School Programs

Is your school looking for speakers whose lives are models of life-long learning, community service, scientific achievement and patriotism?

Ben Franklin’s life is a showcase of these characteristics. Chris uses his many years in the classroom and on the stage to interact with your students, bringing history to life and complementing your own curricula. In both large group assemblies and in small classes, Chris’s Ben Franklin provides students with a special experience, as entertaining as it is educational.

Chris has presented programs as Ben to students at the elementary, middle school, high school, and college levels. He always works closely with each school's staff, carefully keeping his programs appropriate for the age of student and for the time allotted.

The two most sought-after topics for school assemblies have been "Ben Franklin: our First American", and "From Slave Owner to Abolitionist: Franklin’s Journey." In the first, Ben discusses the most important traits that ran like threads through the entire fabric of his life. Students will hear how curiosity, tolerance, and community service were at the core of Ben’s life and how necessary those traits are today for happiness and success.

In the second, Ben discusses his early prejudices candidly, and then shows how an open mind and rational, scientific objectivity overcame those earlier beliefs. Although particularly appropriate for Black History Month commemorations and Martin Luther King Day celebrations, the values Chris emphasizes as Ben in this presentation are always relevant.

In both programs, Chris shows how Ben, the tenth son of a humble Boston candlemaker, is a superb role model for how intelligence, hard work, and goal setting can help anybody, regardless of background, achieve the American Dream.

For smaller groups, such as individual class visits, Chris has given many different presentations and can for your school, too. Appearing as Ben, he has emphasized Franklin’s role in the founding of our country, his scientific experiments and inventions, his search for virtue, his religious views, his extraordinary community service, and his key contributions as our nation’s first ambassador. Because Ben spent almost nine years in France and because of Chris’s own fluency in French, he has often spoken to French classes on this last topic in French.

Many teachers and administrators consider Chris’s appearance at their schools as Benjamin Franklin a high point of their school year. See what educators around the country have said by clicking on "Testimonials". And to discuss ways to bring Ben to your school, contact Chris.