1A third-grade class photograph taken at the Besuki school in the wealthy Jakarta district of Menteng. Obama switched to this school sometime in 1970 after attending a Catholic school in a less upscale neighborhood. The photo shows "Barry," as Barack Obama was then known, wearing a scout cap in the third row.
Santo Fransiskus Asisi School
In this undated photo made available by the SDN Menteng School 1, also known as the Besuki school, President Obama is shown circled in yellow in a group photo during a graduation ceremony at the school in Jakarta, Indonesia. Obama attended the school when he was a child living in Indonesia.
AP
A page in a school registration book shows Barack Obama registered as "Barry Soetoro" when he studied from 1968-1970 at the St. Francis Assisi Catholic elementary school in Menteng Dalam in Jakarta. Obama's mother met and married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian student who was attending the University of Hawaii, and the family moved to Indonesia soon after.
Enny Nuraheni-REUTERS
President Obama's former classmates from the Besuki school in Jakarta. Much of the attention on Obama's past in Jakarta centered on the mostly Muslim school.
Courtesy Of Besuki Primary School-Courtesy of Besuki Primary School
Indonesian children from the State Elementary School Menteng One, formerly attended by President Obama, play before a performance rehearsal at the school in Jakarta on March 18, 2010. Obama moved to Indonesia in 1967 with his mother, American anthropologist Ann Dunham, and his Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro. They lived in a single-story rented house in Menteng-Dalam.
Adek Berry-XXX/Getty Images
Students play outside of Obama's former classroom at the State Elementary School Menteng One in Jakarta on Dec. 19, 2007. While Obama went to a mostly Muslim school for less than a year, he spent most of his four years in Indonesia studying at Santo Fransiskus Asisi, a Roman Catholic school run at the time by a stern Dutch priest.
Bloomberg-Bloomberg via Getty Images
Workers put finishing touches on the bronze statue of a young Barack Obama at a park in Jakarta, Dec. 9, 2009. The statue of Obama as a 10-year-old, wearing shorts and a t-shirt, was erected in the park to inspire children in the country where he lived as a boy. But it had to be relocated to a new site Besuki school after threats of legal action from detractors who said only Indonesian heroes should be honored in a public park.
Dita Alangkara-AP
Indonesian students at the Besuki school gather around a bronze statue depicting Barack Obama as a boy, with a butterfly on his finger, Feb. 16, 2010.
Romeo Gacad-AFP/Getty Images
Indonesian students at Obama's former school in Jakarta react to the announcement that Barack Obama won the election for the U.S. presidency on Nov. 5, 2008.
Ed Wray-AP
Boys on the playground at Santo Fransiskus Asisi.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Santo Fransiskus Asisi is nestled in the neighborhood of Menteng-Dalam, a much poorer community than the other school he attended, Besuki, in an upscale part of town.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
School children at Santo Fransiskus Asisi.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Santo Fransiskus Asisi. When Obama attended the Catholic school, it was run by a stern Dutch priest. Classes began each day with Christian prayers.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Santo Fransiskus Asisi is working to reclaim Obama as an alumnus. It has been largely overshadowed by the wealthier, mostly Muslim Besuki school that Obama also attended.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Asisi is working to put itself back on the map. "I said, 'This is not fair: We have to do something,' " recalled Boy Garibaldi Thohir, an Asisi graduate who, in addition to running an energy company, is spearheading a drive to reclaim Obama for St. Francis.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Santo Fransiskus Asisi Principal Yustina Amirah works in her office, proudly displaying Obama's photo on a wall.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Children from Santo Fransiskus Asisi wrote Obama about a dozen letters asking him to visit on October 2, 2009.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
A schoolgirl at Santo Fransiskus Asisi.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
President Obama spent time in this classroom at Santo Fransiskus Asisi.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
In his 2008 book, "The Audacity of Hope," Obama wrote of a "joyous time" when he "went to local Indonesia schools and ran the streets with children of farmers, servants, tailors and clerks." Asisi activists have taken that as a veiled endorsement of the Catholic school.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
A letter to Obama asking for a visit.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Obama's former classroom. He first moved to Indonesia in 1967 with his mother, American anthropologist Ann Dunham, and his Indonesian step-father, Lolo Soetoro.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
A view out the window of Santo Fransiskus Asisi. Sometime in the third grade, Obama's mother moved up-market, and Obama switched schools to Besuki. He returned to the United States less than a year later.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Parents collect their children after school at the Santo Fransiskus Asisi.
Linda Davidson-The Washington Post
Gallery Credits:
Photo Editors Steve Cook, Nick Kirkpatrick
Text Editor Liz Heron
