Ben Franklin visits Harrington School

LYNN – Looking good for a man aged more than 250 years, Patriot and early-American leader Benjamin Franklin spoke to a group of students at the E.J. Harrington Elementary School Thursday morning, complete with live demonstrations of a few of his many inventions.The one-time proprietor of the country’s largest newspaper, Franklin, played by actor Richard Arum, took students on a journey from his childhood to old age, complete with costume changes and conversation with a variety of disembodied voices.The history lesson began when Franklin was a young boy, learning to save money while working in his father’s candlestick factory. He would later become an apprentice at his brother’s printing press before moving on his own to Philadelphia where he became one of the country’s Founding Fathers.Arum interacted with students throughout the performance, but never broke from Franklin’s character. He wore a variety of wigs and colonial outfits as he acted out different stages of Franklin’s life.Using slides and a tape recorder, Arum recreated conversations that Franklin had with his family and various characters from American history. His enthusiastic performance was accompanied with informative facts about Colonial America, including the Revolutionary War and The Declaration of Independence.Harrington Library Specialist Carole Shutzer said she was inspired to bring Franklin to the school because students were learning about biographies, and Arum’s performance was essentially a theatrical version of Franklin’s life.The Harrington School PTO sponsored the program, and Shutzer was also able to apply for and receive a grant from the North Shore Reading Council to help pay for the event.The grant was to enhance the teaching of the non-fiction biography genre, part of the English/Language Arts curriculum.”We have been studying biographies this entire month and have featured Ben Franklin in preparation for the program,” Shutzer said. “The teachers all received information packets about Franklin and are incorporating this into the social studies curriculum as well.”