. . .Think'n Like Lincoln Web Activity

. . . Read the Introduction Below Before Doing the Links

• Some people are born with talents.  Abraham was born into a farmer's world, a carpenter's world, and a pioneer's world.  He would leave all these and enter into a world of book reading and the high profession of law.

• Before Abraham ever became a lawyer, he learned to cipher well enough to learn the geometry and higher mathematics to become a surveyor and and later to be an inventor with a registered patent.  He had a great mind for technology.  Technology of his day did not involve electricity or atomic energy.  It was completely dependent upon horsepower, waterpower or manpower.  He started out as a child reading the Bible, the Biography of George Washington, and any other book he could get hold of.  He only went to organized school one year.  He learned law on his own with books he could read at New Salem.  He definitely had a ZEAL for learning that many don't have.  Do you have a zeal to learn?

• Abraham was a good story teller, a real friendly and helpful man, and kind of odd at times.  By odd, we mean he was not a typical frontier man.  He did not hunt, cuss, chew tobacco, smoke tobacco, or drink liquor.  His life was based upon the truths in the Bible, the Declaration of Independence and other great proven sources.  Abraham was aggressive and proved to be a very effective leader when conducting the Civil War.  During his Circuit lawyer years he proved to be a very competitive lawyer, to which opposing lawyers dreaded going against.  He would become a very good and popular politician, and of course would become the most powerful and important man in the world, the President of the United States.

• Some people that knew him well, and those of us today who can only read about him, might think he was a very moody person with some kind of mental problem.  Really, Abraham Lincoln was a man who could use his mind to do a lot of things at the same time.  He and Mary had a lot of grief in their lives with the deaths of their sons, and then the terrible Civil War that was ongoing through his Presidency.  These things alone would cause a person to be "moody" and depressed at time.  Great studies and many opinions of learned men have tried to find out what was wrong with the great 16th President, but in the end his intellect and high virtues for life and leadership come out as the controlling factors in his life.

•   In this web activity, we will try to show how complicated the thinking of Abraham Lincoln was.  Perhaps some of us have abilities like he had, and can do great things.  Hopefully as you are growing up, you can use your talents and personal virtues to be a great person as well.  We have found four "thinking" activities on the Internet.  Choose one, or do both from one of the boxes below.  The two easier ones are on general topics of study to make you think.  There are craft and hands-on things to do with them.  The "Harder" box has two virtual projects that include becoming a defense attorney or becoming the President.  Do one or both of them.  Use the Reporting Form to tell of your experiences in any of the "thinking" activities.