The Discipline of Merit. Mutual Education in England between the 18th and 19th Centuries

Abstract

This essay takes into account the pedagogical reform for the poor proposed in England by Andrew Bell, Joseph Lancaster and Patrick Colquhoun between Eighteenth and Nineteenth century. Differentiating individuals and reproducing social order through the implementation of a pedagogical plan is a response both to the excessive expectations of well-being raised among the English poor by the Revolution in France, and to the uncontrolled spread of crime and undisciplined behaviours in the new manufacturing districts. This is why social reformers looked at the pedagogical reform of mutual instruction as a way to build the conditions of reproduction of social differences: the plans proposed by Bell and Lancaster, based on emulation, competition and merit, are supported by Colquhoun because they offer a possible solution for the problems of crime and immoral behaviour. «The order of Merit», triggered by emulation, distinction and reward, thus become the main tool of influencing poor’s expectations so to predict and discipline their conduct as future waged workers.