Imagine my glee this morning, after bailing out my morning Post from beneath a pile of wet leaves, to find on page A02 of The Washington Post yet another in what seems to be a series of helpful updates on the goings on at Sidwell Friends School, the soon-to-be-educational home of the Obama girls.
I’d nearly have a meltdown if I didn’t get these reports about the tribulations of the "regular parents" — like Patti Solis Doyle, former Clintonite, and David "stretch" Gregory, new host of "Meet The Press" — who pay some $30,000 in tuition to secure their kids a spot at the elite private school in upper Northwest D.C.
(more below)
I particularly enjoyed this tidbit, quoting Solis Doyle:
"It's a great school, and my kids have just really grown and thrived at the school, but what's great about it is that, sure, there are a lot of quote-unquote D.C. power parents, but in the carpool and at back-to-school night, they're just regular parents," Solis Doyle said. "They're there to find out how their kids are doing and talk to their teachers just like everybody else." [emphasis mine]
But, despite the professed normalcy, it's not ALL wonderful and great on the bucolic campus:
Sidwell is not filled only with the children of the powerful and the ambitious and the wealthy, as was widely discussed when the Obamas were looking at elite Washington private schools. It is also home to some of the very strategists who once worked to defeat Obama's presidential bid (one or two of whom, despite the recent Obama-Clinton detente, are rumored to carry a lingering grudge).
The problems these folks must deal with! Secret Service men hovering around the coffee klatch drop-off zone, loud helicopters swirling overhead, blockades of hulking SUVs idling curbside morning and afternoon, and the rivalries — oh, the rivalries these parents must overcome!
I’m so thankful that these Joe and Jane regulars — despite the very serious grudges they must overcome for the sake of their little darlings — don’t have to deal with the issues that crop up at the D.C. Public School residing across the street from my house on Capitol Hill, in Northeast D.C.: What is this year's budget (four months into the school year, it’s still unknown)? Will the school ever get that full-time psychologist for the students, all of whom have special needs? How many parents will be able to take off work to attend the next parent-teacher meeting? Will an appropriate testing regime be approved or will the school be "restructured" — as per federal mandate — into oblivion?
We won’t ever have an after-school program (no transportation) or a full-time art teacher (not enough money) so luckily those are concerns we need not struggle with. And the only rivalries we have are with a central administration that won’t reveal if that floated plan to shut us down is, um, still operational or even how much money there is to spend this year.
So kudos to the Post for keeping me abreast of the educational happenings of Washington’s glitterati and for placing these important articles in such prominent parts of the paper. Reading them has become a regular old treat!