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Dr Andrew Bell
set out for India in 1787. He arrived in Madras and
remained there for nine years.
In Madras, as in
other garrison towns in India in the 18th Century,
there were many orphan children of soldiers who had
been killed, or died of disease, or had been
unaware that they had a child. These children faced
an unenviable future. In the Hindu community of
their mothers they were unacceptable and in the
European community they were equally unacceptable
because of their native upbringing. The conscience
of the European community was stirred at length. In
1789 the Male Military Orphan Asylum of Madras was
founded, largely by public subscription, to serve
as a day and boarding school where some of these
boys could be educated as Europeans and Christians.
Suitable buildings were found in an abandoned
redoubt at Egmore, a master was appointed and the
first boys enrolled. Dr Bell offered to act as
superintendent, without salary - an extraordinarily
generous action for the time in India - and at once
began to concern himself with every side of the
school. The general health of the boys, their
inoculation against smallpox, their clothing, their
food and the sharp practices of the suppliers,
their morals, their religious education, all came
under his scrutiny and everything faulty was put
right quickly.
One difficulty
seemed insurmountable. Masters competent enough and
conscientious enough to satisfy Dr Bell's exacting
standards could not be found. For able, educated
men India offered many posts more lucrative than
school-mastering. Chance provided a solution. One
day Dr Bell saw a Malabar schoolmaster at work
teaching young children to write by tracing out
their letters in wet sand. He rushed back to his
school shouting, like Archimedes, "Eureka", aware
that in wet sand and someone willing to kneel and
work in the wet sand with beginners was the answer.
The "someone" was JOHN FRISKEN, a boy of twelve,
who was later to become chief printer of the
"Madras Courier". His name is in capitals because
he was the first monitor and because his success as
a teacher emboldened Dr Bell to persevere with the
system. His task was to teach the beginners their
letters using wet sand as the writing surface. So
well did he succeed that other senior boys were
used to teach younger ones. In a short time most of
the work of teaching was in the hands of senior
boys and the master's work was reduced to
supervising these monitors and teaching them, the
master himself being supervised by Dr Bell. This
simple idea expounded by Dr Bell in pamphlet and
book through the rest of his life was the essence
of the Madras or monitorial system.
In 1796 Dr Bell
was beginning to suffer a little from the climate
and returned home to recuperate.
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