Man, do I disagree with that.
While I think it's terrific that Barack Obama won, I also
think that life goes on. We have no idea what kind of President he
will be, and even if we did, we still have to go to work (assuming
we aren't one of the millions who have lost our jobs in this
economy). And for our children, school is their job. If the school
chooses to spend time during the day watching the Inauguration, I
suppose that's fine. If you don't think that's fine,
you should complain. But keeping them home for that reason is a bad
idea as well. It feels too much like pouting.
Another thing – both reasons to keep your children home from school
this Tuesday add to the political divisiveness that is becoming a
huge problem in this country. Civil discourse is all but gone, especially
online, where name-calling, race baiting and anger have taken their
place. Why add to that by putting your children on one political
side or the other? Admittedly, "keep the kids home to watch
the Inauguration" is more positive than "keep them home
because I don't want them to feel good about the incoming
President." But in both cases the message is "school is
less important than who won an election." And while that's
true in the big picture, I'm not so sure I want to give my kids
another reason to think that school isn't such a big deal.
