From Landmark College to Harmon School: A Full-Circle Story

We were honored to be featured in the Fall 2026 issue of Landmark College’s Landscape magazine. For our family, the feature feels especially meaningful because the story of Harmon School is deeply connected to Mark’s own experience as a student with dyslexia.

Mark was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child, but growing up, that diagnosis did not always lead to the kind of support he needed. Too often, it became a label. Instead of being understood for his strengths, interests, and potential, he was often defined by the areas where school was hardest. Like many students with learning differences, he was placed in a box based on what he struggled with rather than encouraged to discover what he could do.

That experience stayed with him. Eventually, Mark’s educational path led him to Landmark College, where he found an environment designed for students who learn differently. It gave him a firsthand understanding of how much the right support, structure, and teaching approach can change a student’s trajectory. He later went on to earn degrees in mathematics and sociology and spent more than a decade teaching students at the elementary, middle school, high school, and university levels.

That journey is a big part of why Harmon School looks the way it does today. We do not want students to spend years feeling misunderstood or defined by a diagnosis. We want to understand the whole student: their strengths, their challenges, what overwhelms them, what motivates them, and what kind of support allows them to show what they really know.

At Harmon, that means small classes, individualized instruction, multisensory teaching, live interaction with teachers, physical materials, and the flexibility to adjust when a student needs more support or a different approach. We also believe strongly that support does not mean lowering expectations. A student can struggle with reading and still be a deep thinker. A student can have difficulty writing and still have excellent ideas. A student can need scaffolding and still be capable of rigorous academic work.

One line from the Landscape article captures that connection especially well:

“I lived that experience. I know what it personally is, and what it feels like.”

That is really at the heart of Harmon School. We know how damaging it can be when students begin to believe that struggling means they are not capable. We also know how much can change when the environment changes. Sometimes the problem is not the student. Sometimes the student simply needs a school that is better designed around the way they learn.

That is what we are working to build at Harmon School: a place where students with dyslexia, ADHD, autism, executive-function challenges, and other learning differences can be supported without being limited by those labels.

Having that story featured by Landmark College feels especially full-circle. A school that once played an important role in Mark’s own educational journey is now sharing the story of the school we are building for another generation of students who learn differently.

Learn more about Harmon School at harmonschool.com.