Just for fun today, nothing about school assemblies, or science assembly programs or portable planetariums at all. 

Today is April 12, 2011. It is also exactly 150 years since a momentous day in the history of our nation. Exactly 150 years ago, on April 12, 1861, in Charleston, South Carolina, shots were fired on a small garrison of United States military personnel stationed on on island in the harbor called Fort Sumter.
Whether or not you consider this a great day of shame or pride, may be a matter of where you call home, but it cannot be denied as a defining moment in our history.
On that day began what we call the Civil War. Some call it the War Between The States. Others call it the War of Northern Aggression. Whatever you call it, the war that followed today's actions 150 years ago defined our country in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of history forever. That war gave rise to the country we know today as opposed to what had existed before. It also produced what Abraham Lincoln called “a new birth of freedom”.
We live in a democracy, where it is commonly understood that the majority makes the law. In the understanding of Lincoln, the future of democracy was at stake when those shots were fired. He understood that if one state, or eleven states or any number of states, felt they had the right to secede from the Union because they did not like the results of an election then what would ultimately occur in this country would be nothing short of anarchy.
Ironically, there was a great divide in public opinion at that time, among those in both the North and in the South. Many felt in the months prior to today that our great political tradition of compromise would stave off the possibility of actual war. Compromise had always been the bedrock of our nation and had allowed us to find our way as a nation through many contentious difficulties both before and since. Today, as political foes on both extremes fight to oppose compromise politically on the issues faced by the nation now, we find ourselves once again facing the difficulties of extremism.
It is radically important to understand where we come from as a people, in order to know where we are going. It is necessary that our children learn the lessons of the past in order to avoid mistakes in the future.
For this reason, we are proud to have offered school assembly programs for more than twenty years that have aided in educating our young about the great events in our past. The Living Abe Lincoln brings children a great opportunity to relive this epic moment as told through the eyes and understanding of one of the most important minds of the time, our sixteenth president. Frederick Douglass brings to life one of the great free African-American leaders of the Civil War era in order to illuminate the unique and important view of that time as seen by our African- American brethren. Either of these spellbinding school assemblies is a chance for students to sample moments of time from a seminal moment in our past through the sensibilities of those who were at the center of those events.
We have seen first hand the effect these programs can have. We have witnessed the emotions that are produced in even our very youngest as they relive great tragedy. We are proud to have played our part.
We hope that as we pass this great milestone in time, that you will play your part and continue to bring these important assembly programs to your schools in the years to come.
To quote from Mr. Lincoln,
“Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We -- even we here -- hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free -- honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just -- a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.”

I love National Public Radio! Listening to NPR on my way to the office in the mornings I often hear about things that are fascinating and about which I knew nothing before.

OK, this is purely fatherly pride. This has nothing to do with school assemblies or science assembly programs, but only with a dad and a daughter and a father's pride. Mea culpa. It's my daughter. Guilty as charged!

Once again a science assembly from Mobile Ed is in the news! Robert Pirtle, noted for his great school assemblies through out the Midwest and in Texas, is currently out East and making headline stories! His super science assembly The Magic of Science was recently in Utica, New York at Martin Luther King Elementary. Reporters from WKTV were there to cover the story.

Ohio is just across the line from our home state of Michigan so, of course, a lot of our school assemblies appear at Ohio schools throughout the year. Every so often we will encounter a reporter at a school, either from a newspaper or a television station, and we are always happy to see them. Sadly, by the time the article appears in print we are usually gone from the area and so we seldom see our own publicity.
Recently, however, one of our school assembly presenters was in a southern Ohio school to present our television production school assembly program - “Lights Camera Action”. Derek McDonald, one of the gentlemen who presents that show was visiting at the Bishop Flaget school in Chillicothe, Ohio. He found himself speaking with David Berman, a reporter from the Chillicothe Gazette. Well David wrote a nice little piece about the program which you can read here:
http://www.chillicothegazette.com/article/20110303/NEWS01/103030301/-1/7daysarchives/Bishop-Flaget-students-get-hands-chance-video-production
We are very proud of Derek. Derek hails from the great state of Tennessee and has been performing school assemblies in schools throughout the midwest for us for many years. He has many fans in schools in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. Derek also presents our Character Counts school assembly “Inspector Iwannano”, and does a really great job. The great news is that next year Derek will also take on two of our other programs (two of our absolute best!), “Sky Dome Planetarium” and “The Earth Dome” (AKA Earth Balloon). We are certain he will bring great professionalism and flair to these fine school assemblies. The bad news is that next year Derek will spend very little time in the midwest schools where he has performed for so many years. Schools in Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky will have to fight over a small number of dates in September and January, as Derek will spend much of the 2011-2012 school year on the East coast visiting our client schools in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, New England and throughout the area around DC, Maryland and Virginia. So bad news for midwest schools but great news for schools on the East coast.
Regardless of where you are, whether your school is in Ohio or New York, Michigan or Virginia, the great school assemblies presented by Derek will provide an awesome experience for your school. He is a champion school assembly performer and we hope you will bring him to your school next year!

In recent days we have all been mesmerized and appalled at the steady stream of appalling news and devastating pictures and video pouring out of Japan. Our hearts go out to the untold thousands of people in this time of catastrophic injury. Nature is truly ferocious beyond belief or comprehension, and our man made accomplishments are so easily cast aside in its wake.
We are left though wondering how mankind may better prepare against such events in the future, and also facing once more in the wake of the nuclear reactor failures, contemplating a future after fossil fuels when we must have other ways in which to meet our energy needs.
These are not simple problems and they will not go away. And simple answers will not suffice. As the great newspaper man H.L. Mencken once observed “ For every difficult problem there is a simple answer ... and it’s wrong.” :-)

Most kids I know don't read newspapers. They don't watch the news on television. Oh, they might wander into a room where the news is on the television but it usually might as well be invisible when they do. My point is that current events are usually not on children's radar, unless we put them there.

Get the news out! As of this week, Mobile Ed is now accepting orders for school assemblies for Illinois schools for the 2011-2012 school year.