[Assam] California's High Tech School; Criminals, diseased <=> education

[umesh sharma]

http://www.hightechhigh.org/schools/HTH/
   
  just watched www.Oprah.com  's Oprah Winfrey show on America's High Schools - http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200604/tows_past_20060412.jhtml and how in Los Angeles there are 5,000 children in one school which has capacity for only (?)1,800 --maybe there is increasing number of illegals immigrants dropping in from across the border from Mexico -nearby.
   
  Criminals vs education
   
  She also showed the program which says that 75% of the 2 million criminals in US jails (govt spends about $35,000 on each criminal in jail every year for food and stay-thats more that Harvard's annual tuition fees!!) are high school drop outs-and 600,000 come out of jails each year -after learning inside to become better criminals . Now the program has been started in San Francisco (California) to help them get their high school diplomas while inside jails (it seems in US jails are only meant to punish and not to reform?)  . I wonder if anyone has any data about Indian criminals in jails. 
   
   
  High Tech High School, San Diego
   
  She and Bill Gates showed a High School abut 100 miles from L.A. at Sa Diego ( http://www.hightechhigh.org/schools/HTH/ ) where students have no books at all - but all study hi-tech stuff -online ; by making projects etc - which might be difficult for me to understand in one go --- but one thing she mentioned one can relate to. She said that there was no football team, no cheerleading team , no dance team -at this shool --only high-tech study. One female student even travelled two hours each way to study there. And ALL its students go on to college (which it seems is a big deal in US) . I think most Indian schools would like to get the high-tech stuff too - and thus, perhaps should focus their resources on studies incl some practical project work (with some physical exercise classes daily) -we can't afford to do away with the books -in perhaps even the elitest school in India.
   
  Bill Gates school project for US -- www.standup.org 
   
   
  Illiteracy & Healthcare
   
  My host at Loma Linda (78 miles from Los Angeles) just below the mountains Dr Kamal Kejriwal had shown me this article in http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/355/4/339 about Health Effects of illiteracy.
   
  Any comments?
   
  Umesh


Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park, MD 20740

 1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]

Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005

weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
 		
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