The Educator: Prize Essays on the Expediency and Means of Elevating the Profession of the Educator in Society

by John Lalor, John Abraham Heraud, Edward Higginson

This work on the theory of education was first published in 1839. The five writers had been chosen as the winners in a competition for an essay on the 'Expediency and Means of Elevating the Profession of the Educator in Society', organised by the Central Society of Education, founded in 1837 to promote state funding of education, at a time when the 'monitor' system, whereby older children taught younger ones, was seen as an effective (and money-saving) method. The journalist John Lalor (1814-56) won first prize with a wide-ranging consideration of all the aspects of education, comparing the status of teachers through history and across several countries, and championing their 'sacred mission'. The runners-up were the writer John A. Heraud, the Unitarian minister Edward Higginson, the lawyer and author James Simpson, and Mrs Sarah Porter, prolific writer on education and sister of the political economist David Ricardo.

Kindle Edition

First published October 4, 2013

About the author

Irish journalist and author.

In 1836 he left Ireland to work as an parliamentary reporter in London.

In 1837 he graduated with a B.A. at Trinity College, Dublin.

In 1839 Lalor obtained the prize of one hundred guineas awarded by the Central Society of Education for an essay on The Expediency and Means of Elevating the Profession of the Educator in Society.

Brought up as a Catholic, about 1844 Lalor joined the Unitarian church, and undertook the editorship of the Unitarian weekly paper The Inquirer. He himself contributed articles on the Factory Bill, Ireland, and on education. His last work for the press was Money and Morals: a Book for the Times, 1852, a portion of which was reprinted in 1864 under the title of England among the Nations.