Poll | 11/16/2008 11:00 pm

Should Malia and Sasha Obama go to public school or private school?

Read more about: Barack Obama, Education, Obamas, Presidency

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Frankly, this is a private matter that is no business of ours. But … as long as you have asked, at the present time the Obama children are going to what is undoubtedly the best private school in the country - the University of Chicago Lab School. They actually teach Chinese at third grade, and take the kids at a young age to China to live with families there and speak the language on site. And that is just one of the most amazing and creative ways they teach, using teaching tools so inventive and new that they have not yet reached the world outside this school. (I too had my whole education there and still have never seen its like). After saying that, there is no doubt that as long as they have to move to Washington, they will look for the “next best” for their children — and of course, it will be small classes and private.

By joan larsen on 11/14/2008 12:53 am

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Joanie…..Oh my…This explains why I am so stupid! The south had never even heard of “lab schools” back then and probably still hasn’t. But, I knew the girls were going to a great school, just didn’t know to what extent. That just sounds amazing! I am hoping that Obama will eventually get around to upgrading public schools for all of our young people coming along. However, I am with you that it would not be in the best interests of these precious little girls to not consider all of the above. Did you see 60 minutes last night where Steve Croft asked the Obamas just this question. They handled it with aplomp as they always do and said like every parent, the decision would be theirs alone.

By Agyness O on 11/17/2008 2:19 pm

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Agy … See — you didn’t know your best friend was one of the elite and at one time — long ago - was unfortunately called “The Brain” in the hallways of that esteemed school. I was 14 when I graduated from the high school there - and you heard of the Quiz Kids — well … You get the idea . . . fortunately no one has ever called me “The Brain” since - at least in my hearing. In the senior class yearbook, my proudest achievement was that they didn’t play up the intelligence but instead said RIGHT NEXT TO MY NAME: Best figure in the school and most well-travelled (not a mention of the ungodly nickname). They had - still have - a U of C Nursery School - and there I sit at ages 3 and 4 with many of my future classmates - with those shoes that came above the ankles that you could not ignore. As for 60 Minutes, what I saw and have seen before is the bits of underlying friction between the two over something he says that should be too small to comment on. She does not let him get by with anything - and he tries to brush it off but looks apart, she already is a lady to be reckoned with and smarter than smart. That is my thinking!!!

By joan larsen on 11/17/2008 2:35 pm

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Joan, you graduated from Chicago Lab School? John Dewey´s Lab School? When I was at teacher´s college I learned all about it and I was (and still am - as you can tell) very intrigued with it. My knowledge is only theoretical, of course, so it´s very thrilling to hear of someone who actually went there. Did you know we got a Lab School in Germany (Bielefeld) that was inspired by the one in Chicago?

By Jane Cougar Melonhat on 11/17/2008 3:00 pm

Hey, Melonhat….I haven’t seen you in just ages! We were talking about you just the other day and want you to join us in our new endeaver which is called OFTER. I told Joanie that you would have the gerrman language skills if Obama and our new club go international. To catch up on all the details….go to the Mary Wells thread about staying comfy in winter with sweaters. Hope you will join and good to see you. And, you must be really smart, too, if you know all about the “Lab Schools”!

By Agyness O on 11/17/2008 4:41 pm

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Jane - hi - I think we have passed in the night — and from now on, we have to stop that and sit and write!! Are you FROM Germany — and NO, I didn’t know there was something similar there — — but I would love to hear more. How it got started - everything! As for me and the Lab, I have very selective memory of my years there, but it was the kind of school that you bonded with certain people and they remain my best friends to this day. There was an exam to get in — but what I remember most, was - as I said I graduated from U-High (Lab School) at 14. Probably 4 months before, we all sat for an 8-hour exam to see if we were smart enough to get into U of C. I still have the letter of acceptance somewhere upstairs, but many of my smart friends didn’t make it which surprised me. BUT - and this is big - I was 14 going on 10 — very innocent, very young for my age - and my mother (my father had died) said that I was far too young to go to college. I didn’t get it — I was that young and went along just fine. So after searching the country, she found one of two co-ed (at the time) finishing (boarding) schools, and that was where I landed — and found those years the best in my life I think. Strict as anything, rules galore, Ms. Wells would approve of how we dressed, as we dressed for meals and boys wore ties and sport jackets to class. Ms. Wells would have been in her glory there. A number of famous names — but we were kids and didn’t care. Easy then to be top of the class of 25 boys, 25 girls, and then made the run for college. Making up for lost time, I buzzed through with a marketing degree and more in 3 years, complete with engagement ring, at 19 and got a job at a prestigious company. But through all this, I was still a very young girl — and still innocent. Oh - in a huge college - those were the old days when women did only certain things - and I was the only woman Bus. Ad. grad. . and very very competitive. P.S. That is why Agy and I get along so well — she and I vy for how clever and silly we can be — and darn it! Agyness wins big time every time. You can’t win ‘em all. Tell me more.

By joan larsen on 11/17/2008 5:24 pm

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Oh my, Joan, I wish I was half as smart as you are. You sound like you have some interesting stories to tell (we really seem to have passed in the night - I will have to do some catch up on your comments). Okay, the German Lab School. The premises are pretty much the same as the ones in Chicago. It was founded as an affiliation of the Bielefeld university. But unlike Chicago the “Laborschule” is a public school, sponsored by the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. It´s purpose is to develop and test new forms of education. It was founded in 1974 by Hartmut von Hentig who studied at the university of Chicago in the 1940s (that´s where he got the idea from). Like Dewey he saw school as a democratic community (he calls it “polis”). There are no classes but learning groups and the architectural design serves this purpose. There was a conscious decision that only 5% of the students should come from a wealthy background. Okay, so much in short, I could talk for hours about the pedagogical background and organization - but I certainly don´t want to put you to sleep. Oh, and yes, I am a German.

By Jane Cougar Melonhat on 11/18/2008 1:29 am

Jane . . . Life IS fascinating, isn’t it? One never can know it all, and NO, I didn’t know anything about the German Lab School at all … but I’ll be pulling the facts up on Google very soon. If you pull up MY Lab School, I bet you can ask to be put on the mailing list for their wonderful newsletter which is filled usually with the latest programs they are incorporating. That’s where I heard about the children going over to China after being taught Chinese — now that is innovative stuff!!! IF you have written about your background already, I will look it up — but if you haven’t — then DO tell me what have you done with the education you have gotten - and WAS it in Germany entirely — or here also? I imagine you - as I do - find it so interesting to find the directions in life - the roads others have trod - and the offshots of our original plans we have gotten involved in. It might be an interesting question thrown out here, as we could have been writing each other back and forth forever and not known we had much more common ground than we thought. And I am going to bed . ..

By joan larsen on 11/18/2008 2:03 am

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I didn´t write much about my background so far. I got all my education in Germany - not counting the time I was an exchange student at an American highschool - and I would rather file this under life experience than education. What do I do with the education I´ve gotten? I pass it on. First to elementary school kids and now to college students. I´m a sucker for knowledge and experiences. I´m constantly trying to broaden my horizon. I think I am still a child inside, you know, walking through this world with eyes wide open, always stumbling over things I don´t know anything about or at least not much, but sure want to learn about them. Try new things, travel. I appreciate people from different backgrounds because I can learn from them, their life experience and their point of view. That´s the main reason I came to this site. I hope I´m making any sense. I think I caught the flu - my brain feels like cotton candy - a feeling I don´t like at all. Anyway, hope you got an idea about me.

By Jane Cougar Melonhat on 11/18/2008 9:43 am

Jane . . . if you need a nurse I will come. And we know each other now — and want to much better — as you think as I think and always have. I think people would say about me: she leaves no stone unturned - ever. I am fascinated with the new, willing to follow other paths to learn, and I think - like you - I am a sponge. A gigantic sponge. (And speaking of sponges, I am heavy into the underwater world as a sidelight - well, one of many). All the rest of the regulars know that I hold political office - and have for years - in my state. And there are times, when I have to slack off on this fun thing we do on WOW and stick to the straight and narrow. I’m at work - taking a tiny break - but working on a new pay scale that I will be presenting on Thursday night. I say that only to say that I am swamped before that time, so write when you are not flat on your back still — and just know, I will be looking and I always respond - but it may be at week’s end the way it looks. First things first as I am careful that taxpayer money is used wisely. I am THE OWL!!! Get well - and we have to talk, don’t we?? I am already excited!!!! Joanie

By joan larsen on 11/18/2008 2:35 pm

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Hi Jane and Joan … just a quick greeting … and a quick ‘wow’: I haven’t been on this site lately … just peeking in tonight and finding your lovely discussion:I am chuckling to find my little old home town in these pages … I grew up in Bielefeld (no kidding!) - and although I left to study in Berlin (for a diploma in Education, plus Film Studies as a second degree), I know not only about it but also know a lot of children, the kids of my old friends, who were/are attending the LaborSchule … it’s so great to have these virtual global connections popping up … Cheers.U.

By Ulla on 11/19/2008 1:33 am

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Hi Ulla, Jane will go wild - I know Jane now - when she finds someone who has their beginnings in Germany. Love this site for so many things but coincidences of this magnitude — rare I would say. And wonderful. It is like a shot in the arm, a lift, common ground of the first magnitude. YOUR background intrigues me as Jane’s did. Are you teaching, in film, wish you were in one or the other, or did you branch out on another road as some of us did - realizing that the broadening of our minds was something we wouldn’t have missed for anything? Where did you go from there - and why? My sense of curiosity always is high? But, not knowing Bielefeld (and I get the idea that I should be embarrassed as I have done the touristy things of Germany - but si the LaborSchule country-renowned? Connected at all to a university? Large? Small? Lab School in Chicago has about 1800 kids now but I presume classes are small and I recently read that median teacher salaries were $75,000, probably higher now. The creme of the crop. I plan to read up on it definitely … and while I thought I was well read, I had not heard of it (head hanging). Come back on - and we will start talking about your home town first, the school, and then take off from there. But tell us about you, will you, as we have become quite ingrown over time. I take it you moved over - maybe not — but if so, was the trade-off worthwhile? Pardon my million questions - we will blame it all on the Lab School that taught you how to question, probe, and so much more.

By joan larsen on 11/19/2008 6:42 am

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Hi Joan Larsen, … thank you so much for your note and your interest in my background! I’ve read many of your insightful posts and whatever state has you in office should be glad! (and yes, lovely Jane Melonhat and I have also met -virtually- thru these pages… ) The Buddhist poet Milarepa is quoted as saying “Just to leave one’s homeland is to accomplish half the Dharma …” Nice that you have been to Germany, and: no need to be embarrassed about not knowing Bielefeld (most certainly not on the tourist track, just a small old industrial town - in the ‘rag trade’ as they would say here in NY - a linen-weaver’s place since the 13th century and still producing fashionable shirts etc., a.o. things ) - To reiterate: I did not attend the LaborSchule (but some of my friend’s children did/do - and it seems that all of my old home-town friends are in education: teachers, social workers, librarians …) - I left there when the university (and the LabSchool) had just started - and was very happy to ‘escape’ to university in the big city - Berlin - Berlin in the 70’s - any political hippie chick’s dream … … from there I moved to New York in the late 80’s - and have been here ever since. And yes, it is great to have so many different areas explored in one’s life: with my diploma in education I worked mostly with immigrant youths and street theatre in Berlin; then I wanted to be more ‘artsy’ and when art school didn’t accept me, film school did - and so I went on to become a producer, there and then here, for TV and American independents etc. … and then a marketing director for post-production services (and many little detours along the way: co-owning a health-food store for a while, marriage/divorce, some teaching, writing, moderating, translating etc. etc..) … and the past couple of years I had to take a break from the ‘film biz’ - actually spending a lot of time in Germany again, with my ailing father (since passed on) - and now I am at that old crossroads (again): ‘what’s next’ … Europe has changed so much and I am intrigued ( … and life here is pretty hard right now …) Well, here’s hoping it’ll all sort itself out (and not only for me…) … So, there you are, me in a nutshell - thanks again for asking! Cheers, U. PS. re. another thread (a while ago) where you posted a lovely story about Kyoto (finding wood print blocks) … I commented on it, but I’m still not clear from your answer there, if it was your story or quoted … ?! let me know!

By Ulla on 11/22/2008 1:32 pm

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Ulla … I have so many different topics with you and Jane that I want to get into — your life is fascinating to say the least, and I want to hear more. If you would like, as Jane just wrote me, I always hesitate to put e-mail on, but I did for her on page 2 of this I think - just now. We could write more if you like off line as well as on — it’s up to you. As I explained to her, my e-mail address reflects my total interest in the polar regions, but that is one a piece of my interests — just like with you. To reiterate from Jane’s piece just ahead, I am on overload as i am leaving for MN for Thanksgiving for a week — and can get back to normal hopefully right after. And on Kyoto - my first writing skipped and didn’t give credit to Don George - one of the most wonderful writers on the planet. Oops - computer balking.

By joan larsen on 11/22/2008 2:27 pm

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Ulla honey, so great to see you again! How you doing? I sure missed you. You haven´t been here in ages. I took a break from wOw myself. Things were getting too ugly. So you grew up in Bielefeld, huh? Education, huh? Though I´m from the south we seem to have some things in common.

By Jane Cougar Melonhat on 11/22/2008 11:30 am