The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus has teamed up with the U.S. Department of Education and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for a third annual “Education Drives America” back-to-school bus tour. The Lennon Bus will be in California’s Silicon Valley September 7 through September 12, 2012, for a series of educational events focused on various topics, including technology and innovation in education.
Students at Sequoia High School in Redwood City, Calif., will produce an original music video to be shown at the end of the five-day tour. Printz Board—songwriter, producer, musical director, and musician for the Black Eyed Peas—will also join the Lennon Bus team at Sequoia High School on September 7, 2012 to assist in the production of the original music video project.
On September 11, the Lennon Bus will visit Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., for the LEAD (Leadership, Education, Action, Development) Symposium, in which students from Sequoia High School along with Lennon Bus engineers will ] interview attendees and incorporate their sound bytes into the finished video project.
On September 12, in association with the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) and the SupportMusic Coalition, the Lennon Bus will head to the Sequoia High School Auditorium. The special event will be streamed live at lennonbus.org/live starting at 8:30 a.m. PDT. A pre-show event co-hosted by NAMM Foundation Executive Director Mary Luehrsen will feature interviews with arts education advocates, music educators and school administrators to review back-to-school topics, including the importance of the arts in the core curriculum. The main event begins at 9 a.m. and features Secretary Duncan, Salman Khan and Andrew Ng, along with other notables in education, government, entertainment and business. The program will also include the premiere of the students’ original project and feature remarks from Sequoia High School students, Principal Bonnie Hansen, and special guests.
This is the third annual back-to-school bus tour for Secretary Duncan and the Department of Education. “This bus tour is an opportunity to highlight what’s working and create momentum for education reforms that improve the lives of all students,” says Duncan. In 2010, the back-to-school bus tour included stops in the Delta region in the South and the Northeast. This year’s tour will see Secretary Duncan making stops in more than 10 states ranging from California to Virginia.
For more information, visit www.lennonbus.org.
