Perhaps the best measure of Chelsea Clinton’s capability as a public speaker was her ability to mention diarrhea to an audience of junior high-aged kids — repeatedly — with nobody laughing.
The former first daughter, author, and adjunct professor at Columbia University was this afternoon asked a fairly open-ended question by a young student at San Francisco Friends School in the Mission: “What is your favorite part of being an activist?” Clinton, who is traveling the nation promoting her children’s books, started off her answer politically. Of course it’s “talking to young people and figuring out how I can help you.”
Then she took things in a different direction.
“I enjoy refocusing the attention paid to me on something more worthy of it.” To wit, she touched on efforts to address the plight of child brides in this and other nations, an issue she’d mentioned only moments earlier. Then, out of the blue, she mentioned “combatting diarrhea around the world. … I find it unconscionable that hundreds of thousands of kids die every year from this. It’s something people are uncomfortable talking about.”
The students, who kept themselves entertained before Clinton’s appearance by swapping exquisitely bad, charming jokes — How many tickles does it take to make the octopus laugh? TEN-tickles! — kept it together. Perhaps some of the parents and teachers standing on the periphery struggled a bit more. But the kids were all right.
Clinton, who is speaking at schools in every city she visits promoting her children’s books She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World and She Persisted Around the World, spoke to two sets of students at the Quaker school: kindergarten-through-fourth graders and fifth-through-eighth graders. The questions from the former group were not the sort to lead to discussions about lethal diarrhea or reveal that, in Massachusetts, 12-year-olds may marry.
The younger students asked Clinton, among other things, how old she is (38); when she was born (Feb. 27, 1980), and “if you knew Tim when you went to a Friends school in Washington, D.C.” (She did not).
When asked which of her profiles of inspirational women she liked best, Clinton declined to answer — but did state that she was glad that, in one of the books’ opening panels, she was able to sneak in a picture of her own mother and Coretta Scott King. She also read the kids snippets about a number of the women she profiled, including Maria Tallchief, Sally Ride, Caroline Herschel, Ruby Bridges, and — to audible gasps of joy — Joanne “J.K.” Rowling.
Clinton’s standby when confronted by a sea of young questioners was “Oh, gosh. So many hands.” This was said a lot, whether those hands were attached to kindergarteners or junior high-aged children. But the questions weren’t the same.
The older children asked mostly broad questions that gave Clinton the opportunity to say as much or as little as she wanted to say. Sometimes she said quite a bit. When asked if “when your dad was president and all” her parents had high expectations for her, she answered “absolutely. And I had high expectations for myself.” She continued that she was “blessed and extremely privileged, and that includes the color of my skin. I never had to worry about having a roof over my head or food on my table.” In a similar vein, when asked if she would still be where she is in life if her family wasn’t “kinda political,” she said, “I don’t know. That’s the honest answer.”
Clinton spent the lion’s share of her time with the older children talking about the plight of what she described as 750 million young people worldwide, almost exclusively girls, made to enter into marriage while children. She bemoaned that, even in this country, girls in such a situation are unable to hire a divorce attorney, a situation she finds “soooo infuriating.”
Girls forced into child matrimony, she continued, suffer higher childbirth death rates, are more prone to drop out of high school, and, overall, experience deficient life outcomes.
This, she said, was something to consider on the eve of Valentine’s Day. So, that was a pretty serious moment — rather a long way from Ten-tickles!
And then the young people applauded the former first daughter, and she was off on her way to the next city.
…just another hot tub, Tesla driving liberal. The only hardship she has experienced: the trust fund check arriving late; the maid spilled the merlot.
Yawn, privileged women goes to a school for privileged kids and talks about issues they will never have to face.
Yup, cogent post
Chelsea is oblivious when stating she’s unsure whether she’d be getting these promotional opportunities if she wasn’t the Clinton kid.
She’s extremely versed in book profits. If the kids wanted to ask something in her field of expertise, they should’ve asked about book contracts.
Chelsea released a weird statement this week, stating that she would contact Congresswoman Omar after Omar said US/ Israel relations were ‘all about the benjamins…’ She seems to think her privilege has bestowed wisdom – and I’m sure it has to some degree – but there are two sides to that coin.
Who cares what she has to say
She should get a real job for a couple of years before opening her trap.
Better question would have been “Hoe would my oarents affords the $24,000 year tuition if they weren’t techie millionairs?”
I wish she would have made it a point to visit and support a public school in the Mission. Such a lost opportunity.
Thank you Chelsea.
Always admired how you took all the crap and came out on the other side a fine human being.
But your choice of venue is kinda tone deaf.
Quaker school – this is the basic deal:
“The Board of Trustees for San Francisco Friends School has set tuition for the 2019-20 academic year at $34,120 for Lower School and $35,230 for Middle School.”
There is something called “Adjustable Tuition” which requires (among a lot of other things):
“Submitting a complete set of financial documents, including a full set of tax returns for 2017 and 2018, (get your tax returns started early!)”
Reported – sfchronicle 25 Feb 2018:
30-35 percent of all kids in SF are in a private school.
75-85 percent of white kids in SF are in a private school.
Tragic.
Something extremely important that’s more broken than MUNI in a city with an 11 billion dollar budget for 850,000 people.
No entiendo.
Chelsea went to a Friends School in Washington, DC so it makes sense that she would speak at one in SF.
And that particular private school has 54% students of color – so your “white kids” statistic doesn’t apply to SF Friends.
Agreed – makes sense that she would speak at Friends School.
54% – what is your source?
Enlarging the photograph, it’s quite difficult to pick out even one African American student.
But there sure are an awful lot of kids that fall into that 75-85% bracket mentioned previously.
Other fun and frolic from the Quaker school application for tuition assistance:
Within the mandatory “Estimate of Household Expenses” there is an entry for (seriously – it is actually there – no joke):
“Gardner, pool/spa services”
Padre, ¿cuánto le pagamos al jardinero?
You have a gardener, a pool and perhaps a spa in San Francisco and you need tuition assistance?
How did they miss an entry for “Monthly yacht berth expenses”?
And another fan favorite requirement:
“If you are a majority partner in an LLP or corporation, submit copies of 2017 and 2018 corporate tax returns and all supporting detail, i.e. IRS Forms K-1s, 1065 & 1120”
Have you seen a K-1? You’re not filling out a K-1. Your accountant is.
They overlooked an entry for Accountant Fees in the Household Expenditures list.
Padre, honorarios del contador entran en otros gastos.
Actual SFFS parent here. Trust me that anyone with a pool attendant/gardener is not getting tuition assistance. We don’t, and we’re not that wealthy.
54% students of color (actually 53%) is self-reported by the school: https://www.sffriendsschool.org/quaker-education/quaker-values/diversity-matters
Income inequality in SF is a huge problem. Under funding of public schools on a city, state, and national level is a huge problem. SFFS is not a solution to those problems, but it’s doing a reasonable job at occupying a middle ground.
There is a large amount of tuition assistance at SFFS (27% on students). It’s one of a handful of SF communities I’ve seen that is NOT cleanly divided among income lines. And I’ve lived here for 20 years.
That said, there is a large income disparity among families. I don’t think SFFS is perfect, nor is it a model for all schools. But I do think they do a better than average job of dealing with the income inequality that is a real problem in our city. There are better places to throw stones than at Friends
And K-1s are just income reports for businesses. You could run a corner store and file a K-1. It’s not necessarily a marker of wealth. If you’ve never seen one it’s because you make your living with a job, not a business. Not all businesses breed billionaires.