The Very Beginnings - the 1970's

HIS was born in the early seventies as a part of an education renaissance, the more extreme manifestations of which saw the education system as a tool of oppression by capitalist society, a way of entrenching class divisions and ensuring a pool of minimally educated working class drones to feed the machinery of capitalism.  Thinkers such as Ivan Illych, Paolo Friere, John Holt, and AS Neill proposed alternatives which were aimed at unlocking the human potential within each child, developing analytic skills and creativity, thus breaking down class divisions and contributing to a more just, equal society. So the “free school“ movement was born with its “open classrooms”, and  child-centred philosophies.   

Dalhousie University's  Department of Education operated out of a large house on Oxford St., and trained elementary and secondary teachers. It was not insulated from this intellectual ferment: somewhere  during this time, Dalhousie hired Dr. Edgar Friedenberg, author of the Vanishing Adolescent and Coming of Age in America, and appointed Dr. Doris Dyke as  Dean of Education. Dr. Dyke later became the first woman professor at a United Church theological college where she taught educational ministry and feminist theology, but during her time at Dalhousie, she had the foresight to establish a small school, and give the responsibility for it to Anthony Barton, a newly hired professor. The year was 1974, and the  "Dalhousie University Experimental School" gave new meaning to the term "lab school" as it was housed in a 1960's Skinner Psychology Laboratory, complete with a one-way mirror so that children could be observed. Its purpose was to teach Bachelor of Education students to work with children, most of whom were the children of Dalhousie faculty.

The curriculum, which was developed by Barton, and his brother Charles Barton, an educator from Singapore was called "To the West" and was inspired by the writings of Marshall McLuhan. Anthony Barton, author of "Didactic Tales" and "On the Methods of Famous Teachers" was also influenced by the Dalton Plan, an educational philosophy with its roots in the turn of the last century thinking about education. The Dalton Plan was created by Helen Parkhurst, and aimed to achieve a balance between the needs of the community and the talents and needs of the individual student. She developed this progressive philosophy during her early years sharing a classroom with Maria Montessori and later on at the Children's University School which she founded in Dalton Mass. This philosophy lives on today in the Dalton School of New York, and a scattering of schools around the world, particularly in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. The Plan has 3 parts as its foundation: The House, the Assignment and Lab. Each child is part of a House according to their age, and enters into a contract to complete an assignment. The lab refers to the interaction between the child and the various specialists who guide them in their examination of each theme or assignment.

The tiny D.U.E.S did not directly adopt this system, but its curriculum did involve "lots of physical activity and discussion". To teach themselves about evolution, for example, the children created a tunnel into which one entered into "the chamber of primordial ooze at the beginning and crawled along the tunnel (your parents in tow, if they were brave enough) and passed through the Age of Sharks, the Dinosaur Era and emerged in the end into the Present Day." (Barton) Initially there was one teacher, who was followed by two graduates of the B.Ed programme, Anne Everts and Gail Waddington, who shared one position. They were later joined by Gail's husband Marcus.  By 1976 there were about 25 students, divided into 3 groups called Young Ones, Middle Ones and Old Ones, and there were annual plays, often satirical in nature written by Barton and featuring the personalities of the children. One  character  popped up constantly throughout a Play and uttered its one line, "Batteries not included" - obviously based on a very active (perhaps ADHD) child.  Another of Barton's ideas was the "Fairs", where students presented their work to parents and others each Friday afternoon. During these afternoons, the students  taught the audience (parents and B.Ed students)  and  that became like an examination. After 6 weeks there was a "Super Fair" which went all day. The teachers displayed everything people had made so it was a lot of work for them. The children learned good presentation skills, and gained confidence -- but I'm pretty sure the teachers were exhausted! Finding an audience for these weekly events must have been difficult too, although with a steady stream of B.Ed students who were required to be there that may not have been an issue.

Marcus Waddington described Barton as a genius with "incredible vision", who had very high standards and expected a lot of the children. Among his other talents, he was an amateur architect, and built a room within the laboratory for the Old Ones which resembled a monastic cell. He would not approve of our present system of having the children write their own plays, as he felt they did not have the skills to do it properly, and would learn from good writing (his own). One of the plays was based on Gerald Durrell's "Talking Parcel" which had been read to the children.  Waddington remembers a couple of activities in particular: creating a "Paper City" where the children would send constant memos to each other, thus simulating a bureaucracy gone wild. Another time, they had "Machines Week" when all kinds of machines, including audio-visual and other media were brought in and explored. This was very exciting for the children, who generally learned without the benefit of audio-visual aids, and the changes observed in their behaviours were thought to prove some of McLuhan's basic principles.  Waddington left the school after only a couple of years to join the public system where he was paid almost double the salary, and regrets that the demands of raising a family made it necessary. He says that he had some wonderful relationships with his students and their families at the Experimental school, and learned much from Anthony Barton. So much in fact that when he was later granted a sabbatical from the school board where he was teaching, he went back to Dalhousie to work on his M.Ed with Barton.

Barton arranged regular meetings with the parents to discuss the issues of the time, and states that parents were very involved in the activities of  the school. As he says, "Some found the curriculum innovative and interesting, while others wanted more direct instruction for their children in the three R's." When he moved on to other responsibilities at the end of the decade, it seems the parents and the School Committee were ready for a change, and tasked Winnie Kwak, the newly hired teacher, with developing a curriculum which would allow the children to learn more about their own environment. Thus the Nova Scotia theme was developed. 

"What does a pupil do when given, as he* is given by the Dalton Laboratory Plan, responsibility for the performance for such and such work? Instinctively he seeks the best way of achieving it. Then having decided, he proceeds to act upon that decision… Discussion helps to clarify his ideas and also his plan of procedure. When he comes to the end, the finished achievement takes on all the splendor of success. It embodies all he had thought and felt and lived during the time it has taken to complete. This is real experience. It is culture achieved through individual development and through collective co-operation. It is no longer school---it is life." ~ Helen Parkhurst in Education on the Dalton Plan, 1922

"What does a pupil do when given, as he* is given by the Dalton Laboratory Plan,