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I went to a Montessori school through 4th grade (that's as liberal and squishy and unicorn as it gets) and we had canned greetings for the bus driver and the morning duty teacher.
These are kids from Fall River and New Bedford. They're poor and they're tough, and many of them are very smart but haven't had an educational framework that can make up for the environment they're in. This one tries to, and it's a good enough idea that a lot of parents are interested enough to volunteer like the one in the story.
Just to be clear, let's compare what students in the primary grades at sidwell do to what these kids do:
Here's a class at this school:
7:45 am Mr. Amaral escorts Carolina along with the rest of BU 5 silently to their homeroom/advisory. Carolina proceeds to her pre-assigned desk. Mr. Amaral gives a non-verbal cue for Carolina’s group to move to the back cubbies to get organized, and signals with his other hand that they have one minute to complete their cubby tasks. Carolina silently stands up and brings her backpack to her cubby, unzips it, and removes all of her binders.... and Carolina finished her cubby tasks in less than 60 seconds....
She begins reading her DEAR book, as the other students work for their minute time blocks to get their cubby work done. Mr. Amaral calls, “1-2-3 Eyes on me!” The class responds in unison, “1-2-3 Eyes on you!” and then proceeds to close their DEAR books and place them on the left corner of their desks.
Mr. Amaral uses the last few minutes of class to review the main objective for the lesson, give feedback to the class using DREAM Points, remind scholars to copy HW, and provide direction for transition. Mr. Amaral says, “Scholars, yesterday you transitioned to Reading in 38 seconds. Your challenge now is to transition in 35 seconds. I am waiting for 100% eye contact.Good. Go.” Scholars quickly and silently switch out binders from their rubber bands around their desk legs. Carolina and her peers absolutely enjoy being timed for tasks and being challenged to beat their best times.
Now sidwell:
Hey, the kids are standing around talking to each other...without a teacher directing them, not in line...
For more than 25 years, Lower School students have developed and written their own monthly Queries for consideration of the community. These questions reflect issues and concerns relevant to their own lives: friendship, fairness, peace, understanding, nature and environmental issues, celebrations, differences, conflict resolution, service, and the world around them. The following are examples for community consideration:
“How do we keep greed from growing in an ‘I want everything’ world?”
First Grade
“Do you have the courage to stand up to your friends when they are not being fair and just to others?”
Second Grade
“How can we learn to see and appreciate the beauty of everyday things around us?”
Third Grade
“In this new year, how can we make peace in our world, resist peer pressure, and not hurt others?”
Fourth Grade
Community service plays an important role in the Lower School experience...For several decades students have brought a vegetable to school on Wednesdays to help create soup for Martha’s Table, a Washington, D.C., soup kitchen. For this project two classes work side by side, often younger children paired with older children, and chop the donated vegetables...
Many other service activities are woven into the fabric of children’s lives at Lower School such as fourth graders sharing their love of books by becoming reading buddies with younger students at a D.C. public school, collecting nuts and seeds for reforestation of native trees, and working on environmental clean-ups of the Anacostia River. Opportunities for service within our own school community often include a day of planting bulbs and flowers, learning to compost soup vegetable cuttings, and helping sort campus recycling materials. Nurturing a sense of responsibility and care, as well as developing the habit of helping, grows from these acts of service.
Sounds to me like Obama's girls have class discussions and writing activities about issues, get to do meaningful activities, don't have to be silent unless mouthing a script, and don't spend their entire school day doing rote timed activities.
http://www.sidwell.edu/lower_school/academics/index.aspx
...and I'd love to hear more about the thoughts on greed of a first grader whose parents are rich enough to pay $30K in tuition.
They talk (in "inside voices"
at lunch and they can do whatever they want to at recess. And once they get off the school bus they can do and say whatever the hell they want.
You win. I missed that 
Actually, the silence and discipline isn't even the main problem here. It is the coercion of "enthusiastic" responses which would be the dream of every Pointy Haired Boss if only it could be a term of employment for them as well. Well, with the proliferation of "right to work" legislation, I guess that's just around the corner too.
In the article I see interactions requiring a forced, cookie cutter market-speak which will remove all pretence of honest discourse from the student-teacher relationship. It does not appear to allow for the possibility of a non-peak day. It builds a wall as the teacher hides behind formality and rote routine. It disconnects the student as their own feelings (if not in line with corporate goals) must be suppressed. It is also the kind of absolutism that will breed cynicism if it is not coupled with absolute success and it is not clear that the prerequisites for that are there.
I suppose at some point, the dear leader (excuse me, the "Executive Director" will mandate that the students must express themselves with 37 pieces of flair subject to administration approval, and Mike Judge's version of reality will be validated.
In AF Basic training there are 5 basic responses. That is what trainers expect to hear. It forces the basics to really think to see if what they have to say is of value enough to deviate from that.
If you have ever taught, you would know that kids like to hear themselves and will say all sorts of things that are completely irrelevant to the topic. For those who are very shy, it allows them to interact without the pressure of having to think on their feet while working to overcome their shyness. (I've got one child like that)
Obviously, as the article shows (and it was a very biased article so you have to take it with a grain of salt), the teachers ask for independent responses and demand the other students show respect when the student is answering.
Obviously the superior (the person in charge) does not say just what others wish to hear except in greeting (just as it is standard practice for most people to greet with "Hello" or "How are you doing" . And as the students grow and learn, their input and analysis is more valuable.
Are those who greet with "Hello" useless?
For example, putting words in someone's mouth as a debate tactic.
You tried to bring this little false equivalence in post 118 with the comment that the call-response thing is used on the campaign trail, at pep rallies and sporting events. Apparently you didn't see how you undermined your own position by only citing example events where the information transfer is ONE WAY and does not require honest interaction. Being brutal with your mistake I guess I would have commented that if you found the two types of events similar in any way means you are subscribing to the overly simplistic (educorp) views of education where a list of "facts" must go from teacher to student without considering that it might help if the communication channels are two-way.
Now I've been figuring you don't want to hit my post #110 head on cause here you are trying to score points on this side thread so I thought I'd remind you I haven't forgotten about my main problem with putting on the fake happy face for the teachers. So in post #119 I decided to remind you that my problem with this is that scripted responses replace honesty. To intentionally show you that I will not enter into your false equivalency I specifically restricted my second sentence by using the word "teacher" to show that I am focused on education, not your goofball sideshow.
So then we come to your post #120 where you make pretty much the best counterargument you could have made ("a nonstandard response should lead to questions about well being" and then shoot yourself in the foot twice in rapid succession:
1) making the call-response thing optional for the students ("Obviously no punishment" -- so really, the student doesn't have to respond then? Why wouldn't they say those responses are optional in the proposal then?)
2) being deliberately obtuse to ineffectively try to elicit an emotional response. See, I never mentioned the President at all in Post #119 because of the above discussion. Plus, it was peripheral to my actual point which is that these student responses are coercive by design.
To make your little "interesting" observation you had to deliberately misinterpret #119 by ignoring my restrictive case "teacher" and by lying that I even gave your load-o-crap any purchase at all.
So you seem to be interested in building a strawman where I am insulting the President. I obviously am not, and I question your motivations in doing so.
Fail.
would not make a good teacher, you apparently are confused about what it takes to lead a country well.
Zoinks.
Regarding your other post, yes, it is sad that you do not know that a logical assumption based on related data is. 
I read through all the responses and was surprised nobody else noticed the creepy robot responses and then I found your post. I completely agree.
Honestly, its got an Orwellian "1984" vibe....
I know, because I was there. And this thread is giving me flashbacks.
Come to think of it, "Paris Island" does sound a bit too romantic, considering.
I've got the greatest respect for anyone who survived that
