I am frustrated by persons who see the choice of the Obamas to send their daughters to a private school as somehow reflective of the choice that middle and upper middle class families make when they choose to do the same. It is not. First, the Obamas have major security concerns that should not be overlooked in order to make a statement about the value of the public school system. Second, his daughters have a sufficiently diverse social life outside of school in that their parents have close family friends that include African-Americans, Asian-Americans and Caucasian-Americans.

However, the typical white middle-class or wealthy person who opts to send their child to a private school does remove a probable option for diversity, which is invaluable. I highly suspect that the most effective white children in the future will be those who are comfortable in a diverse environment and see the potential for culturally complex life experiences. Unfortunately, making progressive statements, watching movies about other cultures and occasionally inviting a token person of color to dinner does not suffice. It takes effort for parents to create a broad racial sensibility, but what else is parenting all about.

Most public schools draw from their surrounding neighborhoods, and are quite racially homogeneous (and in many cases, economically homogeneous as well). I'm not sure on what basis you make the claim that public schools are inherently diverse. They are only as diverse as the neighborhoods they sit in.

Obama's choice is relevant. He's been sending his kids to private schools for years, LONG before he ever had any security problems.

That's ok, though, because public schools are good enough for your kids...

tonydavisnelson is right. The had the choice to send Malia to some reasonably good elementary scools int he Hyde Park area, but they chose to send her to a $40K/yr school instead, even though Obama was the state rep for this very district. IMO, this is the leas impressive fact about the man (and his wife).

Oops, sorry for all the typos in my above post. I do have a PhD, though you wouldn't know it ( :

It's funny. I, am an African-American woman who is a proud alumna of one of those West LA private schools the author is considering. My fiance is a white, male, liberal, proud alumnus of a small-town, nearly all-white Michigan public school. We now live in DC and expect to stay here and raise our family here. (Though it's not written in stone.)

We nearly come to blows (hyperbole, no violence in this relationship) over this topic. I am very pro private school, he is very pro-public school, and we can't agree on how to educate our (not yet born) biracial children.

My perspective is this. I do believe the Obamas have always sent their children to private school. My parents did the same. If you have a choice, why not ensure that your children are getting the best education available? I agree that you CAN get a good education in a public school too, but, as a parent, I'd like an environment for my children that reinforces my parental values. I have much less control over the influences in my children's lives if they're in a public school setting (you can't turn away families from public schools). I, personally, like the control parents have in a private school. If there's a problem, the administration is responsive, and my experience is that you can taper your educational experience to fit your needs much easier in a private school. There's no need to be "fair" to everybody. You're paying to get what you want/need from the school. I don't see why so many people have a problem with this.

The next layer is unfortunately racial. The societal expectations for blacks are different than for whites. Blacks are expected to achieve at a lower level (I hate to say it but this is particularly true within the black community). The way people respond to black children are different from the way they respond to white children. For example, I recently read a study that black girls are more likely to be punished in school for merely being assertive than all other students. (I want my girls to be assertive and don't want them reprimanded for it, so long as they're not being rude.) Not to mention the influences of the media about what is "cool" for a black kid. I worry that if I don't insulate my children from these societal forces/expectations/messages from an early age, they stand much more of a chance of falling into undesireable behavior patterns based on their interactions with peers and others. In a private school setting, again, I have a greater degree of control over what influences they deal with each day. Not complete control, but better than a public school where the class is so large, and the involvement of other parents is relatively sparse (as compared to private schools).

My solution is this. Live in the city. Make sure the kids have extracurricular activities with a broad variety of different types of people, but send them to private school. There may be little diversity in their class, but we, as parents, can make up for that outside of school. I think you can make up for the diversity you won't get in a private school as parents. It doesn't work the other way around. If you send them to public school, good parenting can't make up for what they are lacking at school (that being a constant reinforcement of my parental values:e.g. hard work, individuality, freedom of expression, intellectual excellence, etc..). I think it's possible to get the best of both worlds.