"As long ago as 1925, M. Dorothy George wrote that "In the field of education, Lancaster's methods have often received less than justice; they curiously anticipate certain modern views on education; at worst, they were a great improvement on the dreary droning of the catechism which was the central part of the Charity-school teaching, and they reached a far greater number of children."" "The education of the poor was one of the most significant social movements of the early nineteenth century, yet it has been almost totally ignored by historians." "Lancaster's monitorial system was used all over the world in the early nineteenth century. It was the principal method of teaching in North and South America, the West Indies and the Scandinavian countries."--BOOK JACKET.