History Lesson

Judy Smith, her daughter and two grandchildren spent a recent afternoon learning about their family heritage from Olga Tykhonova, who was visiting from Ukraine. Smith hosted two members of a Ukrainian delegation in her Burbank home last week in a partnership between the Open World Program, sponsored by the Open World Leadership Center, and the International Visitors Council of Los Angeles. Tykhonova is the facilitator for the Ukrainian delegation. She lives in Cherkasy, about 150 miles south of the capital city of Kiev.

I've called Glendale home since I was a toddler, but I've only recently begun to explore the history of the city I find comforting yet peculiar at the same time. Glendale makes you work to find its personality. It's also a vortex filled with relics from another time. Lately, I've found myself gravitating toward learning more about it. Maybe it's because I'm older; maybe it's because the opportunities of leaving the Jewel City behind have presented themselves in irresistible ways, which has brought on nostalgia.

Robert Chacon As part of their history lesson on Mexican California, 120 fourth- graders at La Canada Elementary squared off against 80 pounds of masa, hundreds of corn husks and chicken and pork in an effort to make tamales they will eat at a fiesta Thursday. Social studies in fourth grade focuses on California history. Originally part of Mexico, the state still maintains many of the traditions from that epoch and making tamales is a way to emphasize those traditions, teachers said.

Whether they were artists, teachers, students or just tagging along, many of the first viewers of "Winslow Homer in America" ? a traveling exhibition of the famed artist's wood engravings showcased at Forest Lawn Museum ? were not sure what they would see at the exhibition's opening reception Thursday night. But they were pleasantly surprised. "I didn't know what to expect, but I'm very impressed," said Vickie Lackman, 57. "He seemed to capture every aspect of American life in the 1800s."

Assistance League provides clothing for kids Glendale Assistance League members provided clothing for students of low-income families with their Operation School Bell project this school year. Thirty-five volunteers under the direction of Chairwoman Angela Hardee helped 282 children select correct sizes and pick out their favorite book as a gift from the league. The Assisteens, the league's teen group, purchased and donated the books for the project.

Claudia Peschiutta GLENDALE ADVENTIST SCHOOL - Students got a history lesson Tuesday from a man who died years before any of them were born. Dressed in blue wool Union Army garb, Moses Williams taught students about the part he and other Buffalo Soldiers played in U.S. history as members of the nation's first black military regiments. Robert Clements, the Los Angeles actor who portrayed the soldier, gave students a spirited account, punctuated by constant movement and hand motions, of how Williams and his companions fought against American Indians.

Claudia Peschiutta BRAND PARK - After taking a short trip into Glendale's past, Josh Wyman decided it's better being a kid today than it was in the early 20th century. "It was probably hard running around at recess because you were in, like, dresses and tight pants," he said. The 8-year-old and his Fremont Elementary School class visited the Doctors' House Museum Friday and became the first third-grade class to see this year's exhibit on the history of Glendale schools.

Shame on those anonymous callers who complained to the city about flying the American flag at half-staff in remembrance of the Armenian Genocide! Bigotry under the guise of patriotism is nothing new -- in fact the Ottoman Turks who slaughtered the Armenians and the Nazis who annihilated the Jews all thought of themselves as patriots. These clandestine callers complained that lowering the flag was a dishonor to American veterans, since the Armenian Genocide had nothing to do with U.S. history.

Thank you, Mr. Brandstater, for the history lesson. Your Community Commentary ("Opponents of Patriot Act 'ill-informed'," Aug. 17) is filled not only with irrelevant tidbits on American history, but it smacks of Cold War-era fear tactics, which have no place in public discourse today. Your attempt at invoking irrational sentiments by connecting a legal association with communists is utterly laughable. I mean, the communists are no longer communists in places they used to rule.

If you are a history buff who enjoys epic features about World War II, then you should enlist to see "Flags of Our Fathers." The film tells the complete story behind the famous photograph of the six soldiers raising the American flag on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II. "Flags of Our Fathers" is based on a book written by James Bradley. Bradley's dad, John Bradley, was one of the Marines in the Pulitzer Prize-winning picture. Because this is a war movie, many people may compare it to recent projects like "Saving Private Ryan," but it stands out on it's own because of Clint Eastwood's unique style of directing.

I've called Glendale home since I was a toddler, but I've only recently begun to explore the history of the city I find comforting yet peculiar at the same time. Glendale makes you work to find its personality. It's also a vortex filled with relics from another time. Lately, I've found myself gravitating toward learning more about it. Maybe it's because I'm older; maybe it's because the opportunities of leaving the Jewel City behind have presented themselves in irresistible ways, which has brought on nostalgia.

Judy Smith, her daughter and two grandchildren spent a recent afternoon learning about their family heritage from Olga Tykhonova, who was visiting from Ukraine. Smith hosted two members of a Ukrainian delegation in her Burbank home last week in a partnership between the Open World Program, sponsored by the Open World Leadership Center, and the International Visitors Council of Los Angeles. Tykhonova is the facilitator for the Ukrainian delegation. She lives in Cherkasy, about 150 miles south of the capital city of Kiev.

Student interest in our Debate Club usually lags in the second semester, and this year is no different. The club officers have been straining to come up with topics that will bring in a good crowd after school, and this week they succeeded. Our topic was, “Should marijuana be legalized?” It’s a subject that has been covered in this space before, and because it continues to engage students of all ages, I thought a return visit might be in order. And just for good measure, a little history lesson is tacked on at the end. In the midst of our debate/discussion at school, it was very apparent who does and who doesn’t indulge.

Regarding “In Theorist misses the mark yet again,” Mailbag, Saturday: Someone does need “a refresher course in American history regarding the ‘pilgrims’ and our ‘revolutionary forefathers,’” but it’s not the Rev. Bryan Griem. Rather, it’s the author of the letter to the editor, Cynthia Cavanaugh, who’s in need of a refresher course. Cavanaugh reflects as to “why our forefathers established a separation of church and state in our Constitution.

History came to life in Adrine Avedian’s classroom at R.D. White Elementary School Thursday, as costume-clad fourth-graders lined up to rehearse a show they would perform before a live audience that night. Facing each other in two rows, the students stood shoulder-to-shoulder, dressed as military men, bearded former presidents, famous authors and other well-known and not so well-known historical figures. Each child had a sign attached to one wrist that said “Push me” above a big black button, which, once pressed, triggered an erudite monologue in the voice of the character they played.

As a boy growing up in a small Central Washington farming community, one of my first recollections was that soldier in the framed picture that hung above my father's roll-top desk. The helmet had four stars and the stern look on the soldier's face was anything but friendly. Yet, there it was, my father's prize possession, a photo he viewed so reverently that it maintained its prime location for several decades until my dad sold his newspaper and moved out of his office. The man in the picture was General George S. Patton, someone that my generation knew little about until he was made famous by George C. Scott's portrayal of him in the 1970 movie classic, Patton.

Verdugo Woodlands Elementary School students got a lesson in the "the's" yesterday. "The Samba," "The Twist," "The Charleston," "The Hitchhike," "The Monkey" and "The Mess Around" were just some of the moves that wiggled their way through a crowd of more than 200 kindergartners through second-graders. They were part of a dance performance by the Lula Washington Dance Theater — a well-known L.A.-based dance corps dedicated to modern, street-dance and jazz techniques as a way to tell the African-American story.

More than 60 members of the Glendale-Foothill Division of the Retired Teachers' Assn. attended one of the group's five luncheon meetings of the year on Feb. 5 at the Elks Lodge in Glendale. Guest speaker was Linda Gubler Junge , the new director of public information and administrative services for the Glendale Unified School District. She ran into her Hoover High School 10th-grade English teacher, Fran Worcester . Worcester, who taught in Glendale for 25 years and is now retired, discussed why she attends the luncheons.