If you've toured Exeter and Lawrenceville, attended an information session at any of the eight schools, or read any substantive account of elite boarding school academics, you've almost certainly encountered the term "Harkness method." It comes up repeatedly — and for good reason. It's one of the most distinctive features of the academic experience at several of these schools, and understanding it will help you evaluate fit.
The Origin
The Harkness method takes its name from Edward Harkness, a philanthropist who, in 1930, donated funds to Exeter with a specific instructional vision: that small groups of students should learn together around a table, in a collaborative discussion led not by the teacher but by the students themselves. Harkness described his ideal classroom as one where students and teacher sat together and talked things over.
Exeter adopted the method first and most fully. Lawrenceville also uses it prominently. Other schools heavily incorporate elements of collaborative, discussion-based pedagogy that draw on similar principles without using the Harkness name.
What It Actually Looks Like
The physical setting is distinctive: an oval or rectangular table, typically seating 12–15 students and one teacher. There are no rows, no front of the room, no traditional lecture position. The design is intentional. It signals that no single voice dominates, and that the work of learning happens between the students at the table, not from teacher to students.
In a Harkness class, students are expected to come prepared, having read, thought, and formed initial positions before they arrive. The teacher's role shifts from lecturer to facilitator: posing questions, redirecting when discussion veers off track, and stepping in when the conversation needs a conceptual anchor. But the intellectual labor — the arguing, questioning, synthesizing, challenging, and building on each other's ideas, belongs to the students.
A well-functioning Harkness discussion looks something like: a student poses an interpretation of a text; another pushes back with a counterexample; a third synthesizes the tension between the two positions; the teacher asks a question that opens a new dimension. Nobody raises a hand. Nobody waits to be called on. The conversation moves organically, and students are collectively responsible for its quality and direction.
What It Demands of Students
Harkness is not a passive learning environment. Students who coast on talent in traditional lecture classrooms often find Harkness more uncomfortable than they expect. The method requires:
- Consistent preparation. You cannot contribute meaningfully to a discussion if you haven't done the work. There's nowhere to hide at an oval table.
- Verbal confidence (or at minimum, a willingness to speak, and an acknowledgement that speaking is important). Students need to be willing to speak, assert positions, and defend them — in front of peers, not just in written work.
- Active listening. Harkness rewards students who build on what others have said, challenge ideas with precision, and synthesize competing arguments. This requires genuine engagement with your classmates' contributions.
- Intellectual risk-taking. The method asks students to think out loud, which means being wrong in public. Students who need to be certain before they speak tend to find Harkness frustrating at first.
What It Builds
The students who thrive under Harkness develop a set of intellectual and interpersonal skills that are genuinely distinctive. They become comfortable with ambiguity. They learn to disagree constructively. They get better at listening to positions different from their own, and engaging with them seriously rather than dismissing them.
In addition to helping to mature how thoughts take shape and are articulated, the Harkness method also lays important groundwork in helping students learn how to ask thoughtful and critically astute questions — which, suffice to say, is an increasingly important skill in our present day age of information and misinformation overload.
Is Harkness Right for Your Child?
It depends. Students who are verbally confident, enjoy debate and discussion, and have a high tolerance for intellectual uncertainty tend to love Harkness quickly. Students who are quieter, who process ideas better through writing than speaking, or who feel genuine anxiety about speaking in groups may have a harder adjustment — though many ultimately find the method transformative precisely because it pushes against their natural tendencies.