BEVAN (G[eorge] J[ones])
Manual of Directions for Forming and Conducting a School according to the National or Madras System.
HOW TO RUN A SCHOOL ACCORDING TO THE MADRAS SYSTEM
Rare. OCLC/COPAC records copies at BL and UCL and the University of Missouri only in the USA. The only copy of this work recorded in Rare Book Hub is the present copy: sold firstly in 2008 as part of the library of John and Monica Lawson and again at Forum in 2023.
A detailed practical guide to running a Madras or Monitorial School where the older pupils assist in the teaching of their younger classmates. This book provides details of every aspect of the school day from the equipment required to the method of teaching.
The Madras System was an educational method that became popular in the early 19th century and emphasised the use of student participation with the older students used as assistants to the teacher passing on the information they had learned to the others. This new methodology allowed schools to increase the average class size making primary education more accessible. The system was pioneered by Andrew Bell (1753-1832), to whom the author of this book acknowledges his great debt. Bell published his The Madras School in 1808. Rather than a theoretical account of the system though Bevan provides a detailed practical guide to running a school with extensive lists of the “apparatus” required including desks, books (“A set of National School-Books, Bibles and Prayer-Books, sold by Rivingtons”), slates for writing on, a register (a template of the register is provided) and pencils, pens and chalk. Bevan next suggests a series of “Officers” to be selected from the pupils including an Usher (“usually the most deserving and trustworthy scholar”). The routine school day is then laid out alongside a system of punishments and rewards and then sets out in great detail how mathematics and other subjects might be taught. The author, the Reverend George Jones Bevan (1788-1848), Vicar of Crickhowell, Wales promises that these methods - based on Bell’s foundation - are, “founded upon a safe and satisfactory experience” (p. 6).
Provenance: early 19th-century bookseller’s label of Deck in Bury to the front pastedown. Later in the collection of educational books formed by John and Monica Lawson and sold at Bonhams in London in 2008.
