Character, Community, Coeducation, and Inclusion

Character, Community, Coeducation, and Inclusion

While the educational philosophy of Dalton’s founder, Helen Parkhurst, was predicated on the individual child, she also gave great emphasis to interdependence. She believed that school must teach youngsters to become “a community of individuals.” Parkhurst wanted students to develop not only the ability but also the desire to cooperate in the classroom, the community, and the larger world.

She believed that along with developing academically strong students, an essential goal of education was to cultivate broad minded, socially responsible citizens who would learn from an early age how to give of themselves for the greater good. Today in the twenty-first century, Dalton remains committed to Helen Parkhurst’s original goal of producing academically strong graduates who are also informed, compassionate, and courageous citizens prepared for ethical leadership in local and global arenas.

Dalton builds community through service learning and volunteerism. Learning to give of oneself begins in kindergarten and continues throughout all three divisions. Service and outreach projects that are integrated into the curriculum, provide students with authentic service learning opportunities. Additionally, through a critical service learning lens, students seek not only to alleviate social ills, but also to understand how they and their peers might interrogate and combat the societal inequities that contribute to these problems. Age-appropriate activities, reading materials, class trips, and guest speakers on varied topics of civic responsibility and social justice are integral to a child’s education at Dalton. The task of developing kind individuals and responsible citizens requires empathy, deliberative reasoning, and the moral imagination of all members of our community.

This commitment to community life both within the school and beyond its walls, is central to Dalton’s progressive ethos. Discussions focusing on commonalities, as well as respect for differences, evolve naturally from a curriculum that educates children to be self-aware, responsive to the needs of others, and to appreciate diverse perspectives.

Dalton believes passionately in a coeducational student body. In past decades, a body of research has pointed to some gender differences in learning styles and approaches to schooling between boys and girls. However, the most recently scientifically controlled research confirms the theory that boys and girls learn in similar ways and whatever differences do exist between the sexes are extremely small compared to the differences among individuals, be they girls or boys. Some of this research does provide valuable insights to help better educate all children and such findings are incorporated into Dalton’s educational programs to create a highly sensitized coeducational setting.

In recent decades, administrators, faculty, and families have worked together to cultivate a critical mass of students of color. Less than twenty-five years ago Dalton’s kindergarten grade tended to be comprised of less than ten percent children of color. Over the past years that number has risen dramatically and for the past few years the percentage has been well over fifty percent. Additionally, Dalton’s broader goal is to enrich our community not only in terms of race and ethnicity but also with respect to religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, ability, neighborhood, and parent occupation. Of course, diversity alone is insufficient; Dalton’s aim is to create a learning environment in which all members feel included and able to participate on equitable footing. Efforts in this area are fortified by ongoing professional development for faculty and staff aimed at sustained personal and professional growth around equity and inclusion. Through outside consultancy, conferences, sustained internal meetings, and other offerings, adults in the community engage in sophisticated and challenging diversity and equity-related topics, with the goal of nurturing Dalton students, supporting its families, and enhancing the Dalton community.