These days many schools are felling the weight of state mandates testing and are opting to reduce time for assemblies and school shows. Those that do continue using school assemblies often try to focus them exclusively on tested areas such as Math and Reading.

Narrowing a curriculum to only what is tested is just plain wrong headed.  Like a dog chasing it's tail. Many reputable sources have shown that kids presented with a rich and varied curriculum do far better on testing than those exposed only to “time on task” aimed at increasing those scores.

And, though perhaps counterintuitive, this actually makes sense. Not everyone is natively talented in those two areas. Focusing more and more time and attention on an area of weakness is like picking at a scab and likely will develop an infection, in this case meaning the student, far from improving, is likely to feel more and more inadequate. Rather, a broad focus across many areas of study is likely to find areas where all students may excel, and the resulting success and consequent self esteem, enable an increase in ability in previously weak areas, such as math and reading.

So we happily offer up school shows and school assemblies in math and reading, but are also happy to provide schools looking for assembly ideas with other options, including, coincidentally, this writers favorite show, The Living Lincoln!

The wonderful thing about hosting this program, with any of our presenters, is that the show not only gives a lesson in the history of our country, but also provides so many examples of character values in real stories to which kids can relate.

One of our Lincoln's, Mr. Richard Waddingham, was recently in Fairfax, Virginia. Here are some comments from our client there:

“He was awesome! All age levels found the assembly to be engaging! I wish we had scheduled more time for questions!”

Well, no surprise there. In twenty years, I have never seen an audience of kids run out of good questions for Mr. Lincoln before we ran out of time!

Speaking of time, it is well into the time when you should be scheduling your date for a visit from Mr. Lincoln. Depending upon where you live, we should still have a date or two open for you but time is running out. It is the middle of January and Presidents Month is weeks away. Don’t miss out!