Jefferson Elementary students get a visit from school’s namesake on his birthday
Thomas Jefferson, played by Peter M. Small of Costa Mesa, spoke to fifth-grade students at Jefferson Elementary School, in Glendale on the third U.S. president’s 273rd birthday, Wednesday, April 13, 2016. Jefferson spoke in the first person about his accomplishments and his life during the early days of the United States.
Thomas Jefferson paid a visit to the local school named after him on Wednesday — the same date he was born 273 years ago — to share his story with fifth-graders.
Impressionist Peter M. Small spoke with the students in the auditorium at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School not too far from where a bust of the school’s namesake is on display.
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“I don’t think many of us know about Jefferson even though we call ourselves Jeffersonians,” said Marine Avagyan, the school’s principal. “We have an opportunity to not only celebrate Mr. Jefferson’s birthday today, but we actually had Jefferson visit us to help us learn who was that man that was so important that they actually named a school after him?”
Thomas Jefferson, played by Peter M. Small of Costa Mesa, writes the Declaration of Independence as he speaks to fifth-grade students at Jefferson Elementary School, in Glendale.
Appearing in costume and donning a gray wig with a pony tail tied up with a blue ribbon, Small relayed the founding father’s personal hardships and historic accomplishments, including the death of his spouse and children and the Louisiana Purchase, to which he recalled: “With a stroke of the pen, I doubled the size of the United States.”
He also spoke of Jefferson’s passion for education and his involvement in founding the University of Virginia, which opened in 1819.
“To be a great nation, we need to have great centers of learning,” he said.
Small led the students up to July 4, 1826, the day Jefferson died at age 83, about 50 years after he signed the Declaration of Independence, of which he was the primary author.
Small lowered his head on a desk to reenact Jefferson’s death, and afterward, he took questions from students.
One boy asked: “What was it like to be the third president?”
Small, as Jefferson, replied: “It was a splendid misery.”
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Kelly Corrigan, kelly.corrigan@latimes.com
Twitter: @kellymcorrigan
