Parents' Post
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Parents’ Post A Newsletter for Parents and Friends of The Thacher School Fall 2001 RE-CREATION Dear Parents, So soon do fresh faces and names become Grandparents, and Friends: Sfamiliar that it’s difficult already to re- Each new school year here is launched by the Head’s member that the new kids on the block reading to the School Oliver Wendell Holmes’s The 1 ever were new. The 75 (a smut class Chambered Nautilus, his late 19th-century poem about per- of 57 and 18 joining the Class of ’03) come to the Ojai from alfalfa sonal development and spiritual evolution. On this year’s first ranches, university towns, and day of classes, just as Head of School Michael Mulligan was gather- windy cities, from places as close ing up the various shells in his office and home to take to the Pergola as a faculty home on campus to so that new students could see for themselves those iridescent pearly those as far away as Singapore, chambers symbolic of such growth, the news came: terrorists had com- Yungaburra, and Hong Kong, and they bring special talents mandeered commercial aircraft and attacked the World Trade Center and and energy to our community. the Pentagon. When, an hour later, students, staff, and faculty were gath- We can sense already their salu- ered on the Pergola in the filtered morning sun, Mr. Mulligan held up a tary influence from the center nautilus and read the poem measuredly, paused, and then spoke briefly of campus out to all its corners about the events that had just transpired on the East Coast. More talk and beyond. Of the student body as a whole, a quarter receive finan- would follow later that day and in many days following–but for the cial aid; 22% are self-described as moment, a 113-year-old tradition kept us centered, reminded us students of color. Well over one third of why we are at Thacher and, perhaps, even, why we are on of the boarding population are from this earth, giving us some hope that while some things out of state, with Colorado and Illinois can be blown apart, others can cohere, can resist the contributing the highest number to the mix. Many in the School—129, in fact—are related forces of intentional dissolution, can repeat young to another enrolled student or to a graduate of and hold meaning one generation women Thacher, putting a different spin on the phrase “fam- after another. graduates— ily school.” Downright historic is this fact: matriculating and whose father, this fall as a freshman was the first child born to two CdeP2 Dave, and grandfather, grads: Will Oxley, whose mother, Marganne, was among the first Bruce, also earned Thacher diplomas. Connected in this particular way or not, the individuals who now comprise the 113th Thacher School are well on their way “to do[ing] the best work that [they] can,” in the exhortation of founder Sherman Day Thacher. And, as Mr. Mulligan concluded in his New Year’s Banquet speech, “When each of us does his or her best, starting now, something magical starts to happen: we become transformed, changed outwardly by an alchemy inside of ourselves that then, through our actions, begins to transform the world we live in. What starts in this school travels, through each of you, potentially far, far afield. And it has already begun.” 1smut: 9th grader, freshman; from campfire soot on faces when, on camping trips, the youngest students cleaned the pots 2CdeP: followed by a year indicates a graduate of Casa de Piedra (“House of Stone”), the original name of the ranch and the School 2 :: Parents’Post and their prefects and faculty camped), Santa Cruz Island (where WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE our campers worked on a water restoration project—and, seren- Choice way to start and end the dipitously, bore Cschool year at Thacher: pack up and Granted, [as the week goes on,] witness to the head off into the mountains, where the hiking gets easier and your recreation of the landscape itself offers particular pack gets lighter. At the same canoe-crossing solace and challenge and reminders of the channel by of our rightful place in the world. time, dirt gets embedded native Chumash, (Below, see photo of hikers atop a further into your skin, your the first in a cen- very big rock for visual proof.) Ex- fingernails fill with grime and tury), Kennedy posed to the elements at the summit Meadows and of a High Sierra peak, or tucked into your now-filthy hair can stand Jordan Hot a deep and shaded canyon of the Los completely on end. I always Springs, Horse- Padres, our students regain perspec- return with a terrific number of shoe Meadows, tive while testing their muscles and the Kern River, trekking on trails where other Toadly fond memories. Montaña del Oro (riding on the beach—yeehaw!), Sequoia Katie Kuhl ’03 National Park, the John Muir Trail, Evolution Valley, the Sespe River Wilderness, One of our most memorable Lake Sonoma, the feet have trod (and evenings involved watching the sunset Dick Smith Wilder- some blazing new ness, and Point trails). Routes and from an exposed campsite at 11,500 ft. Reyes. Three trips destinations this fall and seeing the sun and mountains melt pulled off trans- included Golden into the alpine lakes that comprised our Sierra hikes, each Trout Camp near Mt. covering around 70 Langley (the area horizon. miles during the five where all freshpeople Brian Pidduck CdeP ’92, days—no small feat Director of The Outdoor Program (even if some feet are small). MAGNETIC Drawn to the Ojai and Thacher primarily from distant points are a Dlively and gifted crew. Megan and Jason Carney, from Boston, have joined the English Department and Admission Office, respectively, and are living with the upper class boys in Upper School. Megan earned her BA from Princeton University and her M.Ed. from Har- vard’s Graduate School of Education; Jason earned his undergrad- uate degree in History from Villanova University. Both are serving as advisors to boys; Jason will also pace the hardwood this winter as one of our basketball coaches. Also moving west to us from New England is Abby Davis, who has joined the Science Department. Her BA is Fall 2001 :: 3 from Bowdoin College where she majored in biology and minored AP Environmental Science, earned her BA at UC San Diego and her in chemistry; she has also studied at Harvard and the University Col- MA from San Diego State and lives in the Ojai with her husband lege in London—as well as attended a 4-week mountaineering Kevin (an English teacher in Oxnard) and sons Will and Spencer. course offered by the National Outdoor Leadership School in Sara Sackner, who attended Cornell University and graduated from Wyoming’s Wind River Range. Melissa Johnson, a new assistant in Pratt Institute, counts as her most recent professional experience the Admission Office, also left Boston behind in coming to Thacher: producing exhibits for the Getty and serving as the Director of De- a Harvard grad, she was captain of the Varsity Women’s Basketball velopment at Ojai Valley School. Sara has taken up daytime residence team; she’s also participated in Outward Bound’s Summer Leader- in the Development Office, where she is Director of Annual Giving ship Semester. (Go ahead: guess what Melissa will be doing during and Alumni Affairs. Sara and husband Andy’s son Zach is a member of the freshman class; close on his heels are brothers Eli and Albert. All live in Ojai. OUR DAY OF REMEMBRANCE… …on September14 began the evening be- fore, with a meeting of the seniors and several faculty at the Head’s Home during which the group discussed ways in which the Thacher community could appropriately and more fully process the multiple tragedies of earlier in the week. From that thoughtful and heartfelt planning session emerged a day for which we are all very grateful: it began with an All-School gathering, from which we Front row: Megan Carney, Theana Hancock, Abby Davis, Kurt Supplee, Margo Buddhu; moved to smaller groups (all classes represented in each) for open back row: Jason Carney, Melissa Johnson, and Sara Sackner. discussion. Mid-morning, the community met at the Outdoor her extracurricular hours!) New to the Mathematics Department, Chapel for a service of prayer, reflection, song, and silent medita- though not to teaching, are Theana Hancock and Kurt Supplee, both tion, followed by the playing of taps and a raising and lowering to of whom taught most recently in Colorado. A native of Hawaii, half-mast of the American flag. Thereafter, students and faculty Theana earned both her BA and her MA from Colorado College; in were free to be on their own on the otherwise still and quiet cam- addition to teaching, she is coaching cross-country and track and is pus. In the evening, the campus emptied as students, faculty, fac- advising junior boys in Lee Quong. An avid and expert kayaker and ulty families, and staff took buses, vans, and cars down to Ojai to camper, Kurt—who graduated from the University of Oklahoma join in the Valley’s candlelight vigil, held under the towering oaks with a degree in Industrial Engineering—is coaching basketball and of Libbey Park in the town’s center. By evening’s end, some critical working in the Outdoor Program. From much closer by—down in and necessary healing had been done, and though it’s far from over, the Valley, to be precise—two others have come: Margo Buddhu, who the day helped many to move forward in personally meaningful joins the Science Department as a seasoned teacher of chemistry and ways.