Speech Roel Röhner at the Dalton conference
Brno, May 2th 2001

March 30th 2001 was an historical day. The Dutch will remember that day because the engagement of our Crown Prince with Maxima Zorriguieta was officially announced.
An international alliance.
Is it only a coincidence that the same day Hans Wenke, Vladimir Moskvan and I signed the official deed of the foundation Dalton International ?
For us it was more a fortification that looking across boarders can influence the future.
Dalton International will look across boarders.
International contacts are necessary to reflect on your own situation. In a modern society cooperation with other countries is so normal that sometimes we forget that we don't speak the same language. And I apologize that again I forgot to learn Czech last winter.
Countries export goods, but in education we exchange good expertise.
And that is exactly one of the most important targets of Dalton International.
Dalton International started already some years ago.
The Dalton schools in Brno and Utrecht were curious about the Dalton development in other continents. And we were surprised that the interest was mutually.
The first contact was with "the mother of all Dalton schools" in New York. Judith Sheridan in 1999 and Richard Blumenthal in 2000 participated in the Dalton conferences in this city.
We made contact with the Ascham Dalton school in Sydney. After an intensive internet contact, Rowena Danziger visited my school in Utrecht and last month the Dalton schools in Brno.
A delegation from Brno visited the Dalton schools in Japan, and today we can welcome the directors of the Dalton schools in Tokyo, Nagoya and Kobe.
We are very happy to see these collegues active in this conference.
Let me tell you something about the targets of Dalton International.
Dalton International wants to stimulate the innovation of the Dalton education by international exchange of expertise. The international Dalton conference gives that possibility.
But the conference is not the only  platform, because training of schoolstaffs, offering Dalton courses on international level, publishing of articles, the exchange of teachers and students, organizing workshops and seminars are also possibilities to improve Dalton education on an international level.
After a training period Dalton International can give teachers an official Dalton certificat and we can nominate schools that have followed a Dalton training process for the predicate of "International Dalton School".
We can make use of each others developments.
A modern teacher creates a learning setting in which children are challenged to take initiatives. The time of only one teaching method is over.
The necessity to work on differentiation is not only connected to children who are lagging behind or leading the group. In Dalton education differentiation also comes from the simple attitude : respect the child.
Modern education is more and more development-oriented education.
This approximation is just the point to give children the space to take initiatives.
Modern education is also connected to learn how to handle computers.
Computer education give children an extra dimension in the process of independent and experimental learning.
The Dalton school in New York developed "the Dalton technology plan".
Our current innovations in accordance with the Dalton philosophy and the challenges of today's world are reflected in our use of new technologies.
Dalton has brought to education the dynamic transformations taking place in the world of digital technologies and communication.
In addition to the best elements of a traditional education, students are provided with an array of powerful tools allowing them to pursue the work of their assignments with their energies channeled toward problem solving and higher level thinking skills.
The students of the pedagogical institute in Utrecht worked last year several months in Brno on an internet project. A website for the cooperation between Utrecht and Brno was made and they prepared the infra-structure for internet contacts between schools.
International contacts on the level of Universities, vocational and secondary education belong in the meantime to the normal potentialities. But for primary education the world is still an open field.
Dalton Iinternational wants to stimulate international contacts on that level.
Internet connections are the ultimate chance to exchange Dalton assignments.
Dalton International wants to create an Internet Magazine.
In that magazine one can find articles, school development, assignments for several subjects, but we try to offer for the International Dalton Schools also the entrances in the programmes of other Dalton schools.
What a thrill to open the possibility for children in Brno, Utrecht, Japan, Sydney to work with the software developed in New York
The mother of all Dalton schools defines her way to use computer education :
Encouraging students to pursue new knowledge according to their individual interests, the Dalton Technology Plan is implementing the Dalton Plan in ways Helen Parkhurst could not have imagined, but in which she would have taken great pleasure. It is a powerful new means of fulfilling Daltons historic mission and purpose.
Dalton International composes innovation of the Dalton education.
Dalton specialists and representatives of Dalton schools all over the world are in the board of Dalton International and work together on the future of Dalton.
And when we honour schools or persons as Member of Dalton International with the  official tablet it is the result of their merit and activities for the international Dalton development.
We honoured in the meantime several Dalton schools and persons.
You can find them on the website of Dalton International.
Today we want to continue this good habit.

Roel Röhner
Brno / 02-05-2001