Lincoln passes on wisdom

On the heels of President-elect Barack Obama’s visit to the Lincoln Memorial, the 16th president made a visit to a Huntington Beach private school.

Abraham Lincoln, also known as actor Barry Cutler, spent Monday with the students of Carden Academy.

Like professional Santa impersonators, Cutler doesn’t mess around: He has a real beard, a craggy, tanned face and a worn stove-top hat.

Cutler guided students through a first-person narrative of Lincoln’s life, beginning with his childhood in Kentucky and leading up to a riveting description of the final hours of the president’s life, just as the Civil War had drawn to a close.

Children watched, mouths agape, as Cutler described how Lincoln became a self-taught lawyer, as well as Lincoln’s various entrepreneurial escapades.

Cutler said an experience making money carrying two dandies to a steamboat in a raft from the shore opened the president’s eyes.

“My life was in my hands, and if I was willing to work, there was no limit to what I could do,” Cutler’s Lincoln told the kids.

He focused heavily on Lincoln’s hard-knock childhood, making the president relatable to the children, who raised their hands often to make points or ask questions.

“I had no electricity, no plumbing, no Nintendo,” Cutler said. The kids howled at the thought.

During question-and-answer periods at the end of each session, kids often asked questions about the connections between Obama and Lincoln; the former has announced he will use the latter’s inauguration Bible at his own swearing-in.

One student asked what Lincoln would tell Obama about the two wars he inherited.

“That’s probably the most difficult task of a president, to make the best possible decision about war,” Cutler said.

Another asked if Lincoln thought there would ever be a female president.

“During my lifetime, we thought that would never happen,” Cutler’s Lincoln told the student. “But wisdom comes out of our prejudices.”

He compared it to Lincoln’s own prejudices; the president originally thought that black and white Americans could never live together, even though he didn’t believe in slavery, Cutler said.

Cutler, an accomplished television and stage actor, has been performing as Lincoln for 16 years.

“I believe from this, we will have children become really excited about this time period,” said Carol Van Asten, the school’s founder and director. She added that her school has a focus on making history and the news real for kids.

Four years ago, a group of students went to President George W. Bush’s second inauguration. Last year, a group went to China.

“All our children here are paid attention to at an individual level,” she said of the academy, which serves 250 students.