The Harkness Discussion
Whether sitting around an oval table table or not, Exonians often comfortably find themselves conversing and learning in a Harkness fashion. Harkness to Exeter is an established culture and its pride. Though “Harknessing” is prevalent in Exeter, I find that people rarely question its efficacy. In last year’s Exonian article by Antonio Guanaes, “The Pointy Edge of the Round Table,” Guanaes accurately criticized Harkness, but there still remains additional weaknesses that are seldom discussed. The advantages of Harkness are clear, but what are the drawbacks?
In every class there are always cases of students who are comfortable and overly talkative in Harkness and students who stay mostly quiet, sometimes only participating once or twice throughout the entire term. We refer to these students as “Harkness warriors” and “Harkness wallflowers,” respectively. Under perfect circumstances, Harkness will prepare Exonians to be well rounded in both listening and speaking and to possess excellent social skills. However, as one Exonian stated, “I generally don't participate much because of my background and shyness, so I don't really change my Harkness style,” while another claimed that “people who are naturally introverts face a challenge at the table, and it's difficult to overcome that.” Clearly, Harkness isn’t able to provide the wallflowers with the balanced skills, and this imbalance is disadvantageous to the resulting education provided from the discussion.
To an Exonian, it is clear that “Harkness warriors” are more likely to gain higher grades than “Harkness wallflowers.” In the end, Harkness turns its back against quiet introverts and perhaps even students who are raised in cultures that advocate qualities different from those espoused by Harkness. Not only that, but students who may have legitimate learning issues that prevent them from fitting into this mold of a “perfect Harkness student” will inevitably achieve lower grades. Because the majority of the classes at Exeter emphasize participation as a large portion of a student’s grade, Harkness demands certain students to change who they are. The quiet ones lag further and further behind, afraid that sudden participation will be an awkward and adjunctive voice to the already existing balance, while the Harkness warriors unabashedly continue to outvoice others. But in the end, despite being more to blame for the imbalanced discussion in class, Harkness warriors receive higher grades.
However, even when Harkness is working best, it may not be equally beneficial for every single class at Exeter. In a recent survey I conducted, more than 50 percent of the participants found that Harkness is ineffective for every subject. Sciences, math, art, sports and languages—the majority of the subjects offered at Exeter—were voiced as subjects for which Harkness is unnecessary. Especially for subjects in hard sciences, there are some salient difficulties. Personally, after experiencing Harkness in biology, physics and math over the past three years, I’ve noticed that attempts to debate proven scientific or mathematical concepts usually result in students throwing around questions that fail to progress the learning process for a whole class. Many Exonians agreed. One student stated that, “Teachers try to come up with more creative ways to teach the concept in math and science that end up making things overly complicated.” In cases where Harkness is clearly hindering the pace of the education, frustrated teachers end up lecturing, and the only essence of Harkness left is the table. Especially in introductory levels of math and sciences where solid foundation of basics is essential, instead of questioning and discussing in the Harkness fashion, the old fashioned lecture maintains its efficacy.
Finally, teachers ask for such radically different versions of Harkness that students are often perplexed by how to Harkness “the right way.” Many students have admitted to performing strictly to impress the teacher in order to achieve a higher grade, instead of focusing on the materials being discussed. One student asserted that, “Teachers grade extremely differently,” explaining that there were teachers who cared about different aspects of Harkness to “teachers who don’t care about Harkness at all.” Other students gave similar responses. When asked whether students changed their style of Harkness in accordance to each teacher’s style of grading, close to 70 percent replied “yes.” One student voiced that, “Especially in English and history classes, the expectations of Harkness change from teacher to teacher with small details such as how often students talk on average, whether they focus on the text or more abstract ideas, keywords to use, etc.” These responses portray the subjective process of Harknessing.
Harkness is an ideal apparatus for education that, if employed under the right conditions, provides endless benefits for students of Exeter. But clearly Exonians believe it is neither being used under the perfect circumstances nor allowing all students to reach perfection. Exeter should consider putting its pride second and the students’ education first by striving to use Harkness in a fashion that will maximize the advantages provided to the students. ♥
From 8/11/2015 to 8/22/2015, I asked 16 Exeter students on a range of topics concerning the positives and negatives of Harkness. I have based this op-ed on the responses I received.