OP - I'll repeat, PLENTY of kids go abroad at 14, as mentioned by many posters. DC attends a DC public school and we are by no means wealthy.

I think Malia looks very mature and pretty. She looks surprisingly different than she did when her father was elected President. At her age, she's mature enough to go on a school trip to Mexico. I went to Europe on a school trip at age 15. We all got drunk when our chaperones were not paying any attention to us. It was fun, but I would make sure my child went on a better chaperoned trip were I to allow DC to go at that age. I'm sure Malia and her pals have great chaperoning.

At 14, I was a freshman in boarding school. I met my parents in NYC for Thanksgiving. Since their flight got in later than mine and I had a credit card on their account I checked in before they arrived. I'm glad that I did because their flight was cancelled for weather and I stayed alone in the room until they arrived the next day. I flew alone to Paris to spend springbreak with a friend's family. At 15, I went on the school trip to the Soviet Union. If it had been offered the year before, I would have gone when I was 14. I had traveled a lot with my family before I was 14 so none of this was new or scary.

This all was very normal for the kids that I knew. The kids of foreign service professionals were even more used to traveling all over the world at young ages. On the other hand, I know many now that have never even traveled out of the country and find this shocking. My SIL has only traveled out of her state about five times in her life and never left the continental US.

I was an exchange student for the summer at 14. It changed my life. I hope my kids can do it too.

People keep talking about 25 Secret Sevice agents on the trip, but actually, no one knows how many agents are on the trip because the Secret Service never reveals that information. I think that moron Rick Santorum started it.

My DH went to Mexico with his private school youth group when he was 13! They had no security protection, and they took an old school bus. At night the crazy pastor/principal would not trust the heathen males to sleep in the bus with the girls, so they were banished to sleep outside. He survived, and this was in a very poor run down community. He said the locals were very kind and they offered him shelter almost every day, but he was not allowed to accept. So he and the other 7 boys just slept outside under the bus. I am sure this would be all over the news now and the principal would have been arrested for child endagerment. What whimpy kids we are raising.

When I was 13, I traveled as part of a string quartet with three other young teenagers and one chaperone throughout England for five weeks. I had never met any of the other kids until we met at the airport because we were scholarship winners. My parents didn't know exactly where we were going, this was pre-internet age, and I didn't actually speak with them the whole time I was gone. This brief period is without a doubt one of the most memorable times of my childhood and, at the time, it did not seem like a stretch at all. It really depends on the kid and how mature s/he is.

Lots of public schools do this at the middle and high school level. Deal in DC for instance. Wilson, too.

I absolutely agree that the family should kick in for the extra Secret Service costs. They can afford it.

I took 9 and 10 year old 4th graders to Colonial Williamsburg for 5 days for years when I taught at a private school. It was a very well planned trip and we never had a problem.

The PG County French immersion school is taking 4th graders to Quebec for a week. That's a public school. I know that the kids are doing a lot to raise the money for the trip to be sure everyone can make it.

I see nothing wrong with 7th graders taking a school sponsored trip to Mexico!

I chaperoned a group of 13 year olds on a school sponsored spring break trip out of the country. Won't give up another break for that volunteer work (kid watching; it was a worthwhile program.
And I'm still in touch w/ my public school foreign language teacher who sponsored trips. (Even though I wasn't able to go on her trips)

As a teacher sponsor now, there is some advantage to the slightly younger kids-- of course you have to know your kids, but their slightly younger shenanigans are slight less worrisome.

(yes yes I know don't presume...)

Anonymous wrote:I went to Spain over spring break with a school trip when I was 15. Public school in NJ, not private.

When I was 15, our public school did a trip like this, and I couldn't go because we didn't have the money. I still remember how sad I felt and how badly I wanted to go.

Later I was a Spanish Literature major, spent junior year abroad in Spain, and then returned to live there for several years.

I think 14/15 is the ideal age for this sort of thing.

Anonymous wrote:Looks like a bow to me -- on the blouse under the jacket. The end is blowing toward and touching her left sleeve.

Oh you are right! That makes so much more sense!! Good eye!

She looks beautiful. I am pro-Malia going abroad, and for charity work, to---I think it is great.

I grew up on a farm in the midwest and was an exchange student to Germany when I was 14. I was one of the younger ones but even in rural America, this isn't unheard of. If my kid was offered the chance to go somewhere with the President's DD and 25 secret servicemen, I'm sure I'd let her if I could afford it. But, I would also be rueful that my DC wouldn't be having the kind of experience that I had as a 'nobody'.

Looks like a bow to me -- on the blouse under the jacket. The end is blowing toward and touching her left sleeve.