California Boarding School Culture/Honor Code/Motto

ThacherParent
Wed, 24 Jul 2019 13:07:27 +0000

A final comment. This thread has the whiff of shading Thacher, which is peculiar coming from an existing or prospective Cate parent. The bond between the schools is generationally strong, starting with Curtis Cate who, when he came West, joined Thacher as a history teacher for the year prior to starting Cate in Santa Barbara. Since then, while a great school rivalry has existed, each institution has always been there for the other. That’s something of which many people, including me, are proud. That being said, applicant children and parents definitely self-select after their visits. For example, we lived on the East Coast and my kids attended a great private day school called the Episcopal Academy in Merion, PA (now in Newtown Square). To us, Cate felt like a west coast version of Episcopal. My son (and we) were looking for something qualitatively different, which we found at Thacher. Someone else might have the opposite reaction. I have brought this up before because it’s a great third party data point, and I wish that they would publish their results, but the Independent School Gender Project takes a ton of measurements of school health at the following institutions. Thacher is a top performer. If you ask the admission’s head or the school head at any of the participant schools, they would probably talk you through the bi-annual survey results. They are revealing and valuable, but can’t be published publicly. Bottom line, Cate is a fantastic school and a great option for the right kid. Thacher is the same. Here are the ISGP participants: Baylor School

Cate School

Colorado Academy

Deerfield Academy

Grace Church School

Groton School

Hawaii Preparatory Academy

Hawken School

Hopkins School

The Hotchkiss School

Kase Leadership Method

Kent School

Lawrence Academy

Milton Academy

Oregon Episcopal School

Phillips Academy - Andover

Pomfret School

St. Paul’s School

St. Stephen’s Episcopal School

The Taft School

The Thacher School

The Webb Schools