Value of a Friends School education...

[PennJersey]

Obamas choose private Sidwell Friends School

The Associated Press
Saturday, November 22, 2008
WASHINGTON: President-elect Barack Obama and his wife have chosen Sidwell Friends School for their two daughters, opting for a private institution that another White House child, Chelsea Clinton, attended a decade ago.

"A number of great schools were considered," said Katie McCormick Lelyveld, a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama. "In the end, the Obamas selected the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need right now."

She said Sidwell can provide the security and privacy that Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, will need as part of the new first family and Sidwell can help with that. She also said that Sasha and Malia had become good friends with Vice President-elect Joe Biden's grandchildren, who go to the school.

Sidwell is a private Quaker school with a campus in northwest Washington for grades 5-12 and another in suburban Bethesda, Md., for kindergarten through fourth grade. Malia is in fifth grade and Sasha is in second grade, suggesting that the girls would attend schools at different locations.

Michelle Obama and her daughters visited Sidwell and another elite private school, Georgetown Day, earlier this week. The soon-to-be first lady visited both schools last week, without her daughters.

Lelyveld said that while public schools were considered, the Obamas felt that a private school was in the best interest of their children. The two girls currently attend the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where Michelle Obama is on the board.

Michelle Obama went to public schools on Chicago's South Side, and understands the importance of strong public schools, Lelyveld said, and the administration plans to work hard on that issue.

Jimmy Carter's daughter, Amy, went to a public school, but Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton chose Sidwell for Chelsea. Hillary Clinton later said she received "unfortunately, good advice" that the press would bother Chelsea if she attended public school.

Sidwell Friends has already proven protective of the Obamas' privacy, refusing earlier this week to say whether the girls had visited the school after a motorcade was seen outside.

Messages left with school administrators on Friday were not immediately returned. A woman who answered the phone at the home of Bruce Stewart, Sidwell's head of school, said he was not home. But she said the school would not release a statement before Monday.

Al Gore III, the son of former Vice President Al Gore, also attended Sidwell, where tuition is $28,442 at the lower school and $29,442 at the middle and upper schools.

The quality of the school and its extra security make Sidwell Friends a good choice, said Letitia Baldrige, who was Jackie Kennedy's social secretary and chief of staff during the Kennedy administration. Caroline Kennedy attended first grade in a makeshift third-floor classroom inside the White House.

"The children are under enormous pressure from the press and their fellow students and especially the mommies of their fellow students," who are eager for their children to attend sleepovers, Baldrige said.

"I'm sure they'll both be athletically inclined and play on all the sports teams, and they'll have a lot of fun," Baldrige said. "But it won't be easy."

Rob Lippincott, a member of the board of trustees at Sidwell, where his daughter is a high school senior, said he could not confirm whether the Obama girls had chosen the school. But he said if so, students and parents will be excited.

"We're obviously delighted if that is the case. I have not heard anything officially," said Lippincott, senior vice president for education at PBS. "I'm certainly aware they came and visited. From everything I understand, they'd be a great addition to the school."

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I find it no surprise that Obama is sending his daughters to a Friends school...they know what is up when it comes to education.

Henry

[Pineygirl]

Michelle Obama went to public schools on Chicago's South Side, and understands the importance of strong public schools, Lelyveld said, and the administration plans to work hard on that issue.

Yeppir, they're good enough for the masses.
"Just not good enough for MY children."
And someday, we'll plan to work hard on that issue.
Gotta love it!

[Arius]

Originally Posted by Pineygirl

Yeppir, they're good enough for the masses.
"Just not good enough for MY children."
And someday, we'll plan to work hard on that issue.
Gotta love it!

I do, I love people who can exercise choice. I thought this was the Republican way!!

[Pineygirl]

Nothing wrong with choosing a private school.

But when you run on a platform of being in tune "with the people," and when you make statements like you understand the importance of public schools..

...then "the people" would like you to put your kids where we have to put ours. Carter did it, and Nutter's doing it, so obviously it can be done.

[Arius]

Originally Posted by Pineygirl

Nothing wrong with choosing a private school.

But when you run on a platform of being in tune "with the people," and when you make statements like you understand the importance of public schools..

...then "the people" would like you to put your kids where we have to put ours. Carter did it, and Nutter's doing it, so obviously it can be done.

I would venture a guess that Obama, who lived as most of us do for most of his life, is more in tune with us than the alternatives were. His children may not be, but he sure is.

[Pineygirl]

Originally Posted by Arius

I would venture a guess that Obama, who lived as most of us do for most of his life.

Oh, really?

Did YOU grow up in a multicultural, multiracial household?

Was YOUR grandmom, who raised you, a prominent bank VP?

Did YOU go to private school?

Did YOU dash off to Indonesia, Hawaii, London, etc. while you were still in school?

Did YOU go to Columbia? Harvard?

Did YOU rise like a rocket in local politics?

Did YOU buy a million-dollar house in an upscale neighborhood, and get some extra land next door at a bargain?

[Sassygrl]

The kids deserve a safe private life. Amy Carter had a hellish experience with the press and it was unfortunate that her parents did not put her first by choosing private school. These kids did not run for office. They are not a political statement they are children and like any other parents, the Obamas will do what they think is best for them.

[oldhardhead]

I don't blame him for putting his kids in a private school.

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education concluded in A Nation at Risk : “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.”

Now some liberal politicians view it as a way to grant favors. The Cabinet-level Department Of Education was Carter's gift to the Education Unions.

If I recall, the high school graduation rate in Chicago is about 25%. Only 1 out of 4 kids graduate. Pretty bad.

We can see that's not what the Illinois Governor was focusing on!

Now IF Obama starts parroting the leftie's blather that got us into this mess in the first place, then we have a problem. No one seems to know anything about him, except that he has, shall we say, undesirable friends.

Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.
- Vladimir Lenin

Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.
-Vladimir Lenin

Let us NEVER elect anyone who thinks like Vladimir Lenin
- OHH

[Pineygirl]

Originally Posted by oldhardhead

Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.
- Vladimir Lenin

Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.
-Vladimir Lenin

We will bury you!
-Nikita Kruschiev

[njriverman]

I went to Westtown Friends which was more integrated than my local public school.

They have students from all over the world as well. They tried to teach us patience, acceptance and tolerance, and that all humans are children of God, and have an inner light.

Seeds that hopefully have grown in me over time.