[AMERICAN EDUCATION - LANCASTERIAN SCHOOLS]

The British System of Education: Being a Complete Epitome of the Improvements and Inventions Practised by Joseph Lancaster. To Which is Added, a Report of the Trustees of the Lancaster School at Georgetown, Col.

Georgetown [Washington, D.C.]: William Cooper and Joseph Milligan, 1812. First American Edition. 12mo. Contemporary full sheep; xx,[1]-130pp; frontispiece + 5 leaves of plates. A complete but somewhat worn copy, with typical darkening to text leaves; a few brief marginal chips (including a small loss to frontispiece, costing a couple of characters of the printed margin); Good and sound. Early holograph ex-libris of a John Goulding.

A very early exposition of the Lancasterian method of education, following by just a few years the American edition of Lancaster's own book, Improvements in Education (NY: 1807), and perhaps the first to delineate the application of his methods in a strictly American setting. Lancaster's method, which involved strict regimentation and the use of student monitors, enabled the "teaching" of hundreds of students in a single classroom. Lancasterian grammar schools were extremely popular in the early years of the Republic, as they filled an urgent need to build a literate working class in a nation with a paucity of qualified profefssional teachers; by the mid-19th century the method fell out of favor, in large part due to the influence of reformer Horace Mann. The "Epitome" printed here is followed by the full report of the Georgetown, D.C. Lancaster School Society for the year just past, to which is appended a letter from Lancaster himself praising the Society's efforts. Six wood-engraved plates illustrate aspects of the Lancasterian approach. Scarce in commerce. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 25817.

Price: $450.00

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