The Dalton School
The Dalton School
| Dalton School | |
 |
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| Type | Private |
| Established | 1919 |
| Head of School | Ellen Stein |
| Enrollment | approx. 1,300 |
| Campus | Urban |
| Location | 108 East 89th Street New York, NY 10128 |
| Website | www.dalton.org |
The Dalton School, originally called the Children’s University School, is a private college-preparatory school in New York City and a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. It is located at 108 East 89th Street in Manhattan. Ellen Stein, an alumna of the class of ‘65, is the current Head of School.
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The Dalton Plan
Inspired by the intellectual ferment at the turn of the century, educational thinkers, such as John Dewey, began to envision a new, progressive, American approach to education. Helen Parkhurst caught the spirit of change and created the Dalton Plan. Aiming to achieve a balance between each child’s talents and the needs of the growing American community, Helen Parkhurst created an educational model that captured the progressive spirit of the age. Specifically, she had these objectives: to tailor each student’s program to his or her needs, interests, and abilities; to promote both independence and dependability; and to enhance the student’s social skills and sense of responsibility toward others. Parkhurst developed a three-part plan that continues to be the structural foundation of a Dalton education: House, Assignment, and Lab.
Today, Dalton continues to use a heavily modified Dalton Plan that contains some of the basic ideas of the original Plan but has been heavily changed to satisfy a modern and very different school. The general philosophy, but not any of the specifics of the Plan are still used. As a result, while some areas of the Dalton education continue to fulfill the progressive education ideals of Parkhurst, others merely pay lip service to them. For example, while students are able to meet with their teachers in a one-on-one environment (the Lab), not every course follows the ideals set forth by the Assignment.
History
The Dalton School, originally called the Children’s University School, was founded by Helen Parkhurst in 1919. It was a time marked by educational reform. Philosophers, teachers, and child psychologists identified as “progressives” began to question the conventional wisdom of the day which held that education was a process of drill and memorization and that the only way to teach was to regiment children in classrooms. Their natural instincts to play, to move, to talk, and to inquire freely were suppressed.
Progressive educators believed that the development of the whole child is of primary importance; that children are social beings and that schools should be communities where they can learn to live with others; that these communities should devote themselves to the total enrichment of mind, body, and spirit.
After experimentation in her own one-room school with Maria Montessori, Helen Parkhurst visited other progressive schools in Europe including Bedales School and its founder and headmaster John Haden Badley in England. She developed what she termed, the Dalton Plan which called for teachers and students to work together toward individualized goals. The Laboratory Plan was first put into effect as an experiment in the High School of Dalton, Massachusetts, in 1916. The estate of her benefactor Mrs. W. Murray Crane was also near Dalton and from this beginning, the Laboratory Plan and school eventually took their names.
In 1919, Helen Parkhurst relocated to New York City, where she opened her first school on West 74th Street. Larger facilities soon became necessary; the Lower School was moved to West 72nd Street, and the High School opened in the autumn of 1929 in the current building at 108 East 89th Street. Eleanor Roosevelt admired the work of Helen Parkhurst and played an important role in expanding the population and resources of the school by promoting a merger between the Todhunter School for girls (founded by Winifred Todhunter) and Dalton in 1939.
Enlarged and modified through the years, Dalton still celebrates many of the school-wide traditions begun by Helen Parkhurst, including the Candle Lighting Ceremony, Greek Festival, and Arch Day.
Over the years, Dalton has gained international recognition for its academic excellence. Schools in The Netherlands, Australia, England, Korea, The Czech Republic, Taiwan, and Chile have adopted the Dalton Plan. Today, there are three schools founded on the Dalton Plan in Japan. Leading educators from public and private schools and universities, from the United States and abroad, occasionally visit Dalton to observe its system of education and to learn more about the school’s recognized achievements in the area of technology.
Admission
Admission to the Dalton School for Kindergarten to third grade is based on school records, ERB testing, and interview. For grades 4–12 admission is based on school records, writing samples, an interview, and standardized testing (Dalton accepts the ISEE test as well as the SSAT test). Candidates receive notification of acceptance, regret, or wait list in February.
Dalton School buildings
The school offers education from kindergarten through the 12th grade. The building at 108 East 89th Street, nicknamed “Big Dalton”, contains grades 4-12, as well as a theater, music and art studios, and administrative space. A separate building, nicknamed “Little Dalton”, on 91st Street between Park Avenue and Madison Avenue, has classroom space for the kindergarten and first three grades. Another building, at 87th Street and Third Avenue, contains two gyms and other areas for physical education, including a weight training room, an aerobics room, and two locker rooms
Dalton is plagued by the inadequacy of its main physical plant. Its 89th street building suffers from severe overcrowding. Recently, the library has been forced to institute a ‘ticket system’ to cap the number of students allowed in to study during their lunch breaks. In addition, the school has had chronic ‘elevator problems’ for years. Several hundred students between fourth and twelfth grades must navigate a twelve story building with only two elevators.
Interscholastic competition
The Dalton School is a part of the Ivy Preparatory School League in athletics. Some teams, such as varsity football, participate in different athletic conferences. The football team went 7-1 during the Fall 2005 campaign, winning their league. Dalton offers 22 varsity teams and nine junior varsity teams in the high school athletics program. The school colors are white and blue, and the team name is the Tigers.
In addition to athletics, the Dalton School is home to a Model United Nations (MUN) team. The team attends college conferences every year, including those at Harvard, Princeton and Johns Hopkins. Most recently, at the Johns Hopkins conference, the team won 11 Best Delegate awards over the 13 committees it had delegates in, and 6 Honorable Mentions
During the years that Josh Waitzkin, was a student at Dalton, he led the school to win 6 National Team Chess Championships.
Notable alumni of the Dalton School
- Chevy Chase
- Anderson Cooper
- Claire Danes
- Samuel R. Delany
- Jane Elliot
- Edgar de Evia
- Mark Feuerstein
- Helen Frankenthaler
- Alexis Glick
- Jennifer Grey
- Steve Lemme
- Sean Lennon
- Mary Stuart Masterson
- Tracy Pollan
- Tracee Ellis Ross
- Christian Slater
- Josh Waitzkin
Notable Parents of Daltonians
- Michael J. Fox
- Al Franken
- Dustin Hoffman
- Diana Ross
- Frank Stella
- John Stossel
- Barbara Walters
- John Lennon and Yoko Ono
- Gloria Vanderbilt
- Wesley Snipes
- Mia Farrow
- Ralph Lauren
- Richard Meier
- Richard Ravitch
- Robert Redford
- Tom Brokaw
- Floyd Abrams
- Neil Sedaka
Depictions in Pop Culture
- In Manhattan, the character played by Woody Allen is dating a 17-year old (Mariel Hemingway) who attends Dalton.
- In Coming Soon, the main character attends a school called “Halton” that is obviously based on Dalton.
- Short-lived MTV reality show Rich Girls originally depicted Dalton’s facade in its opening credits.
- In the television show Will & Grace, in an episode in which the two titular characters attempt to conceive a child, Will tells Grace that their child is “already on the waiting list for Dalton”
- Both D.E.B.S. and the film version of American Psycho contain the line “Did you go to Dalton?”
- In the movie Baby Boom, Diane Keaton overhears a few young mothers worrying about whether or not their children will be admitted to Dalton.
- In the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer, The main character attended Dalton in real life, and in the movie.
External links
- The Dalton School Homepage
- The Dalton Schools of Japan
- Prep School USA. “2003 High School Rankings,” citing the Sept. 2002 Worth Magazine article entitled “Getting Inside the Ivy Gates,” by Reshma Memon Yaqub. http://www.auap.com/prepschoolclass.html
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