Principles of Dalton Plan

There are two principles of Dalton Plan.
1. The principle of freedom: It fosters independence and creativity, beginning with the individual's interests.
2. Different students all have different ways of thinking and performing tasks. Providing ample time for learning and keeping to the pace of how the individual student proceeds nurtures students’ motivation and approach to learning, as well as their ability to persevere.
3. The principle of cooperation: It enables children to master social skills and collaboration through exchanges with a variety of people.
4. Different students all have different ways of thinking and performing tasks. Providing ample time for learning and keeping to the pace of how the individual student proceeds nurtures students’ motivation and approach to learning, as well as their ability to persevere.
Freedom and co-operation reveal themselves through experience. Accordingly, the Dalton Plan is structured to provide the student with real experience in daily classroom life. Parkhurst's objective— what she believed to be the ultimate aim of education— is to produce through individual and social experience, "fearless human beings," like those rare men and women who are able to engage the world with the full range of ability, attention, and energy with which they are endowed. She hoped to enable students to gain self-confidence through practice and to free them from dependence on adult "spoon feeding." Students under the Dalton Plan would develop into individuals "who can look ahead and plan who know how."