Abraham Lincoln High School

01/15/2018 For a day for volunteering with LA Works on Martin Luther King Jr Day brought me to this school. I thought that is me doing something good. Putting my hands to good use and building or painting to help inspire students to grow. I did not know the different things I would learn because of one man with a dream and non-violent protests. The Courtyard is named after Sal Castro who encouraged students to organize a mass walk-out in protest of sub-standard facilities. Lincoln students led the first wave of what became the largest student strike in history of public education. Joined by at least three other area high schools. The auditorium is named after Ethel Percy Andrus, the very first woman high school principal in California. I'm sure most of the history and information can be looked up on Google or your favorite website. It was great weather for a great day of working together. I even got to meet A.C. Green and Mayor Garcetti who spoke to the volunteers before we all got started.

Lately I find myself immersed in a midlife crisis and have acquired an acute case of Nostalgia. Indulge me while I reminisce... Lincoln Heights used to be called East Los Angeles. This was one of the first suburbs of LA and was built for Hollywood's Elite, hence the grand Victorian mansions scattered about a very walkable five mile radius. Over time white flight happened and in a last ditch effort to remain upscale, they changed its name from East LA to Lincoln Heights. Upscale sounding it may be, by the 80's these neglected Victorians were split into numerous apartment units rented to immigrants, street gangs and the poor. Life went on as usual and in squalor for decades. Then, seemingly overnight, gentrification came knocking on our doors and judging from the high real estate to all the recent hipster shops lining Broadway, I fear we are regressing back to the days of the Elite. Or are we? I went to school here at Lincoln High for a short time. This is one of the oldest public schools in LA and was designed by prolific architect Albert C. Martin who also helped design City Hall (!). They don't make 'em like they used to, just look at these gorgeous grounds. I hear it's about to get even more gorgeous thanks to a $200 million modernization plan to spiff up the halls and hills of this historic school. I must admit I did not learn much life skills here. I suppose that's what college is for. So if you peaked in high school, good luck living the rest of your life, brah. I'd often cut class and would scale the fence by the tracks but I'm sure they've reinforced the gates. I almost didn't graduate because I was failing PE. Who fails PE?! Moral of the story? Stay in school. With Nostalgia on my mind and inspired by the month of love because I am a hopeless romantic, I want to share a peculiar letter written by an anonymous student who slipped these words between the slots of my locker all those years ago: To you I write, with all the brilliance of the Stars and Gods. I know you only by sight and the abundance of gleam that comes through as you lingerly walk past friends, strangers, and me, with a smile for your beauty and for the world. This passion for you is no fabrication on my part, it is true as are the dark skies that are above me as I write this epistle. I hope you don't think I'm a maniac for writing to you, for I only write with all my sincerity. I ponder a thought of a day when you and I could speak. Speak of everything under the sun, to feel your breath near me, to sense the tenderness you give forth without a dubious thought in your mind. I wish I could succumb to my desires of speaking to you, but the fear of humiliation keeps me abroad. My mind is overflowing with revelations, we pass each other so many times a day and still I haven't spoken a word to you. These words of mine are corrupt, yes, but frankness is the only life I known. Perhaps I'll write you again. Perhaps I'll speak to you... -- If you are the author of this letter, hit me up. It's been a lifetime and we've much to say...

Abraham Lincoln high school is my alma mater. Class of 1984. Now I work for LAUSD it's nice to be back to my old stomping grounds. The memories I have I will never forget.

Lincoln HS is the second oldest public high school in Los Angeles. It is located on N. Broadway a couple miles northeast of Chinatown. The school's demographic is primarily Latino-American, with a small percentage of Asian Americans, and very few (if any) of other nationalities. When I first came here the school was overcrowded, there were kids constantly walking around truant, and there was very little respect for teachers. The big activities were football and cheer. Nowadays, students are involved with many more activities. The music program returned in 2007 (when I got hired) after being non-existent for 3-4 years. Students are achieving at a higher level, and truancy/attendance issues have dropped significantly to a couple "all-stars" here and there. The one thing that I've seen out of the students here is their pride for their school and community. Lincoln students are proud to be Tigers, and they wear their colors with pride. Go Tiger!

I was here for four long years; 9th to 12th grades. [getting out her cane] Back in my day, LAUSD wasn't a bad school district. Really, now that I think about it, I learned the importance of education. I know basic math (enough to figure out restaurant math, anyway). I can read and write. But I thought my high school was weird. No one cared about football games. Or cheerleaders. No one was the class clown. I'm not even sure we had one. No one made fun of the goth kids. No one really cared about "cliques." I guess we would have made a boring high school movie. My time was spent in Advance Placement classes, managing the school paper, writing for the school magazine, running for student body presidency (with the captain of the basketball team as my V.P.) and generally loafing about. We didn't win (damn non-voters!) but I ended up on the student Supreme Court as a judge. I managed the boy's tennis team but decided to decline the management of the girls' volleyball team. I also learned how to play a couple of musical instruments badly. By the time I was a senior, I was so over school I wasn't sure I even wanted to go to college. I had so many activities and so little time for myself. Our school would raise money by going to local TV show tapings. They paid the school to bus in kids. I saw a lot of shows being taped back then. We had our prom at the Biltmore in Downtown. I went stag. And graduation night was at Disneyland. Was this a typical LA teenager's dream? I don't think so. I flipped through my yearbook the other day. Who are these people who signed it? Were they the people I learned to play poker with from a book borrowed from the library? Or the ones I kicked it with at the movies, McDonald's, the donut shop across the park from the tennis courts or bowling with? Probably, maybe, maybe not. I only really talk to one other person from high school, my best friend who leads an entirely different life than my own. I suppose her friendship is the one thing I'm thankful for. One of these days, they'll dig up our time capsule and wonder about the crap we dumped in there. And they'll find ashy bits of the school paper with my byline. Go Tigers!

I went here for summer school. I felt like I had to be on my toes all the time. I was taking an economics class and there was like 10 people in the class. The teacher reminded me of edward james olmos from stand and deliver, except he was a bad teacher. sux.

I went to this school for almost two years since I transferred. The students were alright, you get different type of kids each class. It has mostly Latinos and some Asians and the school serves mostly low income students. The teachers were good. However, while they seemed good at connecting I don't think some teachers wanted to properly teach. One biology teacher never let students do experiments and a math teacher did nothing half the class and relaxed.

Lincoln High School is a place where teachers encourage you to learn and challenge you to think. Their career pathways give students different opportunities to explore their career interests. Students are challenged to rise to their highest academic potential. On top of their strong academic program, their athletics department gives student-athletes the chance to soar. Their softball team continuously wins League Champion titles. Their baseball team just won the Los angeles City Championship. Go Tigers!

back in mid 70s at 80s lincoln high was my big moments at this great school academy, no complaint only satisfaction and glad that throughout time still continues as it has always was intended to be sin 1878 till present, tigers keep up the good work cause is here to stay for many more years.

I go to high school they are big in side have lot of student in the school at the cafeteria food test so good they make breakfast some time gave some ice crams now they don't give us any more?

wth. i don't know why you guys are talking smack about lincoln. i'm currently a sophmore right now, i've had no problems considering the fact i look white, when i'm 100% mexican. all schools have fights n stuff. no none cares about cheer & football? i cheer right now, i'm a tumbler, i don't see how people don't care considering so many people show up at the games and pep-rallys. i love lincoln, would transfer for a thing.