Get To Know Your History! - School Assemblies and State Standards

We have looked at State Educational Standards a few times now, examining how school assemblies can so strongly support what children are supposed to be learning. The last few times I used Kentucky as an example, but the results can be similar in any state. This time let’s look at Indiana instead, and instead of science let’s take a look at Social Studies, and, in particular, history!

Here is an excerpt from the Indiana Department of Education State Standards for history for Kindergarten:

Students examine the connections of their own environment with the past, begin to distinguish between events and people of the past and the present, and use a sense of time in classroom planning and participation.

- Compare children and families of today with those in the past. 

- Listen to and retell stories about people in the past who showed honesty, courage, and responsibility. 

• Example: George Washington; Chief Little Turtle; Abraham Lincoln; Harriet Tubman; and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Obviously, the Indiana Department of Education agrees that an Abraham Lincoln assembly is a good idea for Kindergarten since they cite this as a good example, but a school assembly dealing with Abraham Lincoln performed for Kindergarten automatically deals quite a lot with his childhood and thus also also fulfills the requirement to compare the lives of children in the past with children today.

Let’s look at the same standards for Grade One:

Students will identify continuity and change in the different environments around them, including school and neighborhood communities, and identify individuals, events and symbols that are important to our country.

-Compare the way individuals in the community lived in the past with the way they live in the present.

- Compare past and present similarities and differences in daily life by using biographies, oral histories, and folklore.

- Identify local people from the past who have shown honesty, courage and responsibility. 

- Identify people and events observed in national celebrations and holidays.

- Chronological Thinking, Historical Analysis and Interpretation, Research: Use the library and other information resources to find information that answers questions about history. (Core Standard)

• Example: Books about Abraham Lincoln or George Washington, such as Honest Abe by Edith Kunhardt, George Washington's Teeth by Deborah Chandra, and family stories such as Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say

- Chronological Thinking, Historical Analysis and Interpretation, Research: Distinguish between historical fact and fiction in American folktales and legends that are a part of American culture. (Core Standard)

• Example: Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan and John Henry

Taking the selections in bold, “events and symbols that are important to our country” must surely include, oh, the Civil War and the end of slavery. Next, “the way individuals lived in the past” is easily met by the passages in a Lincoln school assembly dealing with his life in that time. I could go on, but it seems fairly self explanatory. Once again they even use Lincoln by name as a good example.

Here is something from the standards for Grade Three:

-Chronological Thinking, Historical Comprehension, Analysis and Interpretation, Research: Distinguish between fact and fiction in historical accounts by comparing documentary sources on historical figures and events with fictional characters and events in stories.

• Example: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) and Harriet Tubman

Again, Lincoln is singled out by name as a great example. Now look at Grade Four Standards:

- The Civil War Era and Later Development: 1850 to 1900. Explain the roles of various individuals, groups and movements in the social conflicts leading to the Civil War. 

Lincoln and his life may as well be “the social conflicts leading to the Civil War”!

I could go on, but you see my point. Almost every grade level is seeking in one way or another to learn about the very events and happenings contained in an encapsulation of the life of Abraham Lincoln. If you are seeking to entertain children while at the same time augment the progress in State mandated educational standards, you simply cannot beat an Abraham Lincoln school assembly. This is true in Indiana schools but I can tell you from personal experience that it is also true throughout much of the midwest and much of the country in general! 

Middle Schools are not exempt either. In Grade Eight, pretty much throughout the country, students study American History from 1800 up through the end of the Civil War, a period mirrored precisely by the life of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln is the perfect source for middle school assemblies!

All in all, for schools in the midwest school assemblies on Lincoln are the best social studies event  possible, and the same holds true across most of the rest of the nation. Considering Lincoln may well have been our greatest president, how appropriate for his story to be such a great teaching tool for american kids!

Geoff Beauchamp is the Regional Manager of Mobile Ed Productions where "Education Through Entertainment" has been the guiding principal since 1979. Mobile Ed Productions produces and markets quality educational school assembly programs in the fields of science, history, writing, astronomy, natural science, mathematics, character issues and a variety of other curriculum based areas. In addition, Mr. Beauchamp is a professional actor with 30 years of experience in film, television and on stage. He created and still performs occasionally in Mobile Ed's THE LIVING LINCOLN