Teaching was based on Joseph Lancaster's methods of monitorial teaching. This became known as the monitorial system. In 1895, aged fifteen, Lyons began working as a pupil-teacher under the monitorial system. New York High School was the first monitorial system high school in the United States. This schoolroom was the first monitorial school for the sons of the poor in Hertfordshire. The rigid monitorial system, though economical, came to be viewed by inspectors as limited. Andrew Bell pioneered the Monitorial System, which developed into the pupil-teacher system of training. One branch of journalism "for" citizens is the "monitorial citizen" (coined by Michael Schudson). "The Understanding Reader" (1803), "The Agricultural Reader" (1824), and "The Monitorial Reader" (1841).