OK, it’s my own fault, I admit it. The last few weeks my son, daughter and wife were all sick. First my wife caught a cold/cough thing, then my daughter got it, then my son came home with some kind of 48 hour flu bug. All the while I rolled along feeling just fine. I got cocky, too. 

Travel is a regular part of the life of a school assembly performer. Professional presenters of school assemblies are regularly “on the road”, and these "road warriors" often rack up huge amounts of miles during the course of a normal school year. One presenter of ours who does not usually travel as often or as far, is our wonderful “Dr Exhaustus” himself, Jeff Hoge. Jeff is resident in Chicago and regularly performs in schools all around northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, with his own program on the environment, “Our Changing Climate” as well as with our creative writing school assembly program “Young Authors Day”. In addition, during the winter, Jeff handles our Living Lincoln assembly program.

So Thanksgiving is over and that only means one thing here in Michigan and Ohio and the rest of the Midwest. Winter is coming and it’s right around the corner! 

Your humble (cough,cough) writer has been with this company for more years than he likes to admit, but there is one performer who even has me beat! I started performing my Abraham Lincoln school assembly in January of 1989. To gauge how long ago that was, I always remind myself that while waiting to perform that morning, pacing back and forth in a school faculty lounge, I could look up at the television in the lounge and watch as George Bush took the Oath of Office .... George Bush senior, that is!
Yikes, it's been a long time doing school assembly programs!

Schools searching online for elementary school assembly ideas will no doubt be struck eventually by the fact that of the many companies and performers offering science assemblies and other types of educational school assembly programs, a very large number are based in Michigan and other parts of the Midwest.

There is a bit of a debate going on here in Michigan. A few years back, as Michigan watched countless manufacturing jobs disappearing, the state government decided to try and entice new, growth industries into Michigan with generous tax credits. One of the industries they tapped was Film.

Michigan joined forty some other states in competing for film work by offering the most generous film tax credit incentives in the country. The idea was that film is still a thriving US industry which exports product all over the world, and that it employs many people in jobs that are ideal for retrained auto workers. But in addition, it is a very attractive industry for young, creative people, and Michigan has been watching a steady exodus of young people for years, all heading to more creative environments elsewhere.

So I was watching a commercial recently, and they had a Polar Bear walking slowly from somewhere out in the snow.
He came all the way into the suburbs of some city to give a hug to some guy who drives an electric car. It was cute. But I got to thinking... does an electric car really help the environment? Or does the manufacturing of the car create enough pollution
to offset the gains from not burning gas? Or does it make any difference at all? I am no expert so I really don't know the answers to these questions, but I know someone who can give me some really good information on the subject!

Just a quick reminder for those who missed last weeks announcements...

Something to say today about another performer we are all really proud of here at Mobile Ed. Robert Pirtle is a fine and handsome young gentleman who hails from the great city of Memphis, Tennessee. He also presents one heck of a “killer” school assembly program. 

I just had to share this! Kathleen Day is one of our best and most charming presenters. She performs in four shows for us. She presents The Earth Dome, Crime Scene Science, Forces and Motion and They Made a Difference. Since she is an Ohio girl we have her touring in the Midwest only, visiting schools in Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, Illinois and, of course, Ohio, predominantly but also occasionally to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Missouri.