We all heard this week at Assembly about a faculty member, who, as advisor to a certain esoteric campus activity, was called to an unusual job: chasing down an AWOL school pig named Spike and returning her to the pen after patching the offending gape in the fence. Actually, a second teacher, who lives close to Carpenter’s Orchard (where the pig-pen is) also helped with the wrangling. The fact that the incident repeated two more times made me think about all the roles we faculty are called to–generally with a smile on our faces– that are pretty far outside a typical teacher-coach-advisor job description. I mean, we all come into this knowing that trying to put names to everything we do would be a silly exercise, but the incident of the pig in the night-time prompted me to ask that question of my colleagues.
•I take kids out to surf and then for burgers regularly.
•I programmed the thachergymkhana.net website to allow instantaneous scoring of gymkhana races using iPads on the field and presentation of results for races, barn penalties, etc. for all to enjoy
•I bought and transported 150 burgers from In-n-Out for a fundraiser.
Everyone I know here takes on tasks far beyond any “call of duty,” and typically without a second thought. They make time where less than none exists to give more, to help Thacher become an even better place, its students better served.
It’s a 24/7 deal, this boarding school teacher business, but it’s what’s inside those numbers that keeps things interesting, eight days a week.
