LI R 3 T AT SA..TA HAH 6AR/^ CALIFORNIA \ ^^^^^^^^^^ The D ALTON LABORATORY PLAN BY THE SAME AUTHOR New Schools for Old The Regeneration of the Porter School WITH PROFESSOR JOHN DEWET Schools of To-morrow WITH EMILY CHILD AND BEARDSLEY RUML Methods and Results of Testing School Children Manual of Tests Used by the Psy- chological Survey in the Public Schools of New York City, Including Social and Physical Studies of the Children Tested. E. P. DUTTON & CO., INC. The DALTON LABOKATOEY PLAN BY EVELYN DEWEY AUTHOB or "NEW SCHOOLS FOB OLD," ETC. E. P. BUTTON & CO., INC. Copyright 1922, by E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY All Right* Reiersed First Printing - - Jan., 1922 Second Printing - - Nov., 1924 Third Printing - - Apr., 1930 Printed in the United Statts of America LB n L Z, / / X PREFACE THIS book is an attempt to answer the ques- tions of teachers and schools about the Dalton Laboratory Plan. The plan is new. It has been in operation in one school for eighteen months and in two others for a little over one year. Therefore, it is not possible to present it as a tested and proved " system," or to say that it must be arranged in such and such a fashion. It is better that it should be so ; for education will never be static. It must develop and change with the increase of human knowledge and the changes in society. As long as man develops, his education must develop. Miss Parkhurst has suggested an arrange- ment of the school building and program that seems to give children some of the things they need to grow up successful adults in the world of to-day. Though she has a strong personal bias on the curriculum, the plan itself does not dictate what facts or subjects children must study. It promotes a natural and thorough way of studying, a way that is in harmony with our vi PREFACE present knowledge of psychology, and that, therefore, tends to develop intelligent habits. The growth of character is the foundation of education. The Dalton Laboratory Plan is an experiment in an environment that permits character development. The particular school is the inheritance. The exchange of information between teachers and schools is essential for the im- provement of both the environment and the in- heritance. Each teacher makes discoveries as she meets her problems. These discoveries need to be shared in order to test and establish them by use. Miss Parkhurst offers a new concep- tion of school organization that has appealed to many schools as a better way. It needs an open-minded reception from all schools and teachers, so that children may have the benefit of whatever it can contribute and so that it may be tested, altered and refined into a more and more useful and growing tool. The theme of the book follows as closely as possible Miss Parkhurst 's conception of the plan. We have been in constant consultation as to facts and have freely exchanged opinions as to theories. We have not always agreed about PREFACE vii the theories. The writer is responsible for the educational generalizations and, therefore, any discrepancies and disagreements should be laid at her door. Thanks are due to Miss Eosa Bassett, head- mistress of the Streatham County Secondary School, London, England, and to her teachers and pupils for the history of the plan in their school, and to Mr. Ernest Jackman for infor- mation about the Dalton High School in Massa- chusetts. Portions of the last chapter first ap- peared in The Nation of May 4th, 1921, and are reprinted with its consent. E. D. New York City, December, 1921. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE / I. THE PLAN 1 / II. THE LABORATORY 22 HI. THE ASSIGNMENTS 45 IV. A DALTON HIGH SCHOOL 64 V. THE STREATHAM COUNTY SECONDARY SCHOOL 93 / VI. OPINIONS OF TEACHERS AND PUPILS 108 VII. THE CHILDREN'S UNIVERSITY SCHOOL 132 VIII. THE NEED FOR AN IMPROVED EDUCATION. . 155 The DALTON LABORATORY PLAN THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN CHAPTER I THE PLAN THE Dalton Laboratory Plan was developed in an attempt to get a school organization that would meet the needs of modern education under public school conditions. Miss Helen Parkhurst, the originator of the plan, conceives of schools as sociological laboratories where community life and community situations pre- yail. The children are the experimenters. The instructors are observers, who stand ready to serve the community as their special talents are needed. As observers, they study the children to find out what environment will best meet the immediate educational needs. As specialists, 2 THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN their function is to give technique, to point the way to the acquisition of information, and to maintain intellectual and technical standards. A new and radically different school organiza- tion has been built up on this basis. The very set-up of the school program enlists the coop- eration of the children. By giving them real jobs, their wills become an active force in the learning process. A pupil in a Dalton school said, "I like this school because each child has ample time to do his work. In other schools, when you go into arithmetic, you have to do arithmetic for half an hour and you have to do so much that you get mixed up. Here, if you begin to get tired and can't make your mind work right on one thing, you can go into another room and forget all about the first thing, so you don't get mud- dled up. Later, you can do the arithmetic. I like it, too, because you can go on and do your work and not be held back by children who are slower." It may be true that children do not know what things are good for them, but it is equally true that left to themselves they know the ways that are good for them. If teachers watch THE PLAN 3 children at play or at work out of school, they can observe the conditions for efficient learning. They will find very little in common between their class-rooms with bells, fixed recitation periods, and endless lectures, and the pupil's own methods. Out of school, a child knows what he is going to do. Whether it is a block tower or a stamp collection, the goal is there before the work is started. In the class-room, there is often no attempt to let the pupils in on the task at hand. More lessons begin with ' ' Class take down these examples, ' ' or ' ' Take out your histories, turn to page 44, Mary begin at the second paragraph, ' ' than with even such a general statement as "We will talk about the geography of Chile today." Of course, the class knows that the history or reading period has arrived. But the thread of a task is easily lost when it is done under arbi- trary conditions. Without this thread, it is largely a matter of chance whether a pupil gets any understanding or control of the material presented as a "subject." Playing or working at home, each child ad- justs his task to his natural rate of speed for working. He does a thing step by step without 4 THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN obvious spurts of haste or moments of waiting. In school, the speed of a class lesson is fixed by the teacher. It is aimed to fit the average ability of the class. But there is not a single individual exactly at average. Each child has his own rate of working, and the majority of the class approximate the average rate. Yet each one of these children is expected to follow every direction the instant it is given. The re- sult is, of course, that the slower pupils hit only the high spots; fix their attention on keeping up; get confused and muddled and try to re- member enough words so they can get through the lesson. It is no happier for the children who work rapidly. They are through before a new direction is given, but they have to wait for the teacher. Their minds wander. They have just started on an interesting train of thought. The new direction comes, and they are jerked back to the lesson for another moment's atten- tion. They grasp the point and are again hung up. For both extremes there is a constant in- terruption of interest and attention in order to adjust to the class that tends to kill initiative. Even the pupils nearer the average are not free THE PLAN 5 to follow their natural rate, but must strain or be bored in order to conform exactly. In free activity, a child works until he is ' through, or until he is tired and finds his atten- tion wandering or his mind becoming confused. In either case, he has grasped what he has done and it has the value of a completed experience. In the class-room, the opportunity to work by orderly stages is dependent on the clock and the skill of the teacher. Perhaps the class has been roused to a high pitch of interest and mental alertness; perhaps they are just beginning to understand some difficult new material. Sud- denly the bell rings. Books must be shut. The lesson is over, and excited or tired minds are jerked to a new subject. The constant interruptions to natural and or- derly mental processes imposed by the organi- zation of the school program account for the inadequacies of school education as much as shortcomings in curricula. The mind is a ma- chine that works continuously and at its own rate. It can not stand constant overspeeding or frequent periods of blankness without re- volting. Every teacher feels sometimes that she would like to shake her class into life and 6 THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN response. They have been shaken so constantly that the electric shocks of bells, rapid-fire questions, competition and devices fail to spur them to even the usual service. They let their minds drift, expecting the teacher to guide them in and out of the labyrinths of the daily program with the minimum of cooperation on their part. Is it any wonder that when we dis- count effort and interest, school ceases to be- come a developing process and the pupil gathers only the moss of information that comes with passivity? The Dalton Laboratory Plan offers a school machinery without these features. It will work with large classes and meager budgets. "" Miss Parkhurst says, "We have been viewing things through the wrong end of the telescope. What should be taught, or how this ought to be ushered in, should not be the most important problem in school improvement. We want teachers with original ways sufficient to answer the needs of each individual. Let us free thejoa from the yoke of method and system, and make it possible for them to use their own good judg- ment." This freeing process is the essential contribution of the plan. THE PLAN 7 The plan suggests a simple and economical-' reorganization of school machinery that per- mits the school to function as a community. It can be used as an efficiency measure without making changes in the curriculum, or as the first step in the development of a new basis for elementary and secondary education. The plan does not suggest a curriculum it offers a way By 7 which school life can function as real life functions in a community. School work is done in such a way and under such conditions that groups and individuals are brought into con- stant inter-action, and it is impossible for any one to live independently of others. The plan has certain tangible pedagogic advantages for public schools with their big classes and fixed curricula. With them, it may be looked upon as an efficiency measure for children, the learners. The plan preserves grouping by grades. The grading may be done in any way fitted to meet the needs of the particular school. But it does away with most of the drawbacks of grading. Pupils work at their own rate of speed. They may work fast in some subjects and more slowly in others, and still remain with their group. The quick pupil can go more thoroughly into sub- 8 THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN jects that interest him, looking up special topics or doing supplementary reading. The slow child can confine himself to the essentials of a subject and work on them until they are thor- oughly mastered. Children with marked bents can save time by hard work. This time can be spent in the subject laboratory where there is the equipment that feeds their particular in- terest. A child! can remain a member of his appropriate age group and do some of his les- sons with .older and some with younger groups. But the plan does more than preserve the ad- vantages of individual study and subject pro- motion. It requires a method of study that calls forth the kind of intellectual and moral habits that are so necessary for the development of an intelligent, responsible and successful citi- zen. The reorganization plan worked out by Miss Parkhurst is adapted to eight grades, begin- ning with the fourth grade or its equivalent. Children would begin to work under the plan when they have finished the first three years of school and would continue working under it until they enter a college or university. Since it makes no demand on the curriculum, it can THE PLAN 9 be used for schools divided into intermediate grades, and junior and senior secondary depart- ments or to schools with a four-year secondary course. The plan preserves grades for convenience in handling the children, but instead of class- rooms and one seat for each pupil there are sub- ject laboratories. One or more rooms are as- signed for each subject that is taught in the school. This specializing starts in the fourth grade instead of in the secondary department as in most schools at present. Instead of keep- ing the teacher a "jack of all trades," each be- comes a specialist in charge of one of these laboratories. In the youngest grades, where there are not now subject teachers, the grade teachers can be assigned to subjects on the basis of their interests and special aptitudes. In the usual elementary school, the grade teacher now has to teach physical culture, hand work and art, regardless of her interest or talent. Such an arrangement necessarily in- volves a waste of time. Under the Dalton Plan, grade teachers with special aptitudes can be assigned to laboratories where they give the 10 THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN pupils of all grades the benefit of their interest in a particular subject. Like all machinery for instruction, the smaller the pupil unit per teacher the more ef- ficient the teaching. At the same time, the plan will function with the units that are found in the usual large public school. A secondary school that is using the plan in England has a unit of about one hundred and ten pupils per teacher. Miss Parkhurst believes that a teacher can meet two hundred pupils as well as she can handle that same number in the usual class periods. In large schools there may be a num- ber of laboratories for each subject; each as- signed to one teacher who devotes her time to certain grades. Instead of having one labora- tory for all the work in mathematics, there will be one for each mathematics teacher. Each will be used by the pupils of the grades she is in the habit of teaching. If she finds the attend- ance so uneven as to interfere with the pupils' work, she can fix certain hours for helping cer- tain classes. In this way, she will not have to deal with any more children at one time than she does at present. Having the pupils go to special rooms for THE PLAN 11 each subject permits economy in equipment. In geography, for instance, instead of maps, globes, atlases and reference books for each grade, one set of such material is installed in each geography laboratory. Since the teacher is in this laboratory during the part of the school day set aside as "laboratory time," material is available at any minute. The school library can be made more useful than it often is. Each laboratory will have a shelf of books where volumes that are commonly used for special reference and supplementary readings, as well as those that may stimulate the children to further research, are kept. Any book that a teacher or pupil wants is thus avail- able at a moment's notice. Many educators believe that pupils suffer from too frequent changes of teachers. Under the Dalton Plan, a child will have the same teacher in the~same subject year after year. His first year he must adjust to a different person- ality for each subject. After that, his work may change from year to year, but he will be dealing with the same teachers. Each pupil has his work of the school year brokeiPup into contract jobs. There are as 12 THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN many contracts as there are months in the school year. These consist of outlines or as- signments of the work that are posted for each grade in each subject at the beginning of the ; month. The child reads these assignments and sees his work for a month, hence the word con- tract assignment or contract job. Seeing what he is to do, he accepts the contract and agrees to accomplish it. The actual working of this plan can best be illustrated by specific example. Horace Marshall is a pupil in the fifth grade [in a Dalton public school in the city of . School hours are from 8:45 A. M. to 4:00 P. M., with an intermission from 1 :00 to 2 :00 P. M. From 8:45 A. M. to 12:00 noon is considered free time. It belongs wholly to the pupil and it is his responsibility to organize it to suit his needs. The half hour between 12 :00 and 12 :30 is taken up with pupil assembly, special work, or committee meetings. During this time, the academic instructors meet for faculty confer- ence. The following half hour is devoted to group conferences. All the pupils of a grade report to an academic instructor at this time, but they report to a different teacher each day, so that there is a weekly report for each grade THE PLAN 18 in each subject. The remainder of the day may be used for work in art, manual training, recre- ation or athletics, any work which can be readily handled in grade groups. The school year is ten months. Horace studies five academic subjects, history, mathe- matics, geography, English literature and some form of science. Therefore, Horace has five contract jobs a month, or fifty during the school year. Besides this, he will have a certain amount of work in special subjects gymna- sium, carpentry or art. As far as the school staff permits, this work should also be man- aged by contract jobs in subject laboratories. Where such instructors are on part time only, these subjects may be conveniently handled in groups in the afternoon, or at the close of the morning's socialized time. Horace works in all of these subject laboratories instead of in one fifth-grade room. He has a locker for his per- sonal school belongings instead of a desk. His group is under the special care of some one teacher, and will meet in her laboratory for a short period each day, usually at the beginning of the morning. Horace's advisor talks over class plans and .problems with the children, 14 THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN makes announcements and suggestions to help groups and individuals in planning their day's work. Then Horace and his class-mates get out their assignment cards. On these cards, they have copied in detail the work of the monthly contract in each subject. There is no time schedule, no bell to summon Horace from one room to another. He deter- mines to work on his geography this morning and so goes to the geography laboratory. His work may be reading references, questions to be answered, maps to be drawn or other pertinent matter. He carries on his work independently, entering and leaving the room when and as he pleases. The time he spends there is deter- mined entirely by his interest-span and his fa- tigue. If other fifth-grade pupils are in the laboratory at the same time he may join them. The group is allowed to talk, help each other, exchange books and papers, in fact they should be encouraged to work together. As they work, they make notes on questions they can not an- swer among themselves or on any point where the teacher's advice is needed. She is in the laboratory during the whole morning helping groups or individuals, so Horace is free to go THE PLAN 13 to her as he requires assistance. Or she may call his group to her to see what they are doing, discuss difficult questions or make suggestions about better ways of working. i Before leaving the laboratory, Horace indi-j cates on the instructor's subject graph the* amount of work completed. If he is in any doubt as to the amount covered, he may ask the instructor to assist him in this. He also indi- cates the amount he has done by a line on his own contract card. If he leaves before the end of the free laboratory work time, he will select another subject, go to that laboratory and work there as he did in the geography room. If Miss Parkhurst's program is followed exactly, Horace will have an hour at the end of the morning for group work with his own grade. The first part of this he will spend in assembly, in work for the school activities he is interested in, or in having a special lesson, or giving a group report with all or part of his grade. The last half hour he spends in a regular form or group meeting. Since he has only one of these a week in each subject, it will not pass as the daily recitation does. Miss Parkhurst calls this group work, "class meetings or conferences" in 16 THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN order to distinguish it from the ordinary reci- tation or oral lesson period. Enough time should be given class conferences to enable the teacher to present things relating to the subject outside the pupil's experience, things impos- sible for him to discover with his limited time and equipment ; to guide real discussions of the subject by the pupils and to review and round up the assignment. In the afternoon, Horace's grade will prob- ably have a more regular time-table. Gymna- sium, recreation, music and certain kinds of shop work, notably cooking, depend upon organized groups for their value and their success. Part of the afternoon may be spent on a time-table and part in free study for art and carpentry, or all of it may be given over to classes and time found for more than one recitation a week in the academic subjects. Eecitations in Ameri- can schools correspond to what are known as oral lessons in English schools. One of the advantages of the plan is that each school can adopt the time-table best suited to its needs. The one essential is that enough time be saved for free study to enable the pu- pils to work on contracts instead of daily les- THE PLAN 17 sons, and to work at their own rate of speed. Whether pupils have home work to do besides the time put in in subject laboratories will de- pend on the length of the school day and the proportion of the day given to free study and to classes. In Horace's all-day school, the chil- dren ought to get practically all their work done in school. In the English school that will be described later, pupils have practically as much to do at home as they did under the old plan. When the laboratory time is not long enough to do all the work required in the contract, some time should be spent in planning with the pupils. The first attack on new problems, reference work, map drawing, anything that is likely to prove difficult or that requires the use of appar- atus and equipment should be done in school, and literature, essays and drill work where the principles have been mastered should be saved for home study. ^, The laboratory plan has given its pupils a definite advantage in mental and social habits where it has been tried. Free study time has made it possible for children to adjust their work to their own rate of speed. This elim- inates idleness for the quick child and over- 18 THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN strain and jumping for the slow child. It per- mits continuity of interest and effort by minim- izing artificial interruptions. But above all, it permits children to learn by the scientific method, to investigate and discover for them- selves. Pupils differ in their likes and dislikes of subjects. The time needed for mastering a sub- ject is dependent upon the interest the pupil feels in it the greater the interest, the less the time required. Subject antipathies are usually identical with subject weaknesses. Readjust- ment of the time schedule permits individual pupils to devote more time to their particular obstacles with the result that antipathies are eliminated. It is well known that pupils often undervalue the time of their instructor. Their own time, however, is generally rated with some accuracy. That it can be utilized with maximum efficiency under the Dalton Plan is shown in the arrange- ment of the school day described above. The usual class-room organization, in spite of the number of children working together, has few of the characteristics of group work as carried on outside the school-room. Classes are THE PLAN 19 too large. Individual differences, ability and interest-span are too varied to enable the class to function as an entity. Small groups that come together voluntarily in the subject labor- atory can work creatively. Interest in the im- mediate problem has drawn individuals to- gether. Each is anxious to contribute and to listen. Since the study that preceded this dis- cussion was individual, each has an individual point of view and special information. Putting all this together, the result is a more thorough, finished, and child-like piece of work than is possible under a system of recitations. Miss Parkhurst feels that different subject la- boratories permit the children to enjoy a larger world. In any one laboratory the work paral- lels the life of a real community. The children deal with each other, they share experiences and communicate them to others. There is a com- mon interest in the study in each laboratory, a thing impossible in a room where several sub- jects are being taught. The atmosphere of the laboratory eliminates to a considerable degree, if not entirely, the " drive " which is often evi- dent in a class-room. Besides the intermingling within the grade referred to above, there is, of 20 THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN course, intercourse with other groups. Older children are able to help younger with work and assignments they have already been over. Younger pupils read the assignments and see children working in grades beyond their own. The spirit of mutual respect and responsibility that arises from friendly pupil-teacher rela- tions among children is recognized. While pu- pils do not do identical work, the relationship between advanced science and elementary science is closer than that between different subjects in the same grade. Experiments in geography do not differ in kind, only in degree. This similarity tends not to distraction, but to positive helpfulness. There is a legitimate dis- order in a carpentry shop, which would be dis- turbing to the atmosphere of an English labora- tory. If a child is working on a problem in English which involves carpentry, Miss Park- hurst believes it is better for him to decide to go into the carpentry shop. This is of real benefit in two ways. It definitely classifies his knowledge, and it brings to him a clearer under- standing of the interrelation of his subjects. Its effect upon his nervous organism is also noticeable. Freedom to move about produces a THE PLAN 21 certain relaxation which releases energy for other purposes. Each individual and each group learns that privileges may not be enjoyed without a corre- sponding responsibility. It is not what they do, so much as whether or not they feel each piece of work as their own responsibility. The relation of teacher and pupil is trans- formed. Instead of the "lock-step" rule, a nat- ural contact is established. A respect without fear, a joy in daily living, a willingness to do hard work all these and more have been ob- served in the schools where the plan has been tried. CHAPTER II THE LABORATOKY THE reorganization of a school on the Dalton Plan will change conditions for study. A flex- ible attitude towards these changes is necessary if the plan is to succeed. The teacher can no longer judge each pupil on the basis of the amount they learn in comparison with the other members of the class. Where pupils are study- ing individually, they must be judged individu- ally. The teacher must appraise the contract as a whole. She cannot divide it into daily portions each to be marked good or bad. Until it is complete, her function is not to grade, but to give expert assistance and advice, so that subject matter is mastered and general prog- ress is made according to the ability of the individual child. At the same time, there must be some daily check on the amount of work a pupil is doing. This is as essential for him as 22 THE LABORATORY 23 for his teacher. Each child is working on at least five assignments at a time. He must be able to know how far he has progressed with each. To give him the moral advantages that come from individual study, some device must be used by which he can check his own progress. Miss Parkhurst has developed a system of record keeping for teachers and pupils that has worked efficiently in several American schools. A bulletin board hangs on the wall of each laboratory. On this the teacher posts the month's contract in outline for each grade and the weekly contract, in such form that the av- erage pupil can take it and go ahead with his work. Each pupil has a contract card. There are different colors for different grades, so that an individual is easily placed in the laboratory. The card is divided into vertical columns, one for each subject the pupil is studying. It is ruled in four rows, each indicating an amount corresponding to a week's work on the contract, i.e^ a square on the card then represents one week's work in a subject. These squares are subdivided into five rows, each row represent- ing one day's work in the subject. Our fifth- grade pupil starts a new month of work by go- 24 THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN ing to his geography room. He copies the out- line of the month's assignment on the back of his card. He studies the week's assignment until he understands it, and determines what his first step should be. He may become absorbed in his work and remain in the geography labor- atory for several hours. He has, of course, done more than one-fifth of the week's assign- ment in geography before he leaves. When he is ready to leave, he goes over what he has done and decides that he has finished say, three-fifths of the assignment. In the geography column on his card, he will draw a vertical line which covers the first three subdivisions of the square for the first week. In the next subject labora- tory he goes to, he will follow the same proce- dure, crossing off the proportion of the week's work that he accomplishes in each subject. In order to keep track of which records are made each day, the number 1, 2 or 3, etc., correspond- ing to the day of the week is written on each day's line. When the expression "time for a contract" is used, it should be noted that this does not mean so many minutes allowed for each day's work. It means the amount of work done at THE LABORATORY 25 any one time on the week's assignment on the basis of a rough division of that assignment into five parts. A pupil is not allowed to start a new contract in any one subject until he has finished all the subjects of the contract of the month before. This means that he must plan his distribution of time. A heedless child who follows his im- pulses may easily find the first month or two of a free program difficult. He will go to the lab- oratory of the subject which interests him most or which he finds easiest. Those portions of his contracts finished, he finds his difficult subjects still before him. Time will go slowly. He will be doubly conscious of his difficulties and he may spend more time than he ought in the shops or in reading in the library. The end of the month arrives and the rest of his class are start- ing interesting new assignments. He can not go on, because his difficult subject is not fin- ished. "With a real effort he gets down to work and finally completes the contract to the teacher's satisfaction. The next month he re- members his experience and plans his time bet- ter. He will start his history early in the month, do a little of it each day, and save some 26 THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN of the easy or more interesting work to give him mental rest and stimulation all through the month. Gradually, he will work out an arrange- ment of his time that is coordinated with his mental habits. Barely a pupil will be found whose habits and sense of responsibility are so poor that he will fail completely in organizing his time to complete his contracts. For such a pupil, it is a simple matter to make a program that re- quires him to report in certain laboratories at certain periods. Seeing his fellow-pupils work- ing independently, the normal child will be stimulated to prove to his teachers that such special supervision is unnecessary, and after a few months, during which his program is adapted to his progress, he will be able to work as the others do. But this device should not be used, unless it seems necessary. The lessons learned in having to plan his own time are as necessary to a child's education as the multiplication table or a legible hand- writing. Ability to fit a definite job into a definite time, to plan a coming day, and to im- prove in the ability to organize one's work are large factors in adult success. Like all habits, THE LABORATORY 27 they can not be established without practice. Miss Parkhnrst believes that a child of nine or ten has enough experience to be ready to take the responsibility for his own school life to this extent. Modern education lays emphasis on the necessity for training that develops initiative, organizing ability, resourcefulness and critical judgment. The average class-room methods furnish comparatively few opportunities for the exercise of these qualities. In the old-fashioned class, they had almost no scope. Every school that preserves the single text-book, the daily lesson and recitations to measure information must rely on more or less artificial devices to develop them. Where pupils are free to organ- ize their own time, these qualities can func- tion as they do in real life. No matter how rigid the standards or how routine the task in life outside of school, responsibility for both accomplishment and method is on the indi- vidual. In a Dalton school, each pupil works and plays as a self-directed, self -disciplined in- dividual, as he must do outside of school. The record cards are necessary to enable the inex- perienced person to keep track of his work. They give him a picture of his work in such a 28 THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN concrete form that he can check, plan and eval- uate from day to day and from month to month. The contract card reproduced here shows the way one pupil planned his assignments for a month. A record-keeping device is also necessary for the teacher in charge of each laboratory. The teacher should guard against all temptation to require pupils to write out and hand in every step in their contract. Too much writing means that the child is not putting enough time on his studying. It becomes a burden to the pupil and defeats the chief advantage of the plan in tak- ing away his self-reliance. The teacher should also recognize that written work is not a test of daily progress in lessons. It is rather an invi- tation to the pupil to sit down with his text-book and a piece of paper and transcribe notes to hand in later as he reads. It can become the emptiest of cramming processes. Miss Park- hurst's suggestion is a laboratory form graph from which the teacher can tell at any moment just how much of a contract each pupil has filled. A chart for each grade that is using the laboratory is hung on the wall. There are ver- tical columns for each week's assignment with THE LABORATORY 29 "** I"N 43 LOREN'S A * e 30 THE DALTON LABORATORY PLAN sub-divisions for each day. The children in a grade are listed in the left margin. Each pupil makes a horizontal line showing the amount he has accomplished, whenever he leaves the room. If the pupil is not sure what portion of the week's work he has done during his stay in the laboratory, he can consult the teacher. It is usually not necessary to indicate on the week's posted assignment the amount that constitutes a day's work. Teachers and pupils divide a piece of work in the same way, and the child's instinct is to finish one of these divisions rather than to keep his mind on the amount to be done each day. It is a simple matter to indicate the amount of time that would normally be neces- sary for each portion for the first few weeks under the plan. From this graph any teacher can see at a glance just how much each pupil has done on a contract in any particular subject. She can tell which children have reached about the same point in their work. She can call this group together for help and discussion and suggest that they finish the contract, or do a certain portion of it working together. The possibil- ity of grouping children from a glance at the THE LABORATORY 31 LA BO B ATO B Y; /G PA P> H . GEOGPAPHVTTHIPD CONTPACT WEEK / 34. DAY / 2. 3 <4 5 > 7~ 8 9 '0~~//' /2 /3 /4- /5~ /6 17 /8 /& 2O ^ 1 5 AV