Academics

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

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.