Academics
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All great teaching is founded in relationship.
Mutual respect is a powerful motivator. -
Better than finding the answer to a question, is finding a question yet to be answered.
Or a question yet to be asked. -
Meaningful learning focuses less on what you know and more on what you don’t know.
It’s not just ok to be wrong. It’s required. -
Real world challenges don’t confine themselves to specific academic subjects.
So why should academic courses? -
The best learning engages actual challenges outside the classroom.
#realworldproblems -
The best teachers know how to cultivate curiosity and then set it loose.
What are you passionate about learning? -
The surest path to mastery is the one in which you have both voice and choice.
Which path is yours? -
The ultimate success in education is when the student becomes the teacher.
What will you teach us? -
We learn more and retain it longer when we combine intellect with emotion.
Rigor, meet vigor. -
When we include more perspectives, we find better answers.
Inclusive diversity makes us all smarter.
Where a student’s authentic interests and deep curiosity meet uniquely supportive, engaged educators, meaningful learning follows.
Our faculty members are not only masters of their content areas, they’re also deeply committed to building real relationships, inside the classroom and out. This allows them to carefully design curriculum with a special focus on work that engages real, practical challenges facing our world—and that ignites genuine interest and engagement. They push students to their maximum potential, offering just the right level of support as students accomplish goals and master challenging material that initially felt just beyond reach.
Expanding Minds
Our faculty also knows that Thacher academics are more than an invitation to achievement—they are an invitation to expansion. Our program can be roughly divided into two, two-year halves. In the first two years, the emphasis is on building a broad foundation of understanding, developing sound academic skills and habits of mind, and sparking the intellectual passions that will take students to places they never imagined. During their junior and senior years, students are challenged to demonstrate mastery, often by following their interests beyond the classroom and across the disciplines, applying skills and knowledge in new ways, increasingly framing and solving problems of their own choosing.
Our Classrooms
In a Thacher classroom, students find something different. In fact, sometimes students won’t even find four walls. But whether they’re conducting research at the Thacher Observatory in collaboration with a professional astronomer, piloting a manure composting system that will ultimately become a flagship campus sustainability initiative, or delivering months worth of Senior Exhibition research to a crowd of peers, teachers, and friends, they’ll be learning just how much they are truly capable of accomplishing.
—Tracy Miller, Director of Studies
“Our work at Thacher is about cultivating curiosity in our students. We encourage big questions and messy, complicated answers. We empower students to take ownership of their education and to bring great pride and purpose to their work. At the same time, learning at Thacher is communal—founded in deep, authentic relationships between teachers and students, supported by collaboration and respect among peers, and celebrated throughout our campus.”
Academic News
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Collaboration on Display
Ethics and art students collaborate to honor female role models at Thacher.Read More -
Making Learning Visible
As the creativity and technology center nears completion, the next stage of the Thacher curriculum takes shape with the help of Dr. Kamala Qalandar.Read More -
Thacher Astronomy Students Help Shine Light on Supernovae
In May 2019, Thacher students, Holland Stacey ’21 and Mohammed Rahman CdeP 2020, identified a rare feature in the light curve of a distant supernova that helped researchers better understand the death of stars. Their work was included in the August 5, 2020 edition of The Astrophysical Journal.Read More -
Why Did you Emigrate, Friend?: A Spanish III Project
Spanish III students delve into the conditions in Central America and Mexico that drive emigration.Read More -
A Holistic View of Homelessness
Two Thacher classes team up to study a pervasive issue firsthand.Read More -
Healing America’s Opiate Epidemic with Community
The McCloskey Speaker Series brings author Sam Quinones to campus.Read More -
3D Models to Masks: Alternative Approaches to Assessing Learning
Thacher teachers enliven the classroom with alternatives to papers and exams.Read More -
Thacher Students Test the Waters in Turtle Conservation Chemistry
"Tackling real-world problems gives us a deeper understanding of the concepts we are learning in the classroom."Read More -
Finding Resonance: Learning From Rock-Star Young Authors
Anacapa Fellow Suleika Jaouad brings MFA writing experience to Thacher English IV honors course, The Stories We Carry.Read More -
A college preparatory, coed boarding school for grades 9-12
The Thacher School
5025 Thacher Road
Ojai, California, 93023
Tel : 805-646-4377
Fax: 805-646-9490
Email: info@thacher.org
5025 Thacher Road
Ojai, California, 93023
Tel : 805-646-4377
Fax: 805-646-9490
Email: info@thacher.org
Notice of nondiscriminatory policy as to students: The Thacher School admits students of any race, color, national, and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national, and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other School-administered programs.