All of us who have had private school education were well aware of Sidwell Friends School — and after beginning their education at the U of C Lab School - the absolute best - the Obamas certainly wanted to continue at a close level for their children. For those who “jump” at Quakers, most of us went to schools that had a religion in its founding. We may not have belonged to that faith, most did not, but the chapel requirements were not to sway us, but just something we “did”. Sidwell - like Lab School - has such high standards that it opens the doors to Harvard in particular, but to all the better schools. With parents as Harvard grads, I have found that often the parents have hopes that their own children will follow in their footsteps. Why not? But it doesn’t always work that way - at least in the beginnings - and we all should have choices that we make ourselves. Choices can be altered. In the meantime, you have had a good education there. My own closest friends at this stage of life still are those that shared that education with me — and the bond is huge. Sidwell has always been considered offering top education, and if there are choices, why wouldn’t we want our own children to have the best? For those with more limited resources and high grades, scholarships are offered as they are at top schools, so I would never say never in trying to apply no matter what with children who excel.

“Champions of the school note that its ability to accommodate the president’s daughters’ security detail — plus its history of ensuring the privacy of past high-level students — sealed the school’s selection by the Obama family.” Well there you go, we now have our answer as to why they chose Sidwell. It is suppossedly a really good school, so let’s hope the girls do as well if not better than past children of presidents.

It sounds like a very good choice … not just regarding the accommodation of practicalities, but particularly the school’s philosophy … raised in post-WWII Germany, I always heard my mother (a child herself during the war) speak with immense gratitude and admiration of the ‘Quaker Packages’ they received after the war … she always lobbied for me to become a teacher in a similar tradition … I often thought of that when I moved to the US, and I really love the Friend’s School here in our neighborhood, which was one of the first places after 9/11 to offer an amazing event with spiritual and political speakers …

As a child, I was at first upset with the Quakers…they cut down my ‘forest’ —the one I played in every day, to build a church. Then they bought my girl scout cookies, even though I was a Brownie, and everything was OK. HA! Then they invited me to come to church one day—just to see what I thought. As my granfather was a minister, who gave ‘long’ sermons (what, I was just a child), at first I was thankful that I wasn’t getting a ‘lecture’, followed by the squirmishness of sitting in a circle, no one talking, and everybody looking at everybody else! I will NEVER forget it. College was Private—-Presbyterian—and I do remember having required chapel visits each morning….but when I took a graduate class at a State University, I discovered that in Grad School, I was using the SAME textbook that I used in my Junior year in College. I changed Grad Schools…went to a Catholic school…by that time, chapel requirements were no more…but ‘education’ was still a priority….thank goodness! And I was not a ‘number’ either….Private schools allow one to expand themselves, not just their brains….I am all for them.

I love the philosophy of the Quakers as well as the fact that they have always advocated for the education of women (to me, at least based upon what I have read about the Quakers, it seems to be Christianity at its best) . The Obama children are very lucky to have the opportunity to attend this school. I am a huge supporter of GOOD public schools (though so often they are underfunded) but I certainly can see why the Obama children would be attending a private school.

My mother insisted that I attend private school until I graduated from high school. She had been appalled by the conduct of the students at the pubkic shcools that we visited. That was over fifty-four years ago. I swore that I would never send my children to private school. My two oldest managed to survive a public school education but when my youngest was heading off to high school, I decided that her needs would be better met by attending a private high school. She recently graduated from Vassar College, Phi Beta Kappa with Distinction, and a host of other academic achievements. Could she have fared as well with a public education? It’s possible, but the differences that exist between most private and public institutions are often vast. Things like state-of-the-art labs and teachers for the sciences much less the classes in art and music that are offered in orivate schools and have all but disappeared in most public institutions. My daughter’s classes at Vassar were always taught by professors with PhD’s and not by graduate student’s or T/A’s, a common practice at west coast state colleges and universities. I can’t speak for all students, but in my daughter’s case, a private school education has benefited her enormously.