[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Section” _builder_version=”4.2.2″][et_pb_row admin_label=”Intro” _builder_version=”4.2.2″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.2.2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Intro Text” _builder_version=”4.4.0″]<\/p>\n
In his History of the New-York African Free-Schools<\/em>, Charles C. Andrews claims that the NYAFS were the second schools in the United States to adopt the Lancasterian system of education. Also referred to as the Monitorial system, the Lancasterian system follows the instructional models laid out in extreme detail by Joseph Lancaster, a British-born educator. Lancaster began developing his system when he created a school for neighborhood children in his father\u2019s home. Students attending the Lancasterian-informed NYAFS, many of whom would become delegates to the Colored Conventions, were participating in a global revolution in terms of access to education and for its ramifications to the long-standing teaching models used in schools.<\/p>\n Lancaster\u2019s model was built to accommodate the education of a large number of students\u2014often several hundred\u2014by only one teacher. That one teacher would arrange students into classes grouped by ascending order of skill or knowledge (not necessarily, as is common in present practice, by age). This ordering created a hierarchy of pupils who advanced from class to class based on mastery of subject matter. More accomplished pupils were appointed to serve as \u201cmonitors,\u201d or students who were entrusted to devote about a quarter of their own school day to keeping order or instructing students in lower levels. The system was implemented in schools for both boys and girls. For the many Black children attending the NYAFS, especially those who went on to highly visible careers in the public and political spheres, the opportunity to occupy positions of leadership and authority otherwise refused to them in antebellum New York would prove extremely formative.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_5,3_5″ _builder_version=”4.2.2″][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.2.2″][et_pb_gallery gallery_ids=”4678″ posts_number=”1″ db_images_per_row=”1″ dbdb_version=”3.3.7″ orientation=”portrait” _builder_version=”4.2.2″][\/et_pb_gallery][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.2.2″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.0″]<\/p>\n Lancaster promoted his method based on its economic efficiency: \u201cas scholars increase, the expense for each individual decreases, leaving one master competent to govern and teach many, instead of very few pupils, increasing his own salary, providing funds for rewards [to exemplary students], and yet on the whole saving a great expense.” As such, it was adopted globally\u2014in Ireland, Spain, America, and India, for example\u2014and especially in locales serving poor populations.<\/p>\n The system was not without its faults. Lancaster himself pointed out that its adoption by untrained or unfit teachers and poorly chosen monitors often resulted in deplorable school conditions, where students cowered and conformed rather than learned and achieved. French philosopher Michel Foucault discussed the Lancasterian System in relation to his concept of the Panopticon. Lancasterian schools were run with a rigidity predicated upon surveillance and conformity. Indeed, one of Lancaster\u2019s innovations for girls learning needlework was to provide pupils with thread of a color contrasting that of the fabric upon which they practiced, so that the evenness of their stitches could be monitored and assessed quickly from across a crowded classroom. Patricia Crain emphasized the \u201cacculturation and social control\u201d enabled by a factory-like system that served colonial purposes.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_5,3_5″ _builder_version=”4.2.2″][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.2.2″][et_pb_gallery gallery_ids=”4683″ posts_number=”1″ db_images_per_row=”1″ dbdb_version=”3.3.7″ orientation=”portrait” _builder_version=”4.2.2″][\/et_pb_gallery][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.2.2″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.5.1″]<\/p>\n And yet students of the NYAFS such as James McCune Smith<\/a> reflected fondly and respectfully on the time they spent within this system of education. McCune Smith noted that \u201cthe school-house, and school-boy days, settle the permanent characteristics, establish the level, gauge the relative, mental, and moral power of the man in after life,” and credited NYAFS with this positive foundational role in the lives of graduates such as himself and fellow classmate Henry Highland Garnet. Students at the NYAFS took pride in being appointed to monitorial status, as is evident in the many flourishes and embellishments some added to their titles\u2014such as \u201dInspector General of Reading\u201d or \u201cAssistant Monitor General\u201d\u2014on their schoolwork (see images to the left). Many monitors were also a part of what Charles C. Andrews dubbed \u201cThe Class of Merit,\u201d a group of students selected for being \u201cbest behaved and most advanced in their learning,” and several graduates went on to become teachers themselves.<\/p>\n Students at the NYAFS, then, were both products of and participants in a regimented educational system, a system which, despite its clockwork school day and precise ticket system, provided significant opportunities for agency and power among Black children being rewarded for their learning and competing for leadership roles.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.2.2″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.2.2″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Credits” _builder_version=”4.4.0″]<\/p>\n Researched and written by Amanda M Greenwell. Edited by Kelli Coles.<\/p>\n Andrews, Charles C. The History of the New-York African Free-Schools<\/em>. New York, 1830, Hathitrust.org<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n Crain, Patricia. \u201cChildren of Media, Children as Media: Optical Telegraphs, Indian Pupils, and Joseph Lancaster\u2019s \u2018System\u2019 for Cultural Replication.\u201d New Media, 1750-1914: Studies in Cultural Definition and Change.<\/em> Edited by Lisa Gitelman and Geoffrey Pingree, MIT Press, 2003, pp. 61-89.<\/p>\n Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.<\/em> Trans. Alan Sheridan, Vintage Books, 1977.<\/p>\n Lancaster, Joseph. The Lancasterian System of Education, with Improvements.<\/em> Baltimore, 1821, Hathitrust.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\nCredits<\/h3>\n
References<\/h3>\n