Harkness House, The

About Us

The Harkness House is a private, nonprofit middle school offering small classes, advanced curriculum, and unparalleled access to students and families.

This idea is neither philosophically profound nor new, and still the traditional system of broad-based education struggles to bring it into practice. The ideal of autonomy is undermined within the confines of the large classrooms, which are not well-suited for developing curiosity and creativity. Those large classrooms are where our founders had built their careers when the pandemic disrupted everything. We were three educators working in public middle schools in New Hampshire when Covid-19 highlighted everyone's vulnerabilities and made us rethink our notions of what school could and should be.

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The Harkness House offers a real difference: truly small classes that put students in charge of their learning. We know that small classes promote student agency, and autonomy produces incredible results. We know it because we saw it during the ''hybrid'' instruction caused by the school closures and restrictions of 2020 and 2021. Most of the change brought on by the pandemic was terrible, but the small classes were tremendous. While traditional schools are struggling to get “back to normal,” we’ve conceived of a new approach to middle school. By enhancing what has always worked and designing a school around small classes and collaborative learning, we're giving students a real seat at the table.
Our founders have always believed in the curious nature, creative power, and intellectual capacity of middle schoolers.