Bigger than the Beatles

>>>Complete Seahawks Victory Parade details

When the Beatles first arrived on U.S. shores almost exactly 50 years ago they were greeted by 4,000 delirious teenagers.

Today, here in Seattle the police are prepared for 500,000 people to attend the Seahawk victory parade. And Coach Pete Carroll created a real dilemma for the schools when he said this:

“Yeah! Let’s shut down the darn schools. Let’s shut the businesses down. Let’s have a darn celebration and create the memory that everybody deserves.”

How do you compete with that? The guy who just brought home the city’s first Super Bowl victory, easily the most respected public figure in the city – saying close down the schools.

Public schools quickly made clear they’d be open as usual, and attending the parade would be an unexcused absence.

So parents had to decide, do you act like a truant officer, or do you make up an excuse, thereby setting the example that football is more important than that history paper?

Happily, someone discovered a state law that allows school absences for “unusual circumstances” – so if you understand the culture of the 12th Man, a parent could plausibly explain that young Justin had to miss school because of a sudden major family event.

But also, not all education happens in a classroom. Those 4,000 teenagers who put off their history papers to scream for Beatles 50 years ago are still talking about it today.

To be honest – writing about history makes a lot more sense to a kid after he’s actually witnessed some.

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