The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Bell, Andrew
1753–1832, British educator, b. St. Andrews, Scotland. After seven years in Virginia as a tutor, he returned to England, was ordained a deacon, and later (1789) became superintendent of an orphan asylum in Madras (now Chennai), India. Here he developed the monitorial system, which he described in a pamphlet, Experiment in Education, published upon his return to London (1797). Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker, established a school on similar principles, which was copied by large numbers of nonconformists. Bell organized a system of monitorial schools that taught the principles of the Established Church.
