Schools, parents plan events to view Obama

First- and second-grade teachers Cristina Santos and Alexandra Flores have been teaching their students about the significance of Barack Obama's election. Now they are ready to gather them tomorrow in a room at the John Eliot School (K-8) in the North End to watch the first black president take the oath of office.

There is just one question. Will all the students show up?

Recognizing the historic nature of Obama's inauguration, many parents in the region are considering whether to pull their children out of school to make watching the inauguration a family event.

"This is history and a landmark occasion, and some days that's the best education they can get," said Joel Barrera of Natick, who will be keeping his 9-year-old daughter, Mila, and 8-year-old son, James, out of Johnson Elementary School to attend an inaugural viewing party in Boston.

"If the education they get that day is anyone can grow up to be president then that's a good educational day," Barrera said. "That's what we want them to feel in their bones."

School officials said yesterday they understand some parents might want to be with their children to watch the events in Washington unfold. But they said the school day does not stop for history.

"While some families may want to make this a family event, we really expect students to be in school," Carol R. Johnson, superintendent of Boston public schools, said in an interview. "We are prepared to make sure that we have opportunities for them to recognize and celebrate the inauguration and understand how the democratic process works. We've sent schools guidance on how to capitalize on the inauguration as a real teachable moment."

She said one group of students with a guaranteed excused absence are the more than 75 middle school and high school students from Boston who will travel with school groups to the Capitol to watch the inauguration in person. Students wrote essays to earn the trips and helped raise money to pay for their travel, school officials said.

Students at English High School in Jamaica Plain will be divided into groups to watch and discuss the inauguration with different themes in mind, including what the event says about civil rights and America's place in the world.

Thomas Edison Middle School in Brighton will hold an all-school assembly to watch the inauguration, and pupils at Beethoven Elementary School in West Roxbury are planning to wear red, white, and blue and watch the event together.

Santos and Flores hope parents will bring their children to class, saying students absolutely won't be missing out on history by going to school.

"They'll probably get more out of coming to school as opposed to staying at home," Flores said.

But Shuya Ohno, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said he expects the viewing parties held by the group to be family events. He said young children might relate to the Obama family more than previous first families, because Barack and Michelle Obama will be bringing their young daughters with them to the White House.

"This really is a moment to watch as a family," Ohno said.

One Framingham father said he already has told the teachers of his children that they won't be in school tomorrow. They'll be in Washington.

"We started planning during the primaries," said Adrian K. Haugabrook, who will be driving to the inauguration with his wife, Angela, daughter, Brandis, 10, and son, Cameron, 8. "They've become very engaged in the political process, but they also understand it in terms of their civic duty to the point where both the kids, at one point in time, said 'I wish I was 18, so I could vote, too.' "

He said the trip will include plenty of educational conversations about the historical nature of what they will be witnessing, even though they won't be in a classroom.

Barrera said the decision to keep his children out of school was easy.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime event," he said.

John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com.