Balance

August 25, 2023

Thaden Families,

As we set the new academic year into motion, I am reminded of Einstein’s observation that “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you need to keep moving.” The great physicist and humanist recognized that balance – in all matters – is not a static state, but a dynamic one that requires motion: the ability to revolve and evolve.

A Thaden education is designed to help our Barnstormers achieve this balance of heart and mind through a course of study that encompasses many disciplines and modes of inquiry across the sciences and the humanities. We invite them to examine questions and issues from multiple points of view with care and empathy. We invite them to move across campus and enlarge their social circles and interests. We invite them to embrace the essential diversity of our learning community – our most valuable educational resource – so they can learn to see, understand, and appreciate the richness and complexity of our world.

Even our logo – an image soaring with possibilities – is designed to resist single interpretation. Is it a plane, a nod to Louise Thaden and her pioneering achievements in aviation? Is it an open book filled with the curiosity and scholarship that we seek to ignite in our community of lifelong learners? Is it a bale of hay on a freshly cut field, nourishment waiting to be rolled into a barn? Or is it a wheel riding on a string, a symbol that expresses our mission as a school that provides a “balanced and challenging” education?

Indeed, balance is challenging. I can recall the fears, tears, and frustrations leading up to that moment of exhilaration when each of my three children finally found the balance to ride a bike. There will be some skinned knees as we learn to ride the Thaden School experience, but we are ready to support our students on the road to independence.

Together we roll!

Clayton K. Marsh
Founding Head of School