The precursor of Parkhurst ?

The year before Helen Parkhurst went to Dalton, Charleton Washburne
set up a similar schooling system in the school district of Illinois.
This system is known as the "Winnetka Plan".
The Winnetka Plan emerged as a result of Evelyn Dewey's work in the
University of Chicago Laboratory School.
Dewey's work inspired teachers to attempt innovative pedagogies in
their classrooms.
Prior to the Winnetka plan, the most common practices in elementary
schools stressed the intellectual development of children by
teaching skills in reading writing, spelling, and arithmetic.
The subjects were taught by methods of memorization and drill
through books and ordered arrangements in the classrooms.
By the early 1900s, more emphasis was placed on the well-rounded
development of the child, including emotional, social, and physical,
in addition to the intellectual.
As a result, the overall-effect was a break from routine, from
formal learning through textbooks, and the emergence of more
emphasis on the individual by stressing the improvement of actual
behaviour, personality, and character.
The Winnetka Plan sought to develop the "whole child" and was
concerned with the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual
education.