Living in Michigan, people here sometimes feel the scorn of the rest of the nation. Let's face it, everyone all over this great nation, loves to heap scorn upon the city of Detroit. And, to be fair, the city of Detroit is not exactly a poster child for elegant and successful urban environments. But to be equally fair, Detroit itself is only a piece of a much, much larger regional metropolis that includes many wonderful places and people, despite what an arrogant and often short sighted national press likes to print. Moreover, the greater Detroit area has a glorious and storied past, full of accomplishments which, in a more fair world, might earn the respect and thanks of what should be a grateful nation.

Every year, when school lets out for the summer, working parents across the nation are faced with a problem. What do you do with the kids all summer, especially when both parents work?

As we march inexorably toward the first days of a new school year, many of us are faced with searching out ideas for school assemblies and shows to bolster the curriculum while providing a welcome break from class time for students and teachers alike. Moreover, in these days of rising costs and shrinking budgets, field trips are more and more a rapidly fading memory for many schools. So the search is on for the best possible use of what limited funds remain in order to provide students with the best bang for the buck.

As a national company devoted to bringing high quality educational school assemblies to schools pretty much all over the country, our performers naturally spend a lot of solitary nights on the road. It can be a lonely life. Sometimes, in a twenty four hour period, a performer may speak to only hotel clerks and waitresses outside of school hours. So when it happens that they are in a location where they have friends it is always a bonus. And when two or more of our school show performers find out they are in the same place at the same time they always like to get together for a meal and some good conversations, trading humorous “war stories”.

We are celebrating a birthday here at Mobile Ed Productions today! Mobile Ed is, of course, located in Michigan where we were founded more than thirty years ago, and from where we have launched super cool school assemblies on tours taking them to most of the states in our country. But Michigan is our home, and today is the birthday of the State of Michigan!

Mobile Ed Productions sends wonderful school assembly performers from Michigan (and a few other states) out on the road every year in August to begin touring to schools pretty much all over the country. It is a rambling, crazy way of life alternating between the exhilaration of performing great school shows in front of happy kids and teachers and the loneliness of empty hotel rooms and long miles on the road. Thanksgiving and other family oriented holidays, usually give us an opportunity to get home for a few well earned days with loved ones.

Anyone who has kids will know this. Just before holidays they get excited. Gee... kind of an understatement there, huh? Ballistic might be a better word, or frenetic, animated, distracted ... you name it. But one thing is for sure, it is hard to get them to concentrate on school work. Whether it be summer vacation, fall break, winter break, Thanksgiving ... it doesn’t matter, they will still work themselves into a frenzy, and it is very frustrating trying to calm them down to accomplish regular school work during these times.

I have written before about one of our presenters who is a personal favorite of mine and a very good friend. His name is Toma, and he performs several shows for us but is especially renowned for his own creation Young Authors Day. 

Around the country there are numerous science centers and museums, ranging in size from small to really large. All have one thing in common. They are all designed to educate kids and adults alike about science, and inspire our young to find the excitement in science and possibly find their way into careers in science and engineering.