Did you know that today marks the date of two very important leaders in history?

So my old car has been without a radio recently, since the original died awhile back, and I finally had a new system installed. Great to have music again! But, honestly, what I had missed was my morning dose of NPR. Well, I happily tuned in today and caught a segment relating to old films and television episodes that are stored in the Warner Brothers vaults out in California. The report went into a discussion about how many are being converted laboriously into a digital format. The process apparently is exceptionally labor intensive, with hours spent on short strips of film, ensuring the right balance of color and depth and focus is retained. But then a further discussion revealed some dissension and argument around the process and it’s affect on the original intent of the director. Mention was made of how people would react if someone decided to slap new color onto a fading Mona Lisa, for example.

Ever since congress enacted the No Child Left Behind rules, and even before that, schools have been under the gun to show improvements in certain key areas of the curriculum. Most notable of these areas are Reading, Writing and Mathematics. Some schools have discontinued using school assemblies and school assembly programs altogether, out of a misguided idea that all assemblies are little more than an unnecessary distraction from time on task. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.