Pssst! School is starting...

One of the biggest challenges for parents, teachers and principals looking for high quality school assemblies and enrichment programs is the chore of locating them. How do you find them? How do you know they are good? Well, there are many ways to do just that, ranging from word of mouth, the internet, what the school has done before, and whatever brochures arrive in the mail. But by far the best way is to actually get a chance to meet a large variety of performers in person and see many of them actually performing segments of their shows, in person and all in one place.

The school year contains many special occasions. This we all know. Some are once in a lifetime festivities such as the closing of an older but still beloved building, or the grand opening of a new addition. Others are events that roll around with the calendar every year. Livening up these activities with a great school assembly can be a wonderful idea! But it is best to really plan ahead. Book early! Try to understand that those of us who create school shows can usually only be in one place at a time! If you think it would be a great idea to have, say, Abraham Lincoln on his birthday, be ready to learn you are not the first person to think of this. Though there are many Abraham Lincoln presenters in this wide country, they can only be in so many schools on the same day!

It is no secret that kids share in America's love affair with junk food (I refuse to call it “fast food”, since it is usually neither fast nor worthy of being called food). Educating our children about the benefits of good nutrition and proper exercise is a task well worth attempting. Catching them when they are young is the best way to encourage the adults of tomorrow to practice better eating and living habits and so establish a positive trend.

Ask any good teacher how kids learn the best, and they will give you the same answer. Given a choice between learning through listening to a lecture or learning through hands on experience, the latter will always provide better results. There is an old saying sometimes attributed to Confucius and sometimes to Ben Franklin. Regardless of who said it, it holds a lot of wisdom.

As Detroit, our city, endures the misery of passing into bankruptcy, and basks in the unwelcome attention of the world, it is not a bad thing to reflect on a proud and storied past.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!    This town crier in traditional dress took to the steps outside of the Lindo Wing of St. Mary's Hospital in London to announce the birth of a baby boy to Prince William and Kate Middleton born at 4:24 p.m. on Monday, July 22, 2013.

In our continuing series creating a Guide to School Assemblies, today we discuss school shows and assembly programs that deal with the Environment, Eco-systems and climate change.

 Recently in these pages we have been developing a Guide to School Assemblies.  Today we will look at shows and field trips featuring Fine Arts programs.