Moraine Park School: A Progressive Education


oraine Park School, a Dayton experiment in progressive education, admitted its first group of students in June of 1917. As the United States had just entered World War I, the school's founders did not think that it was feasible to build a new school building. Charles F. Kettering, a member of the school's Board of Directors, donated a greenhouse located at the corner of Southern Boulevard and Stroop Road, which was then converted to its new use. Although the first group of students was limited exclusively to boys, the school eventually grew to include both boys and girls who ranged in age from kindergarten to twelfth grade. The school campus expanded with enrollment, and would eventually include a Junior School on Robert Boulevard in downtown Dayton in addition to the multiple buildings at the Moraine location.

As an experiment in progressive education, Moraine Park School did not adhere to the traditional classroom format of reading, recitation and testing. Instead, the concept that education is only partly secured through books and that the printed page is merely a tool to assist in education was one of the founding principles of the school. That school is a community where pupils learn to live as good citizens by meeting the situations that arise in actual community life and that if education is to serve it must teach the “mastery of the arts of life” were the other founding principles of the Moraine Park School. Pupils of the school engaged in business enterprises, self-government, community planning and projects. They were encouraged to learn by doing, to depend on themselves and to work rapidly and thoroughly.

According to an issue of the American Educational Digest from February 1924, Moraine Park School students “average above grade in almost every subject, according to the results shown by intelligence and achievement tests.” Parents provided the school with monthly evaluations of their children in a variety of areas, including “improvement over last month.” The “Report of Progress” that Moraine Park School issued on the work of each student was based on ten fundamental occupations, or “Arts of Life,” in which could be found the regular school subjects of mathematics, history, science and languages. The occupations were: body building; spirit building; society serving; man conserving; opinion forming; truth discovering; thought expressing; wealth producing; comrade, or mate seeking; and life refreshing.

Moraine Park School students participated in projects designed to give a practical knowledge of the “kinds of work that will be required of them in the community life in which they will take part after their school days are over.” The Bank made collections, accepted savings deposits and checking accounts and did a regular banking business. The individual chemical laboratories were available for students to manufacture various chemicals for sale, as well as testing the school's soil and water and manufacturing the compounds used in the school's photo shop. The Moraine School Store carried school supplies, athletic equipment and candies. It was organized for profit as well as teaching business practice. The print shop printed for school projects and the monthly newspapers, while the photo shop was created so a pictorial record of the school could be maintained. Some students were selected to serve as private secretaries for each member of the school's faculty, to perform the duties of the school librarian and assistant librarians as well as maintaining the school's museum. According to the 1917-1918 Moraine Park School annual report, “a student may choose his project without any interference...the purpose of the school is to tie the school work up to the project the [student] chooses.”

Classroom instruction was designed to include practical applications of everyday problems. According to the annual report, “It may be stated here that three-fourths of the time classes are governed by chairmen appointed from the class by the class. The teacher is present to make any necessary decisions and therefore plays the part of referee.” Moraine Park School students progressed through their education as slowly or as rapidly as their abilities and energies determined. The students “receive credits, not on the basis of so many hours a week or on mere memory examinations and formal recitations, but rather on what they have mastered as shown by inquiry, ability-testing examinations and observation.” Dayton's experiment with progressive education was viewed as a success by those who attended the school, with many graduates going on to attend college at schools like Dennison, Oberlin and Ohio State University.

The founders of Moraine Park School did not intend for the school to be the exclusive haven of Dayton's wealthy elite. Tuition was charged on a sliding scale, adjusted to the amount of the family's income, in order to encourage a diverse student body. While the school was not a profit-making venture, and in fact frequently operated at a deficit, it did have the financial backing of a number of prominent Daytonians. Unfortunately, when one of the major financial supporters of the school withdrew his funding in 1926, Moraine Park School was unable to find a replacement benefactor. The 1926-27 school year was the last one for the Moraine Park School, as the school closed its doors at the end of that year.



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