It's hard enough to be the New Kid transferring midyear into any school in a new town, but consider some of the special scrutiny visited upon young Malia and Sasha Obama yesterday as they started classes at Sidwell Friends:
First, make sure you look super-cute for the morning photos with Mom and Dad -- 'cause they're going on the Internet. (You're living in a hotel, but must try to look "normal.") When you get to class, just "fit in" -- even though everybody knows who you are, and will be staring, even if they're trying not to stare, because your father is going to be the president.
Usually the recommencement of classes at a private school don't warrant breaking updates: The girls' motorcade left the Hay-Adams Hotel for Sidwell Friends School. They arrived early! Several hours went by. Then they left!
Meanwhile the Sidwell administration, which is accustomed to hosting the progeny of executive office-holders, did its best to make yesterday seem mundane.
"It's been a very normal day, the first day after winter break," said Ellis Turner, associate headmaster at Sidwell. "Nothing special was prepared for any of our students."
Utterly normal. Except, of course, for the comings-and-goings of the soon-to-be first daughters: Malia, 10, now a fifth-grader at the school's Northwest Washington campus on Wisconsin Avenue, and Sasha, 7, a second-grader at the Bethesda campus not far up the road.
The media did their usual stakeout thing to record the historic occasion. We can reliably report some details, such as: Sasha carried a JanSport Trans backpack with a camouflage pattern of pink, magenta, gray and white camouflage. Attached to the backpack was a turquoise, three-eyed Uglydoll keychain.
Students 'told to act normally'
What precisely happened in the girls' classrooms was not publicly announced -- the school, parents and students are trying to maintain a news blackout -- but we assume that some sort of teaching took place. Also, discreet gawking.
"We were told to act normally," said one student, who declined to be identified for fear of violating school omerta. "But people were looking out the windows anyway."
After the lunch bell rang, he saw Malia in the cafeteria. "She seemed to fit in like any other student. It looked like she made friends on her first day. She seemed very happy, she was skipping and smiling, she already had a lot of friends around her."
The school's custom is to make newcomers feel comfortable. "They really do make a big deal of welcoming new kids in," said one elementary-school parent, citing the experience of his own first-grader. And the girls already are friends with their fellow young campaign veterans -- the granddaughters of incoming Vice President Joe Biden, who also attend Sidwell.
Some of the school's Quaker traditions might require getting used to. There are periods of silence observed at the start of the day, and at the start of lunch. "Each school day begins with silence as students gather by homerooms, and meals and assemblies incorporate silence as we gather," the school's handbook says.
The length is "up to the person who's asked for the moment of silence," Turner elaborated. At the middle school, it customarily runs from 8 to 8:05 a.m. according to parents.
All students also are required to participate in the Quaker tradition of the weekly "Meeting for Worship," a period of quiet reflection and discussion.
Both girls will spend their days with one teacher, except for separate science and physical education instruction, Turner said. The fifth-grade has 66 students. The second-grade has 48.
Cellphone, camera ban
Before the girls' arrival, regulations about student cellphone use were reinforced. One parent said students were told before the winter break that cellphones and cellphone cameras were not to be used during school hours. They were also told that they were not to send or post pictures online of any Sidwell student. The Obama kids were not mentioned by name.
A spokeswoman for the incoming first lady would not comment on the girls' activities yesterday, but the transition office posted photos of Barack and Michelle Obama and the girls preparing for the school day in their Hay-Adams suite, where the family is staying before moving to Blair House for the five days before the inauguration. Between dropping off the girls in the morning and picking them up in the afternoon, the future first lady held meetings with her staff and enjoyed some "time for herself," one transition team aide said.
The photos captured a classic first-day-of-school sendoff scene that could have played out in any family (except for the hotel room setting). Both girls had their coats and backpacks on. Michelle Obama wore a black turtleneck, gray slacks and a maroon coat belted at the waist.
Malia gave her mother a kiss, while Sasha, who seemed excited, talked with her dad. He towered over her in a pressed white shirt, wearing a black wristwatch. He held three fingers up, in what appeared to be a teasing gesture. Two cellphones sat on a side table.
Malia wore her hair in twists falling slightly over her face; her little sister wore hers split down the middle into ponytails. The 7-year-old smiled as she left the hotel room; her dad, guiding her left shoulder, smiled, too. He left to attend to business on Capitol Hill. Michelle and the girls climbed into the black SUVs that would drop them off at Sidwell Friends' two campuses, where media trucks camped out.
About 3:30 p.m., students poured out of the middle and high-school campus on Wisconsin Avenue, scattering to bus stops, under a parking garage and down sidewalks, as they would every other day. Cars of parents lined up under the garage for stragglers.
A few miles away in Bethesda, the smaller, quaint school, which sits on a nearly idyllic grass yard, appeared quiet. Parents came and went. Some students could be seen climbing on the playground equipment.
It looked like the end to a very normal school day -- except tomorrow will be even more normal.
Staff writer Daniel de Vise contributed to this report.
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