<p>Middlesex uses Harkness tables - do you know other schools that use Socratic method of teaching? (hoping to take your minds off March 10, just a little bit).</p>
<p>Lawrenceville and Exeter.</p>
<p>Mercersburg uses Harkness tables and this method for many of its classes, especially in but not limited to English, History, and Language classes.</p>
<p>i think almost every single top BS does</p>
<p>I have seen the tables at middlesex, concord, gov dumm, and Nobles</p>
<p>Here are a couple links that should get you covered:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/harkness-table%5B/url%5D">http://www.answers.com/topic/harkness-table</a></p>
<p>And an archived CC thread covering this exact question:</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the "Harkness" name isn't used by all the schools that use that type of furniture and the discussion-based classes...partly because "Harkness" is a registered trademark of PEA.</p>
<p>it's almost true for every single top BS for humanities and social science class. At hotchkiss, it's all "harkness" or whatever you like to call it except for science classes, which is also discussion based but you dont sit around the table coz u kinda have to do labs u know...</p>
<p>Lawrenceville.. I think Choate uses them..rarely</p>
<p>Andover, too, in a few classes.</p>
<p>choate uses it for classes other than math and science. I know that coz i've done my revisiting there</p>
<p>Thanks, bear, for giving me that info about Choate! :)</p>
<p>Discussed in length on this thread (spills over to a few pages):</p>
<p>Melbourne Grammar School - Australia!</p>
<p>Bearcats: what made you choose hotchkiss over choate?
sry if this is kind of not related to this thread</p>
<p>Thanks all, for speedy responses about use of Harkness method or tables. Really what I am looking for, is student engagement, and the level and quality of student/teacher involvement. With a 2-hour visit, it can be a bit of a whirlwind - dining halls, dorm rooms, interview etc. I want an inkling that the teachers are interesting and that the students are active participants in their education.</p>
<p>chose hotchkiss over choate becoz i didnt like the road that ran through the middle of the campus....I also didnt like the neighborhood</p>
<p>chose hotchkiss over andover becoz my cousin went to andover and she hated it...it's too big anyway...</p>
<p>chose hotchkiss over exeter becoz it's too big for me</p>
<p>chose hotchkiss over SPS becoz i felt cold and isolated when I was there</p>
<p>chose hotchkiss over deerfield becoz T.T i didnt get in.....</p>
<p>i chose hotchkiss over all of them becoz I liked the one building policy which promotes interaction and you are bound to see every person in the school at least once a day, also i liked the area</p>
<p>The Harkness method is one of the reasons we've been looking at The Masters School. Currently my daughter tends to sit in the back of her classes and write fiction when she gets bored with what is going on in the front of the class. ;-)</p>
<p>That might also explain her poor SSAT scores in math!</p>
<p>Seriously, when we toured The Masters School, one of the things that impressed me most was peering in through the windows of the classrooms and seeing the active participation of students. Great stuff!</p>
<p>TheMama; there is such a huge difference in seeing kids interacting with each other and the teacher, vs slumped in the back of a class. Granted, some of our tours were at 8 am, when most teenagers might not be at their prime, yet. I agree with earlier poster, that the downside can be having one kid dominate the conversation, while the rest (and the teacher) quietly steam. Good Luck with the Masters school! This is definitely one of those issues where I wished I'd been more aware of what was important, during our tours, rather than now. sigh</p>
<p>SPS uses the Harkness table, in fact the guy that invented it graduated from SPS</p>
<p>...just so happened to be the guy who made a grant that asked PEA to come up with something innovative and revolutionary. I don't know who actually invented it. That's an interesting question. And that guy, a SPS graduate, is also known as the son of the #2 man (second to John D. Rockefeller, Sr.) as a silent partner in a little start-up business called Standard Oil Company. His family founded Chemical Bank and, having inherited millions upon millions from his dad, Edward Harkness' job was more of being a full-time philanthropist and not so much of an inventor.</p>
<p>After 7 years at Exeter, Harkness approached Lawrenceville and gave them a large grant if they, too, would adopt the Harkness Table and that approach to teaching. Naturally, they accepted.</p>
<p>But Exeter wasn't looking to sell the naming rights for its novel table design to big shots. Harkness approached the school and offered them funds if they could come up with something truly creative. They were actually sent back to the drawing board by Harkness at least once to devise a better plan. Unlike so many fads in education -- fads that recycle themselves like bad baseball managers who somehow re-emerge after many failures -- the Harkness Table has proven to be a consistent boon to education by those institutions that embrace it.</p>
<p>Relating this to other threads...I'm not sure if Edward Harkness got into St. Paul's by virtue of his daddy's money, but it's an excellent example of how these types of admits benefit the schools in ways that go way beyond a mere payoff to get people to look the other way or accept applicants, etc.</p>