(in Russian, the Bell-Lancaster system of mutual instruction), a system of organization and teaching methods at the elementary school level in which older and faster pupils (monitors) under a teacher’s direction conduct classes with the remaining pupils. The term derives from the names of the British pedagogues A. Bell (1753–1832) and J. Lancaster (1776 or 1778–1838), who independently advanced similar methods of instruction. This method was first used in India, where Bell was living at the time. At the beginning of the 19th century it became widespread in a number of countries (the USA, France, Belgium) as an inexpensive and rapid method of increasing literacy. The reading of religious books, writing, and arithmetic were taught in the mutual instruction schools. They had neither grades nor teachers in the modern sense of those words. The pupils, divided into groups (divisions) of ten, were taught by the monitors, who were themselves studying and who—in order to teach their comrades—received instruction from the teacher concerning the subject matter and method of its presentation during a given day. There were no textbooks, but in their place various teaching materials were used. Under the monitorial system the pupils did not acquire systematic knowledge. J. H. Pestalozzi and his followers were opposed to the system.
In Russia, schools that were operated under the monitorial system began to open in 1818, but they did not become widespread. The system of mutual instruction was utilized by the Decembrists in order to increase literacy among soldiers and peasants. The Decembrists M. F. Orlov, V. F. Raevskii, and others in schools organized by them (approximately 800 pupils) broadened the educational content; they introduced history, literature, and mathematics. Using the possibility of teaching by means of manuscript materials, they composed tables that had an antiserfdom content, and they attempted to awaken independent thought among their pupils as well as giving them a political education. The Decembrist organization “The Voluntary Society for Establishing Mutual Instruction Schools,” which created such schools, was abolished by the tsarist government shortly before the Decembrist uprising.
M. F. SHABAEVA