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I happen to be thinking about this at the moment, since the Madras system was of interest to Wordsworth and Coleridge. Here is a sentence or two about it (I quote): the "Madras" system -- also know as the "monitorial" or "mutual improvement" system -- the discovery of which Whitbread diplomatically credited jointly to Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster, who indeed seemed to have hit independently upon the notion of instructing childen through the use of student assistants or "monitors," and who later borrowed from one another freely. Bell's version of the system, which was pushed forward by the Archbishop of Canterbury and others as an Establishment countercheck to that of the Quaker Lancaster, found some of its most vocal and influential support in the Lake poets." (i.e., Coleridge, Wordsworth) -- Alan Richardson, _Literature, Education, and Romanticism_ (Cambridge, 1994), p. 91. It was called Madras, because Andrew Bell first devised it in a school (for orphans) he ran in India: see his book _An Experiment in Education made at the Male Asylum of Madras_ (London, 1797). It seems to have been rather tightly controlled, but had the clear advantage for the child who had learned something being obliged to teach it to another. Richardson's book has a good account of it. Best regards, David Miall ([log in to unmask]) Home Page: http://www.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/miall.htm Dept. of English, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E5 Tel. 403-492-2236 Fax (office): 403-492-8142 Fax (home): 403-437-7987