alumni?Hint: Celebration of an event of 200 years ago. Still not helping?
Hint 2: Birthday candles would need a big cake and some fire marshals if fired up.
Last Hint: No, Not "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" but, "What President is Lincoln High named after?"
In 10 days, it will be February 12, 2009, the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States on February 12, 1809. The other more tragic and widely known fact is that he was the first U.S. President to be assassinated, hit at point blank range by a single shot on April 14, 1865 and dying 9 hours later on April 15, 1865. He was 56 years old.
If all of this was news to you, think of what the students think about concerning this at LHS. In the five years that I have followed the Lincoln's Birthday activity each February, it was either easy to describe because there was nothing mentionable that was any different from any other day on campus, or, it was so UN-promoted that not a word was heard, discouraging or otherwise, about the significance of that February 12th date.
I am one of the ones from the old school- the one affter the 1930's quake and the one before the 1970's quakes- with the idea that we should have some school pride from taking steps to promote it based on knowledge and deeds, not just because it's part of a school cheerleading routine.
A second reason for not ignoring Lincoln's February 12th birthday is that Lincoln High is named after the most famous President, and a leader in the time of a war between citizens on our own homeland. There is a vast history from which we can find that tells us about Lincoln, besides the fact of being tall and thin, with a stovepipe hat and a beard.
My experience at Lincoln showed me that many students in the 9th an 10th grade were barely aware that Lincoln was a president. Many knew he was assassinated, but not much of any kind of details of anything else concerning Lincoln. Their expected later experience in a U.S. History class might help them, but aside from that, there is not a SCHOOL push for knowledge about Abraham Lincoln, and we should see that both as having educational value and serving to instill some knowledge that could foster some pride in the school.
I see that other schools on the East and Northeast side that carry names of presidents and historical figures, Wilson, (President Woodrow Wilson), Franklin, (Benjamin Franklin, statesman and inventor) and Garfield (President Jame Garfield- also assassinated during term in office)- and Roosevelt (Theodore Roosevelt) and ours should be the one easiest to find much information about his life and times. President Lincoln was probably the best of the U.S. presidents when you consider what he did to preserve the country in a time that brought civil war to the nation.
I'd like to see the change in the direction that Lincoln High has followed in the past as it concerns the Lincoln's Birthday event each year on February 12th. I remember that we had a separate holiday for Lincoln's birthday on February 12, and another holiday on February 22 for President George Washington's birthday. Later, to be more efficient, I imagine, there was a holiday created as President's Day that was neither for Washington or Lincoln and did not fall on either of their birthdays, but instead on a MONDAY. All this did was to really erase the importance of both of the Presidents and make the actual dates of their birthday even more obscure.
All of this is a sad commentary in the dissemination and treatment of knowledge of history for the benefit of students- and the School. We celebrate Cinco de Mayo which is a purely party day, not even the Mexican "4th of July" that many believe it to be. We celebrate September 16th in this city, with lots of SPECIAL EVENT FEE WAIVERS (meaning thousands of dollars given by the city for a party- and these are your tax dollars, and any "fee" dollars collected by the city. FEES really are taxes to the extent you are stuck by the city.)
In this city, we are unique among U.S. cities, with the City Council, giving money readily for events to celebrate another country's independence day, the September 16th Mexican Independence Day, almost more enthusiastically so than our own. That spending, like the $400,000.00 fee just waived by the Ctiy Council for the Academy Awards coming up, reinforces the idea that Council has no trouble parting with other people's tax money to fund parties. This public party expense pattern is a topic to be covered separately.
The idea of Lincoln High students having a knowledge of their namesake is not a terribly onerous expectation, and I add, it's a worthy one to refute criticss when the overall reputation of the LAUSD and the level of education is considered to be on a downward spiral from the any of the years of attendance here by any alumni.
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