Advice To Chelsea: Dust Off Birkenstocks For Your New School

So you're going to attend eighth grade at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington.

Sidwell is not a public school. And sure, Mom and Dad have promised to be Mr. and Mrs. Populist, but let's be practical here: How would you get your Secret Service agents past the metal detectors in D.C.'s public schools?

Your folks understand this. "We believe this decision is best for our daughter at this time in her life based on our changing circumstances," they said last week in a written statement.

Ignore the naysayers, dear. The Quaker community is thrilled.

"It speaks well for the existing reputation of Friends schools," says Kay Edstene, executive director of the Philadelphia-based Friends Council on Education, the 79-member organization for Quaker primary and secondary schools nationwide. "The schools are caring environments, with high academic standards. They're values-based and care about a diversity of people."

While the hubbub dies down, consider a few tips from an old alum, offered in the Quaker spirit. (Which means you can take it or leave it, but we have to talk first.)

Please, please don't bring a showy attitude. Sidwell is a place of subtle wealth and overt political correctness. Folks wear jeans and drive beat-up Volvos but can afford expensive drugs and vacation homes - made spotless by full-time maids.

Don't think you'll be alone as a Child of Power. When I went to Sidwell, the kids of U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, former Sen. Thomas Eagleton, and television anchors Roger Mudd and Dan Rather attended. The Nixon girls, Teddy Roosevelt's son and the daughter of a Miss America went there, too.

Enjoy the campus. As you know from your Sunday tour, the upper and middle schools sit on 15 acres, with tennis courts and an arts center, in the tony Tenley Town section.

The main campus is also down the street from the center of Washington WASPdom - the National Cathedral School for Girls and St. Albans School for Boys, where Veep-to-be Al Gore and Veep-has-been Dan Quayle send their kids.

Just as important (at least in my day), it's across the street from the McLean Gardens, where students used to smoke dope and neck.

Don't overintellectualize your years at Sidwell. Indulge in some bad television on occasion. Go on bad dates and eat bad food. (See Daddy for more detailed advice.)

Don't worry about the religion. Sidwell "is not one of those rigid you-have-to-wear-a-uniform-go-to-Mass type of schools," says Calvin Gidney, Class of 1979. Everything is low-key.

A corollary: Take advantage of the Wednesday Quaker meeting to do your math homework.

More important, take advantage of the wonderful teachers. You won't get to study under legends like English teacher Anne Yondorf and history maven Joe Wildemuth. But Sidwell prides itself for having teachers who go that extra mile, listen patiently and allow you to do the serious, eccentric projects that serve you well in college.

Enjoy Sidwell's reputation as a premier college prep school. In my class of 100, at least 30 went to Ivy League or Seven Sister schools like Bryn Mawr and Vassar. And many others went to well-respected smaller schools like Kenyon and Swarthmore.

Sidwell produces important, accomplished alums like Nobel laureate Walter Gilbert and University of Chicago president Hanna Holborn Gray, but you'll also find us toiling quietly in public service and community work.

Never forget that Sidwell, like other Quaker schools, prides itself on a relative freedom from racism. In a city that is 70 percent African American, Sidwell is 17 percent black, 7 percent Asian and 3 percent Latino. As a result, there's a lot of interracial dating. But break it to Daddy gently first, dear.

Above all, be yourself. That's so important in the Quaker religion, which prizes individualism. "Sidwell values difference. Our class and everybody was encouraged to be unique, and that's something when adolescence already mitigates against your wanting to be different," says Gidney.

Don't worry about the $10,400 tuition, since the old man will pull in a hefty salary. But for those kids who can't afford the tuition, Sidwell has an active fund-raising campaign. Nearly 20 percent of Quaker kids nationwide accept some sort of tuition assistance.

So dust off your Birkenstocks and enjoy.