Phillips Exeter Academy was founded in 1781 by Dr. John Phillips, a graduate of Harvard and a resident of Exeter.

In his deed of gift, Dr. Phillips embodied a series of standing regulations, which he termed as the Constitution of the Academy, directing that they be read at each annual meeting of the trustees. The following excerpts serve to illustrate the founder’s high purpose:

“An observation of the growing neglect of youth must excite a painful anxiety for the event, and may well determine those whom their Heavenly Benefactor hath blessed with an ability therefor, to promote and encourage public free schools or academies, for the purpose of instructing Youth not only in the English and Latin grammar, writing, arithmetic, and those sciences wherein they were commonly taught, but more especially to learn them the great end and real business of living.

“It shall ever be considered as a principal duty of the instructors to regulate the tempers, to enlarge the minds, and form the morals of the youth committed to their care.

“But above all, it is expected that the attention of instructors to the disposition of the minds and morals of the youth under their charge will exceed every other care, well considering that though goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble, yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous, and that both united form the noblest character, and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to mankind.”

Since the fall of 1970, the Academy has been open to both boys and girls “from every quarter.” Marking the 25th anniversary of co-education in 1995/96, the inscription was added on the front façade of the Academy Buildin proclaiming: HIC QUAERITE PUERI PUELLAEQUE VIRTUTEM ET SCIENTIAM, “Here, boys and girls, seek goodness and knowledge.”

Furthermore, the dates 1781-1970 were added to the motto on the lintel over the front entrance: HUC VENITE PUERI UT VIRI SITIS, “Come hither, boys, that ye may become men.”

Now in its third century, Phillips Exeter Academy affirms the vision of John Phillips. Today, as in the past, the principal goal of the Academy is to link goodness and knowledge, to develop the consciences and train the minds of students so that they may usefully serve society.
The education of youth, originally accomplished through a curriculum rich in the traditional areas of classical languages, rhetoric, logic, and mathematics, has undergone constant development. The faculty recently reaffirmed its commitment to a curriculum that includes more broadly distributed requirements in science, history and the humanities form the main thrust of a curriculum that stresses knowledge in a liberal arts framework.

A gift from oil magnate and philanthropist Edward S. Harkness in 1930 established a method of teaching unique to Exeter and central to its teaching philosophy. The Harkness plan calls for an oval table in each classroom, with class size averaging 12 students and ample opportunity for Socratic dialogue.The Harkness table places students at the center of the learning process and encourages them to learn from one another.