“How was your daughter’s graduation?” “Hey! How was the graduation this weekend?” “How’d it go this weekend? Your daughter was graduating, right?” Three’s definitely a charm in this case, or at least charming: the first three students I ran into on Monday morning after Big Gymkhana Family Weekend–the biggest, most populous, high-spirited, tradition-rich, all-School community […]
Archives: Faculty
The 4 Rs
My freshman English class is always a little squirrelly on Wednesdays. We meet last period, which ends at 12:55. They try hard to stick with Odysseus as he’s hanging on for what’s left of his life over the slurping maw of Kharybdis–but I know what they’re thinking … How’m I gonna keep my horse from […]
Sense Memory
They say that sense is a powerful tool in evoking memory – you smell your grandmother’s perfume and are immediately transported back to age 8. You taste a fresh strawberry and think of summer. As someone new to Ojai, and somewhat prone to melodrama, I’ve been thinking recently about the sights, sounds and smells that […]
The Stable Song
A few weeks ago we had the good fortune of hosting a musical performance by Gregory Alan Isakov and the Freight. They hail from Colorado and are quite known in the alternative folk/ country genre. They have played and toured with some of the more established acts of this genre. The musicians were accompanied by […]
1-2-3 Coyotes
An essential part of my routine is an early-morning run of 40-70 minutes almost every day. Last winter on such a run at about 0630 on McNell, not far from Reeves road, I noticed movement to my lower left and stopped to take a look. There appeared a tiny creature, about the size of a […]
Finally Made it to Patton’s–A Decade in!
My husband Jeff and I were recently inspired to offer a night at Patton’s Cabin with students. Patton’s is a place we have been saying we would get to–but we took stock and realized this is year ten at Thacher, and we hadn’t made it yet. So, there was no better time than the present. […]
Over the Ridge to Patton’s Cabin . . . and Back Again
All Thacher students have ridden a horse over the ridge (the Nordhoff Ridge that is) and camped in the Sespe at some point during their Thacher career. This past weekend we did a variation of this excursion, also riding, but under full human power – on mountain bikes! Adam Silberberg ’15 joined my twin brother […]
“Only at Thacher,” he said.
I recently went on a mountain bike trip with students, faculty, and friends of Thacher. The trip was wonderfully planned and executed by our Director of the Outdoor Program (and teacher) Brian Pidduck (please see Brian’s blog for pictures and a description of the trip). After riding up to the Ridge from Patton’s Cabin, we stopped […]
Message from Coach
After a sound defeat by a gifted Cate team recently, I sent the following message to my boys [the varsity soccer team]: I want you to know you behaved magnificently yesterday, and I am forever impressed with your mental toughness, spirit, and ability to hang together as a team under challenging circumstances. You never gave […]
It’s a Patriot Nation
I’ve never really liked (or understood, for that matter) football. It monopolized the TV in my house every Sunday from September to February, not to mention Monday nights. And don’t get me started on sports radio – my dad and I had dinner with Eddie Andleman on the WEEI Sports Huddle every weeknight. But […]