California Boarding School Culture/Honor Code/Motto

CaliMex
Wed, 24 Jul 2019 18:47:45 +0000

Thacher is not for everyone. How many kids get excited about a school that makes them get up at dawn to shovel horse manure? Or that forces the entire community to start and end each school year with week-long camping trips?

There’s NO WAY I would have chosen Thacher for myself, lol. I’m too lazy and like my creature comforts. But those experiences really do bond the kids to each other in a very unique way and create a very tightly-knit community, especially since camping is all about putting the well-being and comfort of the group ahead of one’s own. (We all know that is something that doesn’t always come naturally to teens). It makes for a very distinct culture.

Other schools have equally strong academics. And every school has its own sense of culture and community. But I wouldn’t underestimate the impact of the horse and outdoor programs on Thacher’s community and culture. It definitely makes the school feel different from others.

No school is perfect and neither is Thacher. But we are quite comfortable with the level of communication and transparency. We heard from the head of school very early on in the Varsity Blues case. The school has not been implicated in any way. (It is outrageous to draw a parallel to the sex abuse that happened at Choate to students in their care, by teachers hired by the school. ) In the case of Varsity Blues, it is the universities that were in the wrong, not the high schools attended by the students or the non-profits or schools on whose boards some of the players served. With rare exception, the students’ high schools were completely in the dark.