Helen Parkhurst was born in 1886 in Wisconsin, United
States . From 1905 -1913 she worked as a teacher in several primary
schools. Her first job was to educate 40 different children in an one teacher
school. In such a situation it isn't necessary to be a great educationalist
to see the need for individual education.
From 1913 - 1915 she worked with Maria Montessori
and from 1915 until 1918 she was Montessori's representative in
America. They had a lot in common. Both were inspired by the daily problems
they experienced in the practice of education and the wish to improve the
quality of education offered to the children.
In 1919 she worked out her own ideas in the Highschool
for Boys and Girls in the small town of Dalton. In her work one can recognize
the influence of the ideas of others, such as Montessori and Dewey.
She stayed on at this school as headteacher until 1942.
Meanwhile, she wrote about her work in several magazines. One of her first articles was published on 27th May 1926 in the Times Educational Supplement: 'The Laboratory Plan'. Because of this and her contacts with other pedagogics in Europe several Dalton schools were founded in England. A Dutch commision with important pedagogics such as Kohnstamm and Bigot serving as members on it, visited these Dalton schools in England. This commission spread the Dalton ideas in Holland and in 1928 the first Dutch Girl's school, based on the principles of Helen Parkhurst, was founded.
But not only Europe was interested. Helen Parkhurst visited Japan six times, where she gave many lectures. She received a decoration from the Japanese empire for her contribution to good education in Japan.
In her later years Helen Parkhust worked in several academies for teachers as the organiser responsible for education programmes design. But she also went on working with children and made several programmes for radio. From these programmes several gramophone records were produced. She also made some interviews with children.
