Malia and Sasha at Sidwell Friends

As with most American children this morning, Malia and Sasha Obama woke up, yawned, rubbed their eyes, and prepared to return to school after winter vacation. Unlike most children, they will be attending a different school than in December, when their vacation began. If I were able to work at this time, I too would have headed back to my Quaker school classroom, room five in the Language Building at Friends' Central School, just outside Philadelphia.

I don't know much about the Chicago Laboratory School, where the Obama daugheters attended back home, other than it's a private school with a fine reputation. Sidwell Friends School, their new school in Washington, DC, is another private school -- one of many in the District of Columbia and the surrounding suburbs. What sets it apart is that it is a Quaker school. Yes, it's a private institution, but the atmosphere -- the essence if you will -- of the school is why Michelle and Barack Obama chose to send their children there.

In her November Time article, "Why Sasha and Malia Will Go to Sidwell Friends," Nancy Gibbs describes not only Sidwell as an educational institution, but also how Quaker history informs how children are taught in a Friends school. She points out, particularly, the Quaker principle of "the inner Light," that of the Divine within every person, which guides behavior both inside and outside of the classroom.

This religious principle, therefore, is not simply theoretical but practical. It defines who everyone is -- teachers, students, administrators, and non-teaching staff. It also determines how they work with one another each and every moment of the day: in a classroom, on the playground, on the sports field, on the stage, in the offices, and on the buses to and from school.

How is a Friends school such as Sidwell different from any other fine private school? The main stream press has had a tendency to accuse Friends schools of being not only elite but elitist.

On the surface, that may appear to be true. The tuition at many Quaker schools is very high (in the high twenties at Sidewell). Most students who attend and most teachers who teach there are not Quaker. The curriculum looks to be very similar to any very good curriculum, with a high value placed on higher level thinking and expressive skills. There is also a great emphasis on the development of close working relationships between students and their teachers.

Many large Friends schools that graduate twelfth graders tend to put considerable focus on college guidance and placement as a large part of their twelfth-graders' experience. Indeed, it is not uncommon for graduates to be admitted to the "best" colleges in the country.

You may ask, "Hey, doesn't any fine school -- private or public -- do just that?" Certainly. Nonetheless, there is a difference. Paul Lacey, in Growing into Goodness: Essays on Quaker Education, states that it's very hard to quantify the unique qualities of a Quaker school. He points out that there is an "ethos" that exists within a Friends school that's just not evident in a non-Friends school.

That still seems pretty vague, to rely upon an "ethos," a feeling that is intangible. In his article "Towards a Clearer View of Quaker Education," Sam Caldwell attempts to quantify elements unique to Friends education. He states that, in order to understand a Quaker school, we must focus on the aims instead of the methods of instruction. I rephrase it to say we need to look at the "why" of education instead of simply the "how."

According to Caldwell, Friends schools "seek to nurture a particular sort of personhood,"someone who has, as Rufus Jones coined it, "eyes for invisibles." Ideally, Friends schools nurture:

• "a person who knows deep down that what we see, taste, touch, smell, and hear is not all there is in life...
• "a person who, in an age of rampant materialism, has firsthand experience of the reality and importance of the Spirit in life...
• "a person who is rooted as much in the unseen as in the seen, as much in the spiritual as in the physical...
• "a person who has a capacity for reverence, and who is as well-equipped to worship as to work...
• "a person who has learned that truth, beauty, goodness, and love are evidence of the transforming power of the Spirit among us...
• "a person who regards all of life as potentially revelatory of the Spirit...
• "a person who is optimistic about the capacity of love and goodwill to mend the affairs of humanity...
• "a person who has begun to develop the courage to testify outwardly to what he or she knows inwardly...
• "a person who has the courage to follow the inward argument where it leads..."

These are, of course, ideals. There is no such thing as a "perfect" Friends school because education and life are "messy." As in life, there are ups and downs in the experience of children in any school. As a teacher, I try to keep Caldwell's principles in mind so as to nurture my students as best as I can. Plus, it is my job to offer them structure every day, support them during those messy times, and celebrate those moments when all is going extremely well.

It is my hope that Sasha and Malia Obama thrive at Sidwell Friends School. It is a given that they will learn in the classroom and that they will enjoy the times they have with the many friends they make. Beyond those experiences, however, I hope, as they grow over the upcoming years, that they will also develop "eyes for invisibles" -- the true essence of Quaker education.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(If you wish to comment, please click the tiny word "comments" just below here and a comment box will appear.)