Who Hasn't Spoken Yet?

It was 2010 and Hannah Herklotz ’05 was trying to control a sea of unruly children at a Minneapolis playground. Despite lacking age-relevant experience, she had been hired as a German-immersion preschool teacher after returning from a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship in Austria.

Nearby, teachers from another preschool were speaking quietly. The children were listening and happily obeying. The mutual respect and rapport were palpable. Herklotz, a graduate of Carleton College, was mesmerized. “What do [they] know that I don’t?” she wondered.

What they knew, she discovered, was the Montessori method, a pedagogy centered around a learning space where the “prepared adult” implements structures to help children thrive and gain appropriate independence. The supports may be physical (making shelves accessible); psychological (pursuing teacher goals flexibly while honoring children’s moods and needs); and social (creating a space where children feel safe and valued by peers).

“It’s all about respecting the humanity of the child,” Herklotz says.

Intrigued, she enrolled in Loyola University Maryland for Montessori pedagogy. “This feels familiar,” she remembers thinking. Herklotz grew up on Exeter’s campus, where her father, Brad Robinson, taught physics and served as dorm head for Webster Hall and Dow House. Her formative years were steeped in Harkness, in class and out. “Conversation, questions and listening carefully were part of our family culture,” she says. “It … feels like my parents almost raised me in a Harkness way.”

Montessori reminded her of the student-led discussions and collaborative learning central to Exeter’s Harkness pedagogy. Both, she notes, view students’ engagement as “a critical part of their learning,” placing “a lot of responsibility on the student to contribute actively to the learning process.” Montessori fosters self-direction, curiosity and collaboration; Harkness builds on this foundation. They’re “excellent bedfellows,” she says.

After earning her Master of Education in 2014, Herklotz taught kindergarten. In 2022 she joined Hill View Montessori Charter Public School (HVM), a K-8 school in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It is only 35 minutes from Exeter, but worlds apart in other ways. Most students come from low-income families. Resources are scarce, so poetry slams and science fairs are organized and funded by teachers. Students eat in classrooms because there’s no cafeteria.

Herklotz became HVM’s academic director in 2024. Determined to incorporate Harkness into the seventh- and eighth-grade classrooms, she approached Exeter’s Center for Teaching & Learning, a consortium sharing Harkness expertise with educators. To her delight, HVM received scholarship funding.

Two years later, a “professional learning community” is flourishing. HVM educators “attend” Exeter for Harkness instruction and class observation, while PEA faculty travel to Haverhill to observe Harkness in a public-school setting.

“It’s a wonderful back-and-forth,” Herklotz says.

The new pedagogy has inspired HVM teachers to “prepare the environment” in new ways. Instead of rote pre-exam drills, the math teacher administers a practice test collectively, with each student explaining a problem. Rather than intervening immediately to resolve confusion, teachers encourage students to puzzle through the issue, problem-solve with a friend or request help.

Student test scores are “skyrocketing,” Herklotz says, adding, “Harkness has given our middle school students this structural opportunity to make sure every voice matters.” She has heard rambunctious seventh-grade boys interject, “Hold on, I think this other student is trying to say something.” She has seen eighth graders conduct their own math class when their teacher was absent. “They started assigning each other problems,” she says. “One asked, ‘Who hasn’t spoken yet?’ Another stumbled, and her friend said, ‘Remember, everybody, this is a safe space.’ It was boisterous but respectful.” Together, students completed the homework set.

To her knowledge, HVM is the only school in the world combining Montessori and Harkness. Herklotz hopes to inspire others via future research or teaching, but she’ll always keep “one foot” in HVM.