In the daily life one has to work with a lot of different people. Nothing is better than to start this teamspirit at school. At a Dalton school children can make the choice to work together with another or with a group.
In this way they learn to explain things to each other.
“By self activity the pupil has to find for himself, or together with others, strategies of solving problems set to him. So the teacher does not start with ample explanations”. H.P.
Dalton is visualizing processes. From the Kindergarten age we give children insight in the process by using lots of materials : assignment boards or formulars, the day rhythm scedule etc.
Learning to solve problems is using the time during the delayed attention, a period in which the teacher is not available for any question of the children. But the classroom is arranged following the principles of class-management. A clear class arrangement where children are able and allowed to find their own way.
“The resistance, generated in the child by the old machinery to the process of learning, can be transformated into interest and industry as soon as the pupil is released to carry out the educational programme in his own way. Freedom and responsibility together perfom the miracle”.
“The Dalton plan is a way to wake up a new response from the child’s nature by inviting him to undertake the job in a way that appeals to his natural desire to learn things in his own way and even in his own time”.
Helen Parkhurst
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