I just checked the 1969 calendar...it actually was on a Sunday. The comment in the first post on this thread about having a TV brought into the class room so the students could watch, along with a line from Jimmy Buffet's song about the event "The Rocket That Grandpa Rode", which said "...we all got to stay home from school..." seems kind of odd, given that it happened on a Sunday in the middle of the summer. Maybe they were remembering earlier space missions, I can recall hearing and watching real time TV coverage of Gemini missions in science class in junior high school.
You tube of the Buffet song, form "Songs from Saint Somewhere":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CXDRdmY4pwMaybe it was the landing or some other part of the flight or even another one that was watched in school. It was a long time ago. I don't know anything about Jimmy Buffett's music.