Learning about instantaneous slope and related rates at 8 a.m. is not the most exhilarating thing, but I didn’t resent having math first period that much until this whole inauguration business started happening.

At first our school wasn’t going to do anything about the inauguration, and teachers just seemed to ignore it. But yesterday our principal made an announcement on the intercom that first period would be extended on Tuesday, January 20th to have time to watch the ceremony.

However, many classes won’t be watching it because of their subject matter. Mostly all of the history and government classes will be viewing it in their classrooms and a lot of non-academic classes are going to the school auditorium to watch it, but people like me who have academic classes first period won’t be able to watch it.

Our teacher says that it could be perceived as “biased” to show Obama’s inauguration since not everyone likes him, and also that we can’t waste time because we need to prepare for our final exams the next week. However, I contest that this is pure 100% bologna. Watching the inauguration is just as much of an historical event as a political one, and who could be “biased” about watching history in the making?

I find it unfair that the kids who happen to have non-academic or history class first period get to watch the event but others don’t. And as hard of a class my first period math is, and as much as I would appreciate the extra time to prepare for midterms, I’d watch history happen over studying any day. It’s not like I turned down watching election night TV to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Studying is something we can do anytime, and watching the first Black president be sworn in as the President of the United States of America definitely is not. As for me, I’ll be conveniently taking a “bathroom break” at 8:30 Tuesday morning.

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