Service Learning is an important component of life at the First Program. Beginning in kindergarten, students are made aware of the value and importance of being of service to others, both within the First Program community and in the world at large. This concept is modeled and reinforced at school through discussions, appropriate literature, and by taking up specific, do-able actions.

Service learning is the unifying framework for developing ways of contributing to the betterment of one’s community. The emphasis on service to the community at the First Program involves getting students connected to projects that are meaningful and which are often integrated into the existing curriculum. Examples include:

on-going exchanges between kindergarten classes and daycare facilities in homeless shelters;

Central Park clean-up days done by first graders;

the teaching of technology skills to elder citizens so that they may become computer literate, undertaken by second grade students;

the responsibility of becoming buddies to the kindergarten students, as practiced by third grade students;

the initiation by students of a Human Rights Club to acknowledge and support human rights both locally and globally.

In addition, school-wide events such as the yearly UNICEF Halloween Trick or Treat Collection, the Penny Harvest, the God’s Love We Deliver Project, and Dalton’s ongoing relationship with the Homes for The Homeless organization all reinforce for the children the reciprocal nature of these collaborations; by giving to others, one receives as well.

To help foster a sense of "community" within Dalton, opportunities are provided for First Program children to visit the 89th Street facility, and each First Program House is paired with a "Buddy House" from the Middle or High School. The two classes get together for holiday celebrations, community service activities, and other events. All third grade Houses are paired with a fourth grade House to facilitate the transition to "Big Dalton" the following year.