For the record, not my intention to compare the Thacher thing to the sex abuse scandal at Choate. I didn’t say what the issue at Choate was, for that very reason. If anyone searched online for Thacher and sex scandal, I wouldn’t want anything to come up. But too late now…
I was just observing how Choate handled their issue. Which Thacher should have emulated - they told their community, but something on the website would’ve been a good idea, too.
Thacher had an opportunity to put something out that stated:: one of their trustees was implicated in the Singer thing, but to their knowledge the school was not involved. Moreover, the trustee is no longer involved with the school at all - such is Thacher’s commitment to Honor, Fairness, Kindness and Truth.
Boom. Done. It would turn a negative into a positive. People can, and did, find out about the Thacher trustee, and Thacher missed an opportunity to control the story. Someone wanting to talk about the story is not an attack on Thacher. Don’t blame the people seeking more information about something both topical and personal to the decision of where to apply to schools.
Expecting information from Thacher has nothing to do with being allergic to manual labor or disliking core values.
Again, you misinterpreted my comment.
My point is that there are lots of wonderful kids who don’t like getting up early to shovel horse manure and who aren’t into backpacking and camping (I was one of them!) Thank goodness there are lots of other wonderful schools for them to attend. I’m sure those schools find other ways to create a tightly-knit culture and teach character and values. The horse and outdoor programs are Thacher’s way of doing that and I have been very impressed with the results.
I still don’t agree with or understand your personal need/desire for more information, including trustee bios (which a LOT of schools don’t post on their website, either, including Middlesex, Hotchkiss, and others). Yes, it would be nice to be able to read them… but it doesn’t bother me that I can’t and I’ve never seen you critique other schools for not featuring trustee bios. Does it only bother you in Thacher’s case?
You know what I care about more than trustee bios? Seeing a school with women in positions of power and a board of trustees with gender parity. Very few schools (including Cate) have that.
Know what I am not interested in? Making this discussion some warped contest. Which happened about two pages ago.
Peace Out.
Ps. I am into gender (and all) parity, too.
Ok, in a debate you get to raise your issue and prove your point. Likewise, you get to point out inconsistencies and flaws in thinking. I am just going to point out that liking or not liking horses and their waste product does not make someone a good community member or show if a kid likes/does not like manual labor. It only shows if a kid likes horses and their care. Period.
Having information on a school in any form up to and including bios of trustees can be helpful to all. Again, this is not related in any way to gender parity. Some schools post bios and have little to no gender, income, or other diversity. And some school post no bios and have all of the diversity one would ever see.
Kids select schools for a whole variety of reasons which are meaningful to them and to their parents.
We can’t criticize other people’s choices. My kids would never apply to Thacher for a couple of reasons: they don’t want to be in CA, they don’t want such a small school and they don’t want to spend time on horses. But they love camping, the outdoor and have done some riding ( which they like). One even did an international camping/hiking trip recently. Personal choices.
I think criticizing people who want different things is a bit narrow minded. There are lots of great choices for lots of great kids.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
However, this discussion is simply beating a dead horse. Move the conversation forward, please.
Quite funny re: dead horse. Happy to move on.