Politics | 11/21/2008 4:15 pm

Obama Girls Headed to Sidwell Friends

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

Contrary to speculation, President-elect Obama’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, will be attending Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC. Mercury News elaborates:

President-elect Barack Obama and his wife have chosen private Sidwell Friends School in Washington for their two daughters.
A spokeswoman for Michelle Obama, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, says the Obamas considered several schools for ten-year-old Malia and seven-year-old Sasha but decided Sidwell Friends was the best fit.

Sidwell Friends is a private Quaker school in northwest Washington that Chelsea Clinton attended.

Many believed that the girls would attend Georgetown Day School, but obviously the Obama family decided otherwise. We wish the girls lots of luck, but know that they won’t need it — their father’s the new president! They’re automatically the most popular girls on that campus!

49 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

If you think Cook County is bad, you should take a look at DuPage County which is right next to Cook and where I live. I’m about 15 miles from Downtown Chicago in a Western Suburb. Our taxes in my particular town are very high, but the public schools are excellent. I have to repeat though, it was a sacrifice for us to move here but we did it for the schools.

By DeBúrca obj on 11/23/2008 8:53 pm

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Yes DuPage is right up there…It really does amaze us to see the amount of taxes paid in IL.

By C Hardy on 11/23/2008 9:16 pm

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It’s really a ridiculous amount of money per year. I don’t know about other states, but Illinois funds it’s schools so poorly that individual communities make it up through property taxes, so, what happens is that the public school system is very unfair and will range from excellent schools to very deficient schools depending upon the tax base of the neighborhood. I am a very strong supporter of a good public school system, but I do not think funding it with property taxes is the way to go.

By DeBúrca obj on 11/23/2008 9:29 pm

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From the little that I know about my state I think we are the same way…Property Taxes fund public schools and its the same. We have some counties that has excellent schools yet our City Schools are awful. Then you have some counties that are richer than others and of course those schools are the best but to live in those counties, the cost of homes and property taxes are just way too much for working folk, like myself and my husband can afford.

By C Hardy on 11/23/2008 9:33 pm

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De B, I understand what that sacrifice for your children’s education means, but didn’t realize it until I was older. I was born and raised in Oak Park, IL about a zillion years ago. My parents weren’t wealthy but I was sent to a Catholic school where there was tuition to be paid and uniforms to be purchased until High School. My mom was a stay-at-home mom, and it didn’t dawn on me that until I entered Public High School that my parents never took a vacation alone so they could afford to give me a quality education. My mom and I would travel with my grandmother on long trips and dad always stayed home and worked. I am forever grateful for what mom and dad did for me. I would imagine both the President-Elect and future First Lady feel the same way about their families sacrifice for them. I don’t understand why some posting earlier in this thread are making this a ‘political issue.’ It doesn’t make any sense to me. How about you? CA

By C A Rose on 11/24/2008 12:35 am

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I think some people, particularly one earlier in this thread, are just looking at every single decision and action that Obama makes and saying “so much for change”… just to go negative. I love Oak Park. A niece of mine is living there at the moment and that is where we’ll be celebrating Christmas Eve again this year.

By DeBúrca obj on 11/24/2008 9:53 am

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DeB, It would be presumptuous for me to speculate why the Obamas chose Sidwell Friends rather than another school of similar caliber in the metropolitan D.C. area. However, the reason I considered Sidwell was because the school was the most diverse of the schools in that academic category. Also, many children from ‘Embassy Row’ attended Sidwell Friends, which somewhat explains why the school was chosen by past Presidents. I opted for schools closer to my home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Although I chose St. Albans for all the summer programs/camps.

By Maizie James on 11/21/2008 8:49 pm

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Maybe it was the school the girls preferred. All schools have their own individual vibe.

By DeBúrca obj on 11/21/2008 9:02 pm

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DeB, If what you suggest is true, it’s certainly a ‘win win’ situation for the entire family. If the children are happy, then their parents probably feel joy and relieved. And you are right. Most (private) schools have their own ‘vibe’. My situation was the exact opposite. I had to pull my middle son out of the school he loved, because my son inadvertently became the ‘token’ kid. He was popular, smart, AND the favorite of the four African American students in attendance. Nope!! I could not let my son have his way. He needed structure, and his father and I were not going to allow him to become the ‘mascot’ of sorts. We oped for Blessed Sacrament, (Pat Buchanan’s Alma Mater). It was in the neighborhood. A few of the neighbors’ children attended Blessed Sacrament. And, eventually my son grew to love his new school .. AND he excelled. Often, as parents, we have to make choices which might disappoint our children initially. Yet, in the long term, those decisions work out for the best interest of the child.

By Maizie James on 11/21/2008 9:47 pm

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Oh hell, maybe the school choose them. Just kidding, on with life for the new First Family. I wish them the best, most of all kindness.

By central coast cabin home on 11/22/2008 12:37 am

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I certainly don’t blame the Obamas for enrolling their daughters in a private school, but I also do not believe it is possible for anyone whose children are not in a public school to have even a minimal understanding or comprehension of what our public school system is like these days. Without that understanding and knowledge, how can someone possibly know what to do about it?

By Jane Goodwin on 11/22/2008 1:53 am

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I went to a private Quaker college for two years and it was a really great experience, It makes sense to me that they would attract a diverse group of students with their philosophy, they seem to be very open, practical minded, education oriented and non judgmental. I am sure that is a good type of environment. Considering the fact the Nixon girls went there it is hard to say it is a bastion of liberal elites just because Chelsea also attended.

By g c on 11/22/2008 9:48 am

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gc, I lived in an ‘elite’ suburb of Washington DC until 2000. As far as DC area schools which might be considered, “a bastion of liberal elites” … Georgetown Prep, YES. Saint Albans, YES. National Cathedral School (For Girls), YES. The Connolly School For Girls (Potomac), YES. Sidwell Friends, NO. Actually, many parents PREFER Sidwell Friends, precisely because it is NOT considered ‘elitist’.

By Maizie James on 11/22/2008 3:35 pm

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Maizie, I certainly don’t know the terrain of DC or the schools involved, I primarily was commenting on the fact that the Quaker school I went to and the Quakers I know happen to be very practical minded people and certainly not prone to “putting on airs” they in general seem much more concerned with the community around them locally and the world at large. I didn’t mean to infer that the school was for liberal elites just the fact that if Nixons daughters attended it would be more difficult to paint the school with such a broad brush like some people like to do.

By g c on 11/22/2008 6:05 pm

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gc, Thank you for explaining. My experience at my school was similar. Actually, I did not correlate Tricia and Julie Nixon’s attendance at Sidwell Friends with ANY ‘theory’, except that Sidwell Friends made sense as the best choice for them, because Richard Nixon was raised as a Quaker. All the best to you.

By Maizie James on 11/22/2008 6:46 pm