Hey, Guess Who’s Not Going to a Washington D.C. Public School?
November 21st, 2008 by Evil Beet
Why, the Obama girls, of course!
Despite pleas from the community for President-elect Obama to send his girls to one of the (god-awful) Washington D.C. public schools, in hopes that his daughters’ attendance there would help the schools improve, Barack has opted to send Sasha and Malia to the presitigious Sidwell Friends school, a private Quaker school that Chelsea Clinton also attended.
What do you think of Obama’s choice? Should he have sent the girls to a public school?
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*short term
Okay, fine. You think I’m stupid. I can live with that. I do not have anything against public schools. I go to a public university- U.C. Berkeley. I chose it because it is a great school, and because it is a lot cheaper for me, out of pocket.
I don’t think that if you are rich, you have to send your kids to private schools. Sorry if I was misunderstood. I just think if you have money, and live in an area where the public schools are markedly bad, I would definitely consider private.
I actually began going to private schools when I lived in inner-city Cleveland. The public school that I was supposed to go to was in a dangerous neighborhood, so my parents wanted to send me to private. It wasn’t necessarily about how bad/good the schools were, it was more about safety. Then I moved to the suburbs. I could have easily gone to either; no safety issues were present. I continued at private just because it was an easier transition for me. My sister went into private, but then ended up transferring to public. She was older than me, and didn’t like the private school as much as I did. When I ended up in high school, it was more natural for me to just go to the private high school, as did the vast majority of my fellow classmates.
I don’t necessarily think I received a better education than my sister. We are both currently at good schools, and doing very well. If I was older, and lived in safe area, I would probably consider both private and public schools for my children. If I lived in an area where I considered the public schools to be particularly unsafe, or if they had a reputation of being severely underfunded and poorly run, I would most likely opt to put my children into private schools or just move to an area with better public schools.
I am sorry that I came off so anti-public. That was not my intent, although I can see how it may appear that way. I think my argument just ended up being focused on bouncing off of other arguments, and my original idea was lost. That was my fault.
How I feel about this actual article, was that, I feel the Obama girls are a unique case of having your children go to school in DC. I do not live in DC and haven’t attended schools there, but it is different for those two specific girls to attend public school than it would be for girls whose father wasn’t the leader of the country. Furthermore, I see Obama as a unique safety issue; such as, I have never personally overhead people saying how they want to kill a president, and I am worried at any sort of white power or racist backlash. I hope to God nothing happens to their family. If they feel their children are safer at a private school, so be it. I think a family’s decision on where to send their children should be their own. The children were already in pricey private schools; I don’t see why anyone would think they would change this at this point. I know I would never spend $30,000 on my 7 year-olds education, but I am not going to judge others that do. But I am sorry if I came off sounding like I would judge people who use public schools. I don’t. My parents used both for their children. I just, from my own experience, prefer private.
I was using welfare in the sense as money for both programs comes from the government. I can see how this sounds bad. Welfare is a very loaded term. I apologize for making it sound like people who attend public schools are ripping off our country, or whatever any other poor connotations of welfare are. I should have been less obtuse with my example.
I actually went back and re-read your posts to other people. (It feels like it was sooo long ago.) Yup, you sounded very anti-public, and elitists. Poor censorthis.
Your frantic zest to defend the Obama’s definitely hurt your messages.
I said walk away thinking you’re a juvenile numb nut. That wasn’t a closed invitation. After reading your last post, no I don’t think you are a juvenile numb nut.
(Although, I swear you wrote EB’s latest post on Taylor Swift if you look at you comments to one of EB’s posts on proposition 8. The whole teeny popper cheerleading overkill. Yah. You guys sound like one and the same sometimes.)
BESIDES WE HAVE SUCH A COMPLETELY CRAZY COMMON HISTORY NOW CONSISTING OF FAT PEOPLE AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. whoo hooo. :) Seriously you, and any of your cohorts totally deserved that retards comment looking back at what you wrote. At the same time…many post into this thing….I was like I don’t hate this girl. I just didn’t see what you were trying to get at public v private. I got it.
I am not sure exactly what you are referring to, but that’s okay. I don’t mind being put in the same category of EB. I like her, her views, and her writing, which is why I like this blog.
i responded harshly to censorthis because his comment was rude. I obviously get rude too when I am offended. saying that obama’s kids aren’t used to being around other black children is mean. I took that as, oh only white kids can afford private schools, and a very few privileged black kids. The whole janitor comment pissed me off.
I am not good at separating my emotions from my thoughts when I get upset over something, which usually just hurts my case. That’s something that I have to work on. but yeah, my comment to him was full of bitchy. It didn’t hurt my case in that argument horribly, but it hurt my credibility elsewhere. I understand that.
I don’t care if I am labeled a cheerleader for gay rights (I am assuming that is what you meant?). I think it’s a great cause, and I do what I can to support it. I don’t care about Taylor Swift (but you were probably relating to the tone of the post?), but that’s neither here nor there. I think I tend to go overboard when discussing any of my hot button topics… things that include aspects of racism, gay rights, women rights, etc. Hopefully I will get better at staying calm. But I think I did better than I thought. Although we see things differently, I don’t think I ever referred to you as dumb… or a “retard.” (Oh and actually, you’re right, the previous comments seem so long ago. Now I understand why we started fighting. I didn’t like being called a retard. I got pissed and it all went down hill). Regardless, I don’t care if you think I am stupid or juvenile. All you are seeing is a little part of me, comments on a blog. You don’t know me or my life. All you know is that sometimes I like arguing with strangers on the internet. So I guess we at least have that one thing in common.
Yes tone to tone, and I said sometimes.. Very cheerleader. I don’t mean anything by it other than that.
Phrases like……”I was taught to do my research,” followed by several posts later, “seriously, find one president whose little children went to a friggin inner-city public school.” Lead to the original retard comment. Has nothing to do with who you are as a person in real life. Other phrases like, “I am assuming you went to public, yes?….getting a better education than you ever did,” amongst others, in other posts, made it look worse. You don’t have to come at me to get a retort, in much the same way censorthis, who is being now being mentioned way too many times now, didn’t come at you specifically. Anyway, it’s censorthis come on. His easy baits are entertaining.
Like I said I don’t think you are a juvenile numb nut. I get the whole “passion” thing, but, like you say, with time hopefully you will be able to make a point, and not at the expense of something unrelated, unless this was how you felt abut public education. I got that, no need to elaborate who you really feel.
I understand what you meant with the public and private, and I’d even go back and correct my last post…but I think we have officially expired this topic unless you want to debate something else concerning his choice? No? I didn’t think so either. I could, but THAT would take us into J+K territory.
Enjoy your week, and turkey if we don’t argue before then.