Every once in a while you’ve got to put the formalities aside and lighten things up a bit as displayed by senior girls Mackenzie, Giovanna, and Margot. For Margot the third time proved a success. Geez, I am sure going to miss these girls.
Archives: Faculty
Weekend Mountain Bike Trip in the Los Padres National Forest: Over the Ridge and Through the Woods to . . . Patton’s Cabin
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 (CdeP ’14) joined my twin […]
The Big Warm
Remember three decades ago, The Big Chill, a breakout film for Glenn Close, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Jeff Goldblum, Meg Tilley, JoBeth Williams, and–as the dead guy whose face no one ever sees, Kevin Costner? (Clearly, I’m beyond worrrying about dating myself.) The first morning the old college friends are together, each comes into the […]
The Rabbit Rabbit book club
As the librarian, I implemented a book club 3 years ago. The students generally read about 5-6 new novels in the club per year as this is about all their busy schedules will allow. Coincidentally, some of the reads have also been made into films so we’ve been able to read and also screen the […]
Back from Fresno
Late on a Saturday morning after the Cross Country State Championship races, Isobel and I were driving back from Fresno and talking over the season. After examining and evaluating our training, looking at the mistakes I made as well as those avoided, Isobel said: “I remember my first day of Cross Country in September. You […]
Earlier today…
Earlier today in class, after an introduction and brief discussion of analyzing rational functions, I turned the kids loose to spend the last twenty minutes of the period reviewing for a test tomorrow on material up to, but not including rational functions. As I moved around the room answering questions and helping students, I noticed […]
East of Santa Barbara
Returning from Midland, as late afternoon light faded to darkness, some of the boys and I, sitting toward the front of the bus, were talking quietly about our successes at the league championships, where both teams won. As we wound down the mountain from Lake Cachuma, Chevy mentioned that a friend of his had improved […]
Unsung Soldiers
I decided to run boys who had not made the trip to Mt. SAC in a Condor League meet on a very difficult, demanding course. Varsity runners and we coaches were on hand to cheer them on and as the race unfolded I was struck by the great effort and tenacity shown by these runners-on-the-way-up […]
Are books becoming extinct?
As a librarian I am constantly bombarded with the issues surrounding this debate. Many of my peer librarians at other schools are pushing all the gadgets that publish books in digital formats. And although I do see value in such items, condone the use of them and provide such items for students, it may be […]
On Horses
Outside the classroom my primary interests are in the world of athletics, so I will naturally write often about teams and coaching, but before that I want to say a few words about our many horses. When I arrived over twenty-eight years ago I was drawn to much about the School, but questioned, in my […]