International Dalton Conference

On May 4th the International Dalton Conference takes place in Brno.
This 14th conference is the most important Conference in the world
of Dalton.
Participants from 11 different countries can make a choice out of
14 workshops.
The international character is shaped by a special organization of
the workshops. Specialists from two different countries prepared
together a workshop about an actual topic.
Information about the conference on the website of Dalton International

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.

Education

Education is what survives when what has been learned
has been forgotten.
B.F.Skinner

Smart blackboard

It occurred to me how 'Smart-boards' give an obsolete effect to
education in the classroom.
In a decade that co-operative learning enriches learning strategies
and children have learned to work in teams, the smart board caused
alle noses in the same direction again.
Of course that visualizing of instruction is attractive for modern
pupils, but didactically it is nothing more than a new version of
old fashioned traditional 'whole class teaching'.
The technology and utility of the digiboard is undisputed, but the
software must be connected directly to the individual or group tables
of the pupils.
They need to work individually or in groups with the same program.
Now they are forced to have a constant view on that automatic black-
board without the possibility of being active themselves.

Educational concept

What are the criteria on which the teacher is chosen?
There was a time that my colleagues analyzed the criteria on which
I made choices : the female teachers had to be blond and beautiful.
It was not easy to explain to them it was a pure coincidence.
I was lucky that this beautiful collection happened to be a great
team of Dalton professionals. Top talent !
My real criteria were based on the Dalton concept and I was searching
for people who dared to experiment. Young teachers must get that
opportunity.
But what we all share is the educational concept.
The principles of the 'Dalton Laboratory Plan' are the binder.
The team of teachers can be stronger, they feel more involved in
the educational process, if we share the formulated principles.
Without an educational concept pupils are at the mercy of any group
of individual professionals.

The conflict of instruction

Why are teachers so focused on instruction?
Isn't it better to teach skills and attitude, to arouse interest
instead of explaining.
For some teachers it's the daily routine to demonstrate their own
particular knowledge, while it would be better to create space for
students to experiment.
Albert Einstein said:
"It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the
modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled
the holy curiosity of enquiry".