It is Fall and a lot of schools are looking for things to do with the kids to break up the daily grind of classroom work and augment the educational process through a field trip. And there is nothing wrong with field trips! We all love taking trips to cool destinations. Trips to a Planetarium or the Zoo or a historical site all contribute mightily to a students education and can spark the imagination in countless ways.

A new book caught my eye this week, or rather my ears, as I first heard about this new tome while listening to a radio interview with the author, Eric Foner. You would think that with the vast plethora of books available about Lincoln that we would scarcely need another ( there are more books about Lincoln than almost any other person who ever lived!). But in this case, the author has provided something very useful by examining the course of Lincoln’s thinking about slavery and about African Americans in general, and how that thinking changed over time. I highly recommend “Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World” by Eric Foner. Here is a great review - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/books/review/Reynolds-t.html

No one can be unaware of the difficult times being faced by school today. Money is scarce everywhere, but nowhere is this more true than in parts of the Midwest. Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Wisconsin and other “heart of the nation” states are reeling from budget cuts and failed fundraisers.

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. 

Some information to consider today about different types of school assembly performers. All different kinds of people are now involved in bringing programs to schools. We can divide them into some groups, though, in order to bring in some structure.

Great news today, especially for those of you looking for school assemblies in California or in general on the West Coast.

I thought some of you might have an interest in learning a little bit about how the whole business of school assemblies and school assembly programs got started.

A little advice today for those seeking new ideas for school assemblies. With all of the standard presentational type school assembly programs available,  I found, when I was scheduling programs for my school, that something out of the ordinary was occasionally a great treat. 

Just a quick story about one of our school assembly performers and the power of school assemblies to impact the self esteem of children in a powerful and positive manner.

I was just speaking with another member of our staff here, and I was reminded of an old story from my early days performing my Abraham Lincoln assembly program, and I thought it might be amusing to some.