What Does MJHS Have in Common w/East Coast Prep?
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
WHAT DOES A SMALL JEWISH HIGH SCHOOL IN MEMPHIS, TN HAVE IN COMMON WITH PRESTIGIOUS EAST COAST PREP SCHOOLS?
MEMPHIS, TN (8/16/06) – Memphis Jewish High School which opened its doors for the first time on Monday, August 14, 2006 is the only school in the Memphis, Tennessee region, either private or public, that incorporates the Harkness Method of teaching throughout its entire spectrum of classes. First initiated by exclusive Phillips-Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, the teaching style was adopted by other leading American independent schools, including Horace Mann School, The Hotchkiss School, Phillips Academy, St. Paul’s School, and The Masters School. However, no school in the Memphis region utilizes Harkness through its entire curriculum. MJHS is also the first co-educational, dual curriculum Jewish high school in Memphis.
Andy Groveman, president of Memphis Jewish High School, said the school is “for students who take pleasure in a distinctive mode of teaching and learning in which each member of the class is in some distinctive measure a teacher of all the others. We are excited that Memphis Jewish High School is the first school in this region to systemically implement the Harkness method throughout its general studies and Jewish studies curriculum.”
The name comes from the philanthropist Edward Harkness who endowed Exeter with a monetary gift in 1930 and challenged the faculty to develop an innovative teaching method that empowered students to take active ownership of their education. Tangibly, the result was an oval table around which teachers and students engaged in cooperative inquiry. But pedagogically, the Harkness classroom transformed learning. As one Exeter teacher explained, the classroom was “no longer a battleground but a proving ground,” and “in a Harkness class the students will not debate, but discuss; the teacher will not pronounce, but question.” MJHS’ Eric Berman, dean of general studies, and Joan Traffas, master teacher of history, were both trained in the Harkness method at Phillips Exeter Academy and each teacher at Memphis Jewish High School has been trained by them in the teaching methodology.
Both teachers and students at MJHS are committed to an ideal of active, participatory, student-centered learning which values teaching students not just a given course’s content, but the skills required to become their own and each other’s teachers. The Harkness Table is central to both the Memphis Jewish High School classroom and its curriculum. A place at the Harkness Table requires students to exercise a high degree of self-discipline, and to engage eagerly and energetically with both peers and instructors. Learning at Memphis Jewish High School is a cooperative enterprise in which the students and teachers work together as partners.
“Harkness classrooms have one large, oval table where the students and teachers sit together. It is designed to make the students become more actively engaged in their education and develop critical thinking skills,” said Adrian Weissman, head of school. The Harkness Method also reflects traditional Jewish learning styles according to Jewish Studies Dean Aviezer Gellman.
For more information on Memphis Jewish High School, contact Ms. Adrian Weissman at 901.767.4818.
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