Helen Parkhurst was an American educator, author, lecturer, the originator of the Dalton Plan, founder of the Dalton School and host of Child's World with Helen Parkhurst on ABC Television Network. Parkhurst took her cues from developmental psychologist Jean Piaget and education reformers such as John Dewey and Horace Mann, producing a progressive education philosophy emphasizing the development of the "whole child".

The Dalton School, originally the Children's University School, is a private, coeducational college preparatory school in New York City and a member of both the Ivy Preparatory School League and the New York Interschool. The school is located in four buildings within the Upper East Side of Manhattan. In the 2023–24 academic year, tuition rates totaled $61,120.