Friday, January 30, 2009

Lesson Plan for February 12

Gather round, children! Today we are celebrating a very special occasion. Our nation’s sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, would have celebrated his 200th birthday today. But he isn’t celebrating with us, because he’s dead.

Lincoln was an important advocate for national unity during a time of war. He helped bring an end to the tragic history of slavery in this country. Then, he was shot by John Wilkes Booth. He held on for a bit, but soon he died.

None of that changes the wonderful event we’re celebrating today—the birth of a great man who would be dead by now anyway, even if he hadn’t been assassinated.

So please, take a look at the age-appropriate biographies we’ve selected for you, visit the “wax museum” of important figures from the Lincoln Era, and enjoy some of these delicious top hat-shaped sugar cookies, decorated by Mrs. Smithson, our 3rd grade PTA representative.

And if you take away anything from today’s activities, let it be this: we’re all going to die someday; and probably, in 200 years, no one will care if we ever lived.

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