Henry Ford: Driving Force in America

Length

This program usally goes an hour. 45 minutes for younger students.

Target Audience

Education: Grade(s) 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, ParentPublic Library: Library Patrons Retirement Communities

Minimum participants:

No minimum

Maximum participants:

There is no maximum, but for optimum interactivity, we suggest no more than 50 students.

Primary Disciplines

Character Education, Economics/Business, Gifted & Talented, Industrial Technology, Leadership, Performing Arts, Sciences, Social Studies/History, Technology/Information Science

Program Delivery Mode

Videoconference - H.323 (Polycom, Cisco/Tandberg, LifeSize, etc...)
Zoom

Booking Information

I will do this program all year but sometimes I have the wrong haircut and beard in the fall.

Book it!

For more information contact CILC at (507) 388-3672

Provider's Cancellation Policy

Please remember however, I lose a day of time and income when you cancel, especially at the last minute. I ask for half the cost should the site cancel within 72 hours of the presentation, unless weather related.

About This Provider

 

Hank Fincken: A National Theatre Company of One

Indianapolis, IN
United States

                                   SO YOU KNOW

I’m still performing, but I’ve had to adapt. At this point, no
one is booking in-person live Theatre. So, I do virtual
presentations. To keep it exciting, I perform an excerpt from each
play, discuss the research, and answer your questions. It’s a
performance, a workshop, and an adaptation to your unique interests.

GOOD NEWS FOR YOU: It’s cheaper. Since I usually work through
CILC, I give them a block-booking discount. That discount is for
you. And there’s another discount if you book a second
presentation the same day. Call it the family discount. That means
it’s your turn to do the dishes.

CILC is a virtual learning network. I have received 8 of their
national Pinnacle Awards. The judges are customers from the previous
year, 7 questions that must result in at least a 95% OUTSTANDING
evaluation. My mother never endorsed me with such a score.

LET’S TALK NITTY-GRITTY: I can perform in English and Spanish.
For years, school, colleges, and libraries have said they want
programs that appeal to their Latinx students. So, why didn’t they
call me? Either they found me too expensive or too white. This past
July I taught Theatre in Spanish in Ecuador for the fifth year in a
row. Am I a native speaker? No, but my Spanish is good enough to
tell bad jokes and get the job done. I inspire. In addition, I
lived in Peru and Costa Rica for 6 years.

LET’S TALK DIRTY: All my characters are controversial. That’s
why I chose them. I wanted to have meaty discussions about things
that matter. I will not be preaching simple answers, but I will help
you better understand complex questions. For example, if you think
Christopher Columbus and Francisco Pizarro are horrific men, then you
are simplifying the past the same way White America used to do. If
you want complex history, book me. If you want comfortable history
with easy to identify good guys and bad, please don’t. Don’t you
want to know the “whys” behind their behavior so you don’t
replicate their footsteps?? Hey, CC is not your lazy
brother-in-law! You can also see here that I refuse to let humor
with all its destructive powers creep into my program.

WHAT HASN’T CHANGED. My research is excellent. All my scripts
have been fact-checked by college professors, not college students.
I will present the most accurate history I can (and disregard faddish
history when possible), which provides soul-searchingful insight
about the past and hope for the future. I encourage thought-provoking
questions and will try to avoid only demonizing and stereotyping.

DON’T BELIEVE ME: Ask a tough question. Give me your best shot.   

Hank’s grandfather
used to say, “Go Back far enough and every successful family begins with a
horse thief. “ Then let’s take it as a given: All historical characters have
serious flaws, just like you and me.  Hank’s
goal in representing famous people from history is not to explore a rosy past
but rather to better understand mistakes while keeping in mind noble intentions
and achievements.  Of my eight original
one-man historical plays, six are appropriate for your venue. 

For thirty
years, Hank has presented historical plays with a bite.  He wants the audience to understand that the
past was as complex as the present and the only way to improve this inherited
culture of ours is to honestly discuss virtues and flaws.   No two performances are the same because all
Hank’s plays are interactive, and they evolve according to the interests of
each audience.  In one play, the main
character says, “The History you get depends on the questions you ask.”

Hank
provides award-winning study guides.  If
the audience (student or adult) comes prepared, Hank can go deeper into the
material.  Hank interprets prepared
students as a sign that the teacher is as committed to the success of the
presentation as he is.  Hank speaks to a
venue representative long before he arrives to make sure he covers the issues
that the teachers and/or audience think are important. 

Hank has added a new STEM component to all his plays. Details
about this, and how his programs meet state standards, are available upon
request.

 

The
Indiana Arts Commission gave him the title of Master Artist, and the Indiana
Theatre Association gave him its Service Award for promoting Theatre throughout
the state.  He has performed all across
this nation and in Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador, and Spain.  In the summer of 2019, Hank received his
seventh national Pinnacle Award for his teaching of History and Creative
Writing through video conferencing.  

Program Details

Format

1. Hank will enter as Henry then talk about his own early life, the car industry's history, and his perceived goals and achievements.
2. Ford will then ask the audience questions in an attempt to reveal how times have changed.
3. The audience will then ask Ford questions.
4. Hank will show slides of early cars, the assembly line, and Ford with his family. He will also discuss how Ford's character continues to create controversies.

Objectives

1. appreciate the complexity of Henry Ford's character
2. appreciate how the assembly line has affected our way of life
3. give students the tools to discuss Ford's achievements and shortcoming
4. understand how the automobile has changed our sense of time and place
5. learn how Hank learned, techniques of research

Standards Alignment

National Standards

LANGUAGE ARTS
NL-ENG.K-12.3 EVALUATION STRATEGIES
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).

NL-ENG.K-12.4 COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.

NL-ENG.K-12.6 APPLYING KNOWLEDGE
Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.

NL-ENG.K-12.7 EVALUATING DATA
Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

NL-ENG.K-12.8 DEVELOPING RESEARCH SKILLS
Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.

ECONOMICS
NSS-EC.K-12.6 SPECIALIZATION AND TRADE
When individuals, regions, and nations specialize in what they can produce at the lowest cost and then trade with others, both production and consumption increase.

NSS-EC.K-12.7 MARKETS -- PRICE AND QUANTITY DETERMINATION
Markets exist when buyers and sellers interact. This interaction determines market prices and thereby allocates scarce goods and services.

NSS-EC.K-12.8 ROLE OF PRICE IN MARKET SYSTEM
Prices send signals and provide incentives to buyers and sellers. When supply or demand changes, market prices adjust, affecting incentives.

NSS-EC.K-12.9 ROLE OF COMPETITION
Competition among sellers lowers costs and prices, and encourages producers to produce more of what consumers are willing and able to buy. Competition among buyers increases prices and allocates goods and services to those people who are willing and able to pay the most for them.

NSS-EC.K-12.13 ROLE OF RESOURCES IN DETERMINING INCOME Income for most people is determined by the market value of the productive resources they sell. What workers earn depends, primarily, on the market value of what they produce and how productive they are.

NSS-EC.K-12.14 PROFIT AND THE ENTREPRENEUR
Entrepreneurs are people who take the risks of organizing productive resources to make goods and services. Profit is an important incentive that leads entrepreneurs to accept the risks of business failure.

NSS-EC.K-12.19 UNEMPLOYMENT AND INFLATION
Unemployment imposes costs on individuals and nations. Unexpected inflation imposes costs on many people and benefits some others because it arbitrarily redistributes purchasing power. Inflation can reduce the rate of growth of national living standards because individuals and organizations use resources to protect themselves against the uncertainty of future prices.

NSS-EC.5-12.15 GROWTH
Investment in factories, machinery, new technology, and in the health, education, and training of people can raise future standards of living.

NSS-EC.9-12.18 MACROECONOMY-INCOME/EMPLOYMENT, PRICES
A nation's overall levels of income, employment, and prices are determined by the interaction of spending and production decisions made by all households, firms, government agencies, and others in the economy.

US HISTORY
NSS-USH.5-12.7 ERA 7: THE EMERGENCE OF MODERN AMERICA (1890-1930)
NSS-USH.5-12.8 ERA 8: THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND WORLD WAR II (1929-1945)

THEATRE
NA-T.K-12.2 ACTING BY ASSUMING ROLES AND INTERACTING IN IMPROVISATIONS

NA-T.9-12.7 ANALYZING, CRITIQUING, AND CONSTRUCTING MEANINGS FROM INFORMAL AND FORMAL THEATRE, FILM, TELEVISION, AND ELECTRONIC MEDIA PRODUCTIONS