"Presidents Day"- LHS gets day off for which President?

Today's holiday is called "President's Day" and LHS along with other schools, federal, state and local government offices are closed, along with the banks. Your L.A. City trash pickup is unchanged, so don't forget to put that out on the curb if today is your day. What do we have to think about on this holiday? And what is this holiday supposed to be, anyway?

Presidents Day is what the Abraham Lincoln's Birthday of February 12 holiday and the George Washington's Birthday of February 22 holiday have become- not really for Abe and not really for George- it doesn't fall on the same date either because it's a "Monday" holiday for your convenience, which mean that it's a watered-down holiday that has lost most of it's meaning.

The "Monday" holidays that give you a 3-day weekend really turn into a day off, a day for a barbecue or some other enjoyment. This year in L.A. it's turning out to really be a "watered-down" holiday if you have been outside- pouring rain that's predicted to be the heaviest of the year so far for the whole day.

The only thing really unaffected for this holiday by the rain is the "Presidents Day" sales for all the stores that have survived bankruptcy filings of the last few months. At least we can expect that street crime will be lower today with less people out on the streets for both sides- the criminal's and the victim's- but like the change from Lincoln and Washington actually being honored by the holiday that I remembered from my LAUSD days, it's different now.

The Mayor- Tony Villaraigosa, just a bit younger than me- still says, "L.A. safer than it's been since the 1950's," and brags about the crime rate being down. I tend to disagree since I don't rememember that we had street shootings happening so often like today when those events don't even really rate much of a news story anymore.

When my friends and I went to Lincoln, we did not really worry about drive-bys and all that stuff when walking around Lincoln Heights to school. Going to the L.A. Times Boys Club or to the Lincoln Park gym at night did not have that life-and-death shadow that you have now at night- or even during the day. That was the 60's, maybe less safe than the 50's, but if a shooting happened, it was for sure a news story. Today it's sadly too common. My students more recently at Lincoln were so used to shootings happening and even having family members or themselves shot and shot at. I can't even compare that attitude of acceptance with our school-age experiences that differ from mine just a bit, Mr. Mayor.

The Mayor says you need more cops and so he jacks up the fees for trash to do so, and we still don't get the extra 1,000 cops hired, so you get MORE fees and taxes created. It's not even for OUR safety, but for TONY to have HIS dream happen. That dream? Becoming the "Governor of California in 2010" but AFTER Tony wins the mayor's race on March 3. And if there's a runoff-election that's very strong possiblity with a few more voters coming out, you will really see all stops pulled out by TONY to win-

And you know politics on a local level affects this all the time these days. Our Mayor has let this happen and has made L.A. life worse for most people other than developers and the unions that pay his campaign funds. BUT NO DEBATES FOR TONY. He's got nothing good to say and too much that can come out without being defensible by him and he knows that. TONY doesn't deserve to inflict another terrible term on us, especially with so many lies, big and small, that he's told like the simple one where walking around at night now IS a much riskier proposition that in my high school days. Can you see HIM walking around the streets at night without his police bodyguards? Of course, some places are very dangerous and some are pretty safe, but the idea is that overall, violent crime happens everywhere and is too common.

City life in L.A. is getting to be, more and more, a different experience than you or I remember. Even if you are of the "younger" generation, you have to see those changes, too. If you moved away from "the Heights" and haven't been around for a few years or longer, maybe the changes are more eye-opening. The "improvements" from advances in technology have come along to bring things we could not even imagine as high school students.

Another change that is noticed for high school students is about the level of basic skills students have attained in school. More of our students are ill-prepared, continuing to struggle to pass CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL EXIT exams in math and English, written at an 8th grade level- and that, my friends is what we called, "Jr. High" level. It should be able to be done and done early in high school, not coming up every year to make a student wonder if he or she will be able to joing classmates graduating in June. Performance at "grade level" is not the norm, and when you see that many have fallen behind several years, you have to wonder what was done to let it get ONE year behind grade level. This kind of weak attention to even-handed attention to students' progress just makes them to become weaker, and for many, to be attracted into criminal activity where they can be accepted and succeed with a different group.

A holiday should be enjoyable and the basic reason for its creation should be understood. Presidents Day has become as dissoved as the dirt on the streets in today's rainstorm and neither Lincoln nor Washington really are honored or remembered. Our schools have changed with simple historical items remaining a mystery, even to those at school bearing the same name. Every little bit of education helps round out the knowledge base and make more learning more able to happen.

A lot of basic things we older alumni have experienced in learning just don't happen anymore, even with all the changes in technology and information. And it doesn't have to be like that. Education is affected by things in the school and in the community and we need to pay attention to changing what needs to be changed to equip the students for life success.

Some Information about Abraham Lincoln on his 200th birthday

Today is the 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the namesake of Lincoln High, and since there's a lot that's really never covered in connection to the alma mater, I am putting a few links to sources that might help to show why Lincoln was considered to be the greatest of the Presidents.

CNN has some information on their site for the 200th Anniversary, http://www.c-span.org/series/lincoln-200-years.aspx

They have there a very concise timeline running from Lincoln's birth in 1809 until his death in 1865. http://www.c-span.org/lincoln200years/timeline/

USA Today has collected information for the 200 year anniversary at it's page, http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-02-10-lincoln_N.htm Much of it include the modern day questions brought up to evaluate Lincoln's actions and accomplishments in different ways to size him up using today's views. There's more there. A lot is speculation and re-examination, but the man was a very special person living and serving his term in difficult times.

There is a N.Y. Daily New editorial that commemorates the birthday of President Lincoln and includes the 271 word speech given in Gettysburg Pennsylvania in 1863, consecrating a civil war cemetery. That's more commonly referred to as the "Gettysburg Address." with a photograph showing the classic image of Abraham Lincoln. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/02/12/2009-02-12_abraham_lincolns_greatness_shines_forth_.html

It is a good day to remember this person, especially in today's time when there is so much criticism of this country and what it has does in the world, yet people from all over the world have always wanted to come to the United States, and there's no masses trying to leave for other countries.

Lincoln High and 200th Anniversary of The "Rail Splitter" (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865)

Do you know what's happening in 10 days, especially you Lincoln High

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.