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It’s time to bring back Harkness
Harkness tables facilitate a productive and open-minded work environment.
TURN THE TABLES. Don’t knock it till you try it. The Harkness tables are a key part of the upper school Humanities learning environment, and they need to come back to the classrooms.
Harkness tables are a cornerstone of the SPA Humanities experience. They’ve decorated classrooms for years, and have arguably been a core component of the learning environment. These tables are even advertised as an essential part of Spartan life on every admissions brochure.
However, Harkness tables have been removed from the school due to social distancing guidelines. It is time to bring them back.
Classes are already making the return to the discussion format of a classroom as opposed to the rows of tables of the 2020-21 school year, with students sitting together in circles of pushed-together white desks. The current classroom environment strives to resemble the pre-pandemic classroom model, but still lacks its focal point: the Harkness table.
Harkness tables facilitate a productive and open-minded educational environment; when seated around an oval table, it’s hard not to feel like your voice is valued. SPA prizes discussion and intimacy in its classrooms—small class sizes are one of the Upper School’s greatest draws. By bringing the tables back, the SPA community will reinstate its values, even after a period when the community as a whole has been challenged.
Most importantly, the freshmen and sophomores at SPA haven’t yet experienced a class set around a Harkness table. A part of the curriculum that is advertised as being central has been missing from their entire high school experience. It’s time that the Harkness tables are returned.
