9/24/2009

A Harkness Table now graces the classroom of Academic Dean and upper school history teacher Howard Hunter. The purchase of the table was made possible by several generous donors.

The solid ash oval table with matching chairs measures seven feet wide by fourteen feet long, and seats sixteen to seventeen. The teacher and the students sit together around it, each person able to see every other person’s face, so that everyone is included, and no one can avoid participation.

The table was first developed at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the 1930s, as part of an educational reform initiative funded by Edward S. Harkness, one of Exeter’s major benefactors and educational innovators.

But the Harkness Table is more than a piece of furniture. It has come to symbolize the manner of teaching promoted by Harkness, who insisted on eliminating the old Exeter system of the teacher lecturing from a platform at the front of the room to students sitting in rows of desks.

“I want to see somebody try teaching,” Harkness said, “. . . not in a formal . . . room . . . with an instructor behind the desk, . . .but where [students] could sit around a table with a teacher who would talk with them and instruct them by a sort of tutorial or conference method. . . where [all students] would feel encouraged to speak up. . . “

Indeed the Harkness Table has come to connote an entire style of education, which emphasizes a collaborative method that takes account of the student’s individuality. The shape of the table allows the teacher to more closely monitor the progress of each student’s understanding of the material–and to adjust the teaching as necessary– thereby allowing the students to more easily question the teacher and share insights with each other. Although the table arrived just two weeks ago, Hunter has already observed that it is playing a significant role in achieving several key pedagogical goals. Specifically, the Harkness Table creates an educational atmosphere that “makes the students feel important.” In addition to “encourag(ing) discourse and inquiry, it encourages problem engagement not just problem solving."