David Manson (schoolmaster)
David Manson (1726-1792) was an Irish schoolmaster who in teaching children basic literacy sought to exclude "drudgery and fear" by pioneering the use of play and peer tutoring. His methods were in varying degrees adapted by freely-instructed hedge-school masters across the north of Ireland, and were advertised to a larger British audience by Elizabeth Hamilton in her popular novel The Cottagers of Glenburnie (1808).
David Manson | |
|---|---|
Portrait by Joseph William 1783, Royal Belfast Academical Institution | |
| Born | 1726 |
| Died | 1792 |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Occupation | Schoolmaster in Belfast. Inventor. |
| Known for | Teaching in accord with "the principle of amusement". Phonetic approach to basic literacy. |
| Notable work | A New Pocket Dictionary; Or, English Expositor (1762) |
Patronised by leading, reform-minded, families, his school in Belfast counted among its pupils the future pioneering naturalist John Templeton, the radical humanitarian Mary Ann McCracken and her brother Henry Joy McCracken, the United Irishman, who was to hang for his role in the 1798 Rebellion.
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