As discourse surrounding how we relate to one another in communities small and large becomes increasingly heated and polarized, it’s crucial that Thacher clarifies and articulates where we stand as an institution.

 

Thacher values diversity because we believe that our community is strengthened by including students and adults from a wide range of backgrounds. We also believe that Thacher and independent high schools across our nation need to be engines of opportunity, which requires us to be welcoming of students and families from all walks of life. To deliver on this responsibility, we must ensure that we create conditions that allow a broad range of students and families to feel like they will be seen, valued, and supported at Thacher. By welcoming each individual’s full self, we create conditions that give all students the opportunity to thrive.

 

In committing to equity, we simply embrace the responsibility to create conditions that allow all community members to thrive at Thacher. The more subtle and broadly shared work lies in assuring that all students in our care feel that they belong in this community and that their presence matters.

 

The end goal of our efforts in constructing community is to reach a point where the sense of belonging felt by students at Thacher is not a function of one’s identity. In other words, no aspect of a student’s identity (gender, race, sexuality, religion, socioeconomic status, etc.) would be predictive of the degree to which they felt a full, unrestricted sense of belonging in our community. This is not to say that all individuals will feel an equal or constant sense of belonging, but rather that in aggregate, that feeling will not be based on factors beyond the individual’s control. 

 

We follow two main strategies in pursuit of this ideal. The first is to construct and reinforce avenues of belonging. We seek to create settings and endeavors where students feel connected to peers and perceive that their presence and contributions matter. Many of these are in place on day one of ninth grade: a prefect group, a riding group, five academic classes, an advisory, a dorm community, a camping group, a community dinner table. Others are chosen as individuals design their Thacher experience: a team sport, an affinity group, any of the dozens of student-led clubs, a trail work crew on a Saturday, a group of community service volunteers, and countless more. Whether chosen by the student or designed by the institution, the stronger and more numerous the connections, the better to serve our goals.

 

Just as we seek to build the architecture that fosters this ideal, we also must identify and deconstruct obstacles to a full sense of belonging. Harmful stereotypes, epithets, and other actions that marginalize individuals based on their identities substantially undermine our pursuit of this goal. All community members have a responsibility to prevent them and to address them directly when we are unable to prevent them. There are plenty of other obstacles that we should also seek to mitigate, such as echo chambers and hateful discourse on social media, bullying and other unkind social behaviors, loneliness and isolation. Schoolwide systems, structures, policies, and practices should be scrutinized so that they don’t by design favor specific groups at the expense of others.

 

The final key tool in our efforts to construct the community that our students deserve is the concept of mattering. Feelings of belonging are bolstered when individuals perceive that their presence, their contributions, their relationships with adults and peers, and their unique characteristics matter to the success of a broader endeavor. In building a small, close-knit community with big ambitions, Thacher creates a web of purposefully constructed situations, from a class presentation to community dinner to a backcountry campsite to a playoff game, where the contributions of each individual are recognized, appreciated, and essential.

 

Thus, the constant and never-ending goal of our efforts in community and culture is to sustain, reinforce, and expand avenues of belonging where every student is seen and known while minimizing and combatting obstacles towards that end. This work is not simply about historically marginalized identities. When we are successful, each student feels that their full self—as a tuba player, as a child of immigrants, as a Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast, as a member of a faith community, as a queer person, as a complex mix of identities—belongs in this community, knowing that their unique contributions to the greater good are valued and celebrated. This is kindness.

 

None of this is to say that students and adults at Thacher will or should be shielded from uncomfortable ideas or diverse perspectives. On the contrary, viewpoint diversity and respectful disagreement are fundamental to the education that we seek to provide, in alignment with our policies on civil discourse and dialogue principles. We strive to model and practice the critically important ability to communicate effectively and respectfully across difference.

 

Finally, we reject the notion of any form of ideological dogma. Independent schools should foster environments where every student—no matter their backgrounds—can evolve their own sense of self and their understanding of who they want to become as an adult. As adolescents undergo the process of individuation, it is healthy, natural, and desirable for them to explore and assess different viewpoints, ideologies, and intellectual frameworks. Towards that end, adults, peer groups, or organizational cultures that dictate what one should believe or think are incongruous to the work of our school.