A Modified Dalton Plan in a Special School
- Author:
Mary N. Lindsay.
A desire on the part of the staff that the beneficial freedom enjoyed by the younger children in the Montessori class should be extended to the older children, led to the reorganisation of Baldovan Institution School on a modified Dalton plan during the morning session. . r t , t
There were four class-rooms, with a teacher in c large o eaci, wo or number and two for reading. . , . ^ ,.
The children, who were divided into two groups in each subject, according to their reading and number age, were told which rooms t emig l go o, an allowed to choose their own period for work in each. The rule was aid own that work in both subjects must be done each morning. In exceptional cases a pupil might be allowed to continue beyond one period at the same work. The morning,^ it should be said, consisted of two three-quarter hour periods, with a break of fifteen minutes, and a final half-hour period for games singing, and drill. On Fridays classes met in the ordinary way to allow for review and any necessary group lessons… , ,
No assignments were given to the jun.or groups, _ who worked with graded individual apparatus in each subject. For the senior group a weeks assignment was given in number to ensure that, besides the mechanical sums, so dear to the defective’s heart, work would be done in problems measuring, and money. In the senior reading group, the prescribed reading book, with accompanying question cards, served as a kind of assignment. ess emp asis was laid, however, on the prescribed work, as the desiie was to encourage a 1 ‘irV and appreciation of the value of reading. Easy and attractive story, history^ and geographv books were provided, with pictures to paint according^ to prin e directions’, and the children were encouraged io bring their own material?football results, cigarette cards, crochet instructions, etc. _
The benefits of the plan cannot be spoken of dogmatically, as the writer le the school after it had been in practice for less than six months, but certain convictions are left. , , , , <
From the point of view of the teacher, though she had more children to deal with during the morning, she benefited in being able to concentrate on the psychologv and teaching of one subject. Discipline, also, was an easier matter where individual children need not be forced to conform to the lesson of the moment. . , . ….
On the children’s side, one saw a new spirit resulting from this shifting of responsibility to their shoulders. The amount of work done was greater than before, and this continued, even after the novelty of the plan had worn off. They were quite decided in their choice each morning, and numbers in each classroom were remarkably well balanced. .
The absence of strain or rebellion in the morning, helped the corporate spirit when the children met in definite classes in the afternoon to co-operate in handwork, gardening, domestic work, and games. .
The Dalton plan, modified to suit local conditions is undoubtedly very suitable for the teaching of the Three Rs in a Special School, where possibility and rates of progress vary so considerably in each class, and this is specially true for children of an I.Q. over 60 and a mental age of 7 upwards. Apart altogether from its value in the learning process, one> noted its definite moral effect in the awakening of interest in work and in the aiousing of self-respect m the children as freer agents.
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