there until 1781 when he left to avoid involvement in the war of independence. He returned to Britain, surviving a shipwreck on the way, and was ordained Deacon in 1784 and Priest in the Church of England in 1785.^[1]

In February 1787 he went out to India and went ashore at Madras, where he stayed for 10 years. He became chaplain to a number of British regiments and gave a course of lectures. In 1789 he was appointed superintendent of an orphan asylum for the illegitimate and orphaned sons of officers. He saw some Malabar children teaching others the alphabet by drawing in sand and decided to develop a similar method, putting bright children in charge of those who were less bright. He was opposed to corporal punishment and used a system of rewards. Under his own supervision this system produced impressive results.^[2]

He was a careful man and accumulated considerable wealth. In August 1796 he left India because of his health and published an account of his system, which started to be introduced into a few English schools from 1798/99, and he devoted himself to spreading and developing the system. He served as a priest in Edinburgh for a short time and married Agnes, daughter of a Dr George Barclay in December 1801. He was then appointed Rector of Swanage in Dorset and established a school there to teach straw-plaiting to girls and also using his system to teach infants. He and his wife adopted the new discovery of vaccination for smallpox and personally successfully vaccinated very many people in the district. However his marriage was unsuccessful and a decree of judicial separation was granted in 1806.^[3]

Another educationist, Joseph Lancaster, was promoting a similar but not identical system and their differences developed into a major and continuing dispute. Unlike Bell's schools, those established by Lancaster were not committed to the Church of England.^[4]

Bell received powerful support from the Church and his system was adopted in army schools and the Clergy Orphan School. A society was founded in November 1811 which set up schools using Bell's system. This was the National Society for the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Christian Church. By the time of his death twelve thousand schools had been established in Great Britain and the colonies. The system was also used by the Church Missionary Society and other institutions.^[5]

Bell was a fanatical enthusiast for his system and an intolerant man. He was difficult to deal with and hard to work under. Nevertheless he always got on well with children.^[6]

He retired to Cheltenham, a wealthy man, at the age of 75 and died, aged 78, on 27 January 1832. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. He left substantial sums of money for educational purposes but with unreasonable conditions attached.^[7]

His system did not survive for long after his death. It needed close and enthusiastic supervision and small classes and was only really useful when funds were sparse and teachers in very short supply.^[8]

[edit] See also

• Bell-Lancaster method
• Learning by teaching (LdL)

[edit] References

For a full account of his life and work see the long and informative article by Jane Blackie in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford; 2004) Vol 4, pp. 900-905 (referred to, in the Notes below, as 'Blackie')

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Significant Scots: Andrew Bell
• Spartacus International: Andrew Bell
• Madras College
• Texts by Andrew Bell at archive.org