Minnesota has been called by many names. The North Star State, The Land of 10,000 Lakes, The Bread and Butter State, The Gopher State and the New England of the West. And for some of us, it will always be known for the fame achieved through radio personality Garrison Keillor and his wonderfully creative Prairie Home Companion radio show. 

Just a quick little note today.

For many years we have brought great school shows to kids all over the country. But, of course, the kids don't get to select the shows. Instead we work with a representative from the school to do that. We set up our school shows through many different people. Often we do so through the school principal. Other times it is a secretary acting on behalf of a principal. Many times it will be a representative from the school PTA or PTO. Occasionally it will be a teacher. And they all do their scheduling in different ways.

One of our good friends is in Maryland today. His name is Frank, and his real job is that of principal at a school in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area. But today he is engaged in another passion. Frank is a Civil War reenactor and today he is in Maryland, along with thousands of his colleagues, reenacting one of the the turning points in the war, the Battle of Antietam.

We have spoken recently and in the past about our programs that teach kids about how to deal with bullying. This is a serious topic and one that needs to be addressed. Every day we hear from schools looking for ways to help their students.

Labor Day is over, and schools are either back in session or are resuming this week all over the country. If you are the coordinator for school shows at your school, and are still looking for great ideas for school assemblies, here is a super cool offer for you!

We received a communication recently in connection to one of our blogs. It was in reference to a recent piece describing how well our anti bullying assembly - Stronger Than a Bully - has been received during the last year, and how we have now created a follow up program to meet the needs of schools wishing to repeat the show each year. The writer, with antagonism and totally unprovoked belligerence, cast aspersions, denigrated the reliability of client reviews, and demanded empirical evidence proving that the show had been effective in preventing bullying. Wow! Given that the writer had, apparently, never even seen the show, we can only assume he or she was having a bad day.

At this time, every year, around the country, young parents are being thrown into new volunteer tasks with their PTO or PTA organizations. Some are charged with fund raising activities, others with membership drives, while still others are made secretaries or treasurers. But to some falls the task of arranging school assemblies. And what, they think to themselves, is a school assembly? What is a school assembly program? What do you mean I am to arrange the enrichment programs?

Henry Ford used to say that museums were all filled with the wrong stuff. He wanted museums to be about machines and technology, so he created his own, the renowned Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. And it is true that most historical museums and books are filled with information much of which is concerned with who was fighting whom at different times in the past. But, sadly, history is full of war and battles. It is a large part of the story of mankind,