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Founded in 1919, the Exeter Summer School enrolls 580 students entering grades nine through 12 or the first year of college for five weeks of intensive study in a wide variety of subjects, from drama to physics.

S ummer in New Hamphshire. Picture local farmers selling their vegetables on Swazey Parkway, vacationers braving the waters of a cold Atlantic and crowded ice cream shops. On the Exeter campus, however, summer does not mean empty classrooms and lazy afternoons. From the end of June through mid-August, the Academy is alive with a growing number of programs for teachers and students that draw learners from around the world.

Through teaching institutes focused on math and technology, science, Shakespeare, and the humanities, Exeter provides a forum for public and private school teachers to share ideas and explore new approaches to education. Through the Summer School, Exeter brings 580 young people to campus each year for an academic and social experience that broadens their horizons. Together these programs have an impact that reaches well beyond Exeter.

“The founding philosophy of John Phillips and Exeter—to teach students from every quarter—is expanded a thousand-fold by working with teachers who teach students from every quarter,” says instructor Eric Bergofsky, director of the Exeter Math Institute. “It’s exponential in terms of impact. What we accomplish is substantial and far-reaching.”

‘Teachers Teaching Teachers’

In last year’s presidential election, there was much talk about the need for a national dialogue on education. Such phrases get bandied about, and we nod our heads knowingly without stopping to ask: What would a national dialogue on education sound like? And is it happening, or going to happen, anytime soon in my neighborhood?

Next time around, the candidates might consider dropping in on one of the five summer teaching conferences offered by Exeter. Though each has its own focus and approach, what unites these initiatives is just what the politicians like to invoke—a dialogue about teaching strategies and methods that brings together a cross section of teachers from around the country and, indeed, the world.

Tom McDonald has taught math for 22 years at Bellows Free Academy, a rural community high school in St. Albans, VT, and participated in workshops (as well as made presentations) at the Anja S. Greer Conference on Secondary School Mathematics and Technology at Exeter for the last seven years. “As an educator, you’re always looking for new and different ways to teach and to learn. I’ve never come away disappointed,” he comments. “The conference is at the end of the school year, you’re at the end of your rope, and yet it’s something everyone looks forward to. It’s heightened the enthusiasm I bring to class, and that heightens my students’ enthusiasm.”

“The focus of the conference is teachers teaching teachers,” explains Tom Seidenberg, director of both the Anja Greer Math and Technology Conference and the Conference on Secondary School Science and Technology. “We bring about 30 teachers from public and private schools around the country to teach the conference classes. The goal is to get teachers together for a week so they can talk about what they’re doing in the classroom and find out that the problems they face are universal. We want to help them develop a network of support and to become empowered to make changes.”

The first of the summer teaching initiatives, the Anja Greer Math and Technology Conference was introduced in 1985. The Science and Technology Conference, which runs simultaneously, was launched in 1997. Together the conferences attract 350 to 400 participants who spend 20 intensive hours in two, weeklong courses, while also sampling from dozens of afternoon workshops and evening speakers. The common thread, for math and science classes, is exploring new technologies and how to use them in the classroom.

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