Sidwell Friends School is a Quaker school located in Bethesda, Maryland and Washington, D.C., offering pre-kindergarten through high school classes. Founded in 1883 by Thomas W. Sidwell, its motto is (), alluding to the Quaker concept of inner light. All Sidwell Friends students attend Quaker meeting for worship weekly, and middle school students begin every day with five minutes of silence. The school's admissions process is merit-based. As documented on the school's website, it gives preference in admissions decisions to members of the Religious Society of Friends, but otherwise does not discriminate on the basis of religion. Sidwell "accepts only 7 percent of its applicants." The school accepts vouchers under the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. Described as "the Harvard of Washington’s private schools," the school has educated children of notable politicians, including those of several presidents. President Theodore Roosevelt's son Archibald, President Richard Nixon's daughters Tricia and Julie, President Bill Clinton's daughter Chelsea Clinton, President Barack Obama's daughters Sasha and Malia, the grandchildren of President Joe Biden when he was Vice President, and Vice President Al Gore's son, Albert Gore III, graduated from Sidwell Friends. History Thomas Sidwell started a "Friends' Select School" in 1883 on I Street in downtown Washington, four blocks from the White House. It opened with just eleven students. Beginning in 1911, Sidwell began buying property between Wisconsin Avenue and 37th St. Initially, the new property was used for athletic fields—and, with the central campus' downtown location—meant students had to shuttle between the two sites by streetcar. However, in 1923, Sidwell built a building for school dances and other social gatherings on what came to be known as the Wisconsin Avenue campus. In 1925, the school added a kindergarten, making it the first K–12 school in Washington. In 1934, the name of the school was changed to "Sidwell and Friends School," and began its gradual re-location to the Wisconsin Avenue building. By 1938, the transition to the new building had been completed, and the I Street property was sold. Previously all grade levels were in Washington, DC. In 1963 the elementary school moved to the former Longfellow School for Boys, purchased by Sidwell Friends. Sidwell became racially integrated in 1964. Before 1964 it was a white-only school. In the decades following integration, problems faced by black students lead to the creation of two parent groups outside the school, which sought to alleviate covert prejudice. Thomas B.