Adventurous Minds: Teaching and Learning at Thacher

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Adventurous Minds: Teaching & Learning at Thacher

Where a student’s authentic interests and deep curiosity meet uniquely supportive, engaged educators, meaningful learning follows.

Small class sizes, students who live and learn alongside their classmates, teachers, and advisors, and a curriculum where every student is seen and heard enhance learning, create opportunities for strong and authentic connections, and enable students to encounter diverse perspectives through exposure to different authors, voices, and points of view, ensuring that every student is able to reach their fullest potential.

“Living together at Thacher helps students get comfortable using the target language outside of the classroom in everyday settings— putting their new vocabulary in context, developing the comfort to make mistakes, and having empathy and compassion for your fellow community members.”

Learning is applied and authentic.

From veterinary medicine and student-designed xBlock electives, to astronomy research and senior exhibitions, the academic program at Thacher is rooted in the principle that high-impact learning happens at the intersection of student-centered instruction, critical thinking, and reflection. By engaging students in real, practical challenges facing our world—and offering them just the right level of support, we inspire kids to accomplish goals and master challenging material that initially felt beyond reach.

Students are known, supported, stretched, and challenged.
At Thacher, we believe the best learning happens when:

Set on an expansive and inspiring campus landscape with proximity to the California coast, Thacher’s academic facilities—both traditional classrooms and innovative maker spaces, including the School’s professional grade woodshop—are designed for and equipped with tools, both literal and figurative, that inspire creativity, collaboration, and hands-on engagement with the material, whether that be chemical compounds, classical literature, or charcoals. Our

Curriculum

At Thacher, we see the 9th and 10th grade curriculum as an introduction and opportunity to build a foundation upon which to help our students grow and develop as learners and community members over their time at the School. To do this, we focus on three key goals: community and belonging, academic readiness, and curiosity, confidence, and excitement.

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.

Spaces and places are built for adventurous minds.

Students find purpose and joy in their learning.

Like everything at Thacher, learning is an adventure. We believe that’s why, in a recent survey by Challenge Success, Thacher students report very high levels of affective engagement (meaning that they find both meaning/purpose and joy in their schoolwork). This is a notably high score for affective engagement, which is often a stumbling block for many schools, but one which we attribute to our commitment to collaboration, community, and fun.

There is so much about our campus that naturally lends itself to being a “classroom”— vet med meets at the barns, ecology goes to the hives, the 9th grade English class talks about nature writing against the backdrop of the Topatopa Mountains. At Thacher, the environment around us is more than just a pretty view, it’s a teacher, a classroom, and a constant reminder that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves.”

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