I love the sound of these hidden gem schools. Which of these school do or do not use Harkness method? I’m hoping to learn more about hidden gem schools with Harkness.
I think, as they say in Britain, you’ve got hold of the wrong end of the stick.
Your underlying assumptions are not correct. The more rigorous/intense schools are populated with kind and respectful kids. The Hidden Gems have academic rigor and kids who value academics.
I think the differences come down to pace and intensity. The Hidden Gems may have a range of classes, of varying degrees of difficulty, in a subject, whereas a more intense school may just have one level (difficult/more intense). If you miss a couple of days of class at a more intense place it may be harder to catch up. So kids have more leeway at a Hidden Gem.
The amount of homework is probably greater at a more intense school, thus requiring much better time management skills. The opportunities for travel/extracurriculars/competitions is greater at a more intense school, but it may be so much so that it’s a little overwhelming.
Some of the Hidden Gems are smaller, allowing the school to really get to know a student vs a bigger school. Some of the Hidden Gems have unique and life changing offerings. (Eg The Millbrook School’s Zoo – built into the fabric of the school, and the only high school in the world with its own accredited zoo dedicated to wildlife conservation and certain endangered species’ breeding and reintroduction programs).
All of these schools are great, but they are not all great for every child. The goal is to find schools with the best fit for your particular child.
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I think you are on the right track. IMO, if you are committed to the Harkness pedagogy, Exeter and Lawrenceville are the only two schools in “The Ten Schools” that are 100%comitted to the Harkness method - including math and science. I have a student at PEA - everything they do revolves around Harkness. Someone can correct me if I am wrong about other schools. I have another student at a different BS and they have some Harkness, but not for math, science, econ, etc.
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Thank you. My daughter had a tough time transitioning to Exeter Math, curriculum used at her current school, but now prefers problem solving based math to traditional arithmetic based math. Thank you for your input.
Thank you for breaking down what we mean by hard and easy. Helps me see more clearly what I wish for my daughter. I would love to see her at one of these Hidden Gem schools. Where people around her are compassionate and understanding, and don’t penalize her for being a human child that she is. I want her to experience warmth in her community. I want her to experience genuine kindness and respect for others as a way of life. Where’s a boarding school that most likely can provide her with these? I love that she is so engaged in her courses and wants to direct her own education. I love that I can talk She can also be too hard on herself at times. And that is hard to be with. She has such a large appetite and drive to excel. I must check myself constantly to do my best to encourage deeper consideration of what is healthy and what is not for herself. Institutional prestige, chances at elite colleges, etc. etc. are important, but I have to say before anything else, I think my number one priority as a parent ought to be to simply allow her to be the human child that she is and help find a place where they can fundamentally get that about her and teenagers in general.
Warm community with kindness and respect for others? That’s most boarding schools. Schools don’t want lots of jerks in their community! And they view their mission as supporting values such as kindness and respect. Again, you need to research the schools and see which ones sound like they might be a good fit.
I am a big fan of Millbrook; you might research Berkshire, Kent, George, Mercersburg – there are many more, I’m just most familiar with only a handful of schools.
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a detail but…I now realize that I DID misunderstand original post. The all caps on wondering if schools were NOT Harkness made me think it was NOT desired. :). hence my confusion. :).
As a mom of a daughter who has attended both a pressure-cooker school and a hidden gem, I would say that she had plenty of challenge and rigor at the hidden gem. I think the difference wasn’t in the quality of the classes, teachers and students, but rather for her it was difference in volume of homework and tone. Moving to a hidden gem she had about two hours of homework a night, versus four. Some kids really thrive with four hours of homework a night! But my daughter is a huge extrovert and is definitely a social butterfly type who likes to try new things, hang out with friends at the student center, etc. She just didn’t feel like she had the bandwidth to do that at her more intense school. I’m sure there are some really brilliant kids doing their homework there in 3 hours a night, but for her it was really closer to 4. Moving to the hidden gem gave her space to breathe and try a new sport (several, actually), head up clubs, and get super involved. And she felt very engaged and challenged and took all advanced classes, which she felt were every bit as “hard” as her classes at the more intense school.
FWIW – in all the schools we considered – gems and “more intense” schools alike – I think only a small handful followed the AP curriculum anymore. They have “advanced” level classes, but not “AP.”
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(to clarify – 2 hours of homework is the freshman year benchmark at my daughters’ school – I do think they had closer to 3 on average as they got older. It was the 4 hours at age 13 that didn’t work for us. But again – I know there are plenty of brilliant 13 year olds who would love that much homework!). :).
Hi
There are tons of amazing BS to choose from. I think it is important to articulate ( for yourselves ) what your family and daughter want/hope to get out of a BS experience as there might be multiple paths to achieve that.
Fit is the most important factor. Can your child feel at home? Are they challenged in the best way? Can they see themselves with their peers at the school? Etc … I highly recommend if your DD is accepted and you are able, try to attend revisit days, do so as sometimes what you think you wanted changes. It is also a chance to get another look at the vibe of the school (even through the marketing goggles). Also as I am sure you have seen in numerous posts: cast a wide enough net so that you are not locked out of attending BS, if that is a priority. Many amazing and talented kids have been disappointed.
You can get an equally great education at many of the hidden gems. Each school really has its own heartbeat. Knowing your child as well as why and what you are looking for will help guide you.
Re: Lville. My daughter is in her second year. Lville and Exeter are very true to the harkness method. Note: Lville does not carry it through to the science and maths to the extent Exeter does. My DD recently attended a BS conference and shared that she really could see the fruits of the harkness skills she and her schoolmates had learned in action.
The school has made huge strides in focusing on the wellbeing of the students, but that being said this is one of those top competitive schools. Outwardly the students tend to be more competitive with themselves vs one another which was something my DD really noticed and loves about the school. Kids are understated about their grades, colleges, etc. Homework and studying cannot be done during just study hall and the days are packed. The students participate in a plethora of sports and activities, but my DD often shares there are just not enough hours in the day. She needs to make choices, but she still feels like she is able to take advantage of the many opportunities - all would just not be realistic.
I have a really nice child that has made really nice friends. (Surprisingly, there was one school we considered where the AO literally told us that their kids were not that nice). My daughter is thriving and loving her time at lville. I do think she could have gone to any number of the schools and found her place, but lville has become home.
I am happy to answer any questions, feel free to DM me.
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Another thing to ponder @veryquietcricket are the “terminal levels” of a given course track at one school vs another.
A school may max out a given discipline at the AP level or equivalent. Another may offer a year beyond that, or two, or even more via independent study.
I wouldn’t focus on box-ticking, but, if you know or get the sense that your DD would love to take, I don’t know, physics, well beyond AP physics level courses, then make sure the school offers this.
One caveat: if the example discipline is something somewhat more niche-y, like say Japanese, then know that if the Japanese teacher, who may in fact be a one-person department, decides to take a sabbatical or whatever, those higher-than-AP courses may not be offered every year.
ETA: presumably you’ll already have a sense for where your DD is tracking in various disciplines especially given that she’s applying as a transfer.
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If you search for “Harkness Method” here, @veryquietcricket, you’ll find a previous list of schools. While not all subjects at these schools use the method, the list highlights some hidden gems that haven’t been mentioned yet.
Do anyone (maybe current parents or alums) happen to know when revisit days are this year for the various schools? Do they tend to be on weekdays or Saturdays?
There is a good thread on here for the revisit days discussion… Mostly they are on weekdays but limited schools have them on Saturdays.
Lawrenceville has some Saturdays
The Frederick Gunn School is THE Hidden Gem. With beautiful brand new academic buildings, an amazing and dynamic curriculum designed to teach skills and critical thinking and an amazing Head of School - Gunn is on the rise! Campus is also drop dead gorgeous and everyone there is so friendly. Amazing community and remarkable how much the school has changed for the better in the last 5 years!
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