For the eighth graders at Morganton Day School, their big trip for the year got much more monumental when Barack Obama was elected president of the United States.
Last spring, when teachers started planning the trip to Washington, D.C., they knew it wouldn't be a typical excursion. They deliberately scheduled it to coincide with the inauguration.
The 10 students, along with six adults, plan to leave Morganton on Jan. 18 and return on Jan. 21.
Although they've been planning for almost a year, the students don't have tickets for the inaugural ceremony, said eighth-grade social-studies teacher Britta Gramer. Instead they hope to watch the jumbo TV screens from a non-ticketed area.
Gramer said the students then plan to watch the inaugural parade.
Their itinerary includes more than the inaugural activities. The students will visit museums and memorials including Mount Vernon, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Smithsonian Institution.
The group also plans to attend a few Jan. 19 tributes for Martin Luther King, Jr., Gramer said.
The eighth graders' curriculum naturally leads to discussions about politics and government, Gramer said.
Once they return home, the students will discuss the differences between Washington, D.C., and their daily life. Gramer said their discussions will include comparing coverage in international, national and local newspapers.
Gramer is encouraging her students to soak in everything they see in the country's capital, including press coverage, protesters and the crowds.
"We'll bring home things we've talked about that we don't see in everyday life," Gramer said.
Read the letters the eighth graders wrote to President-Elect Barack Obama by following the link to the right.
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