A New York Times Op-Ed piece quotes a speech Bill Gates made for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:
“American high schools are obsolete. By obsolete, I don’t just mean that our high schools are broken, flawed and underfunded. By obsolete, I mean that our high schools – even when they are working exactly as designed – cannot teach our kids what they need to know today.
Training the work force of tomorrow with the high schools of today is like trying to teach kids about today’s computers on a 50-year-old mainframe…Our high schools were designed 50 years ago to meet the needs of another age. Until we design them to meet the needs of the 21st century, we will keep limiting – even ruining – the lives of millions of Americans every year.
Two years ago, I visited High Tech High in San Diego. It was conceived in 1998 by a group of San Diego business leaders who became alarmed by the city’s shortage of talented high-tech workers. Thirty-five percent of High Tech High students are black or Hispanic. All of them study courses like computer animation and biotechnology in the school’s state-of-the-art labs. High Tech High’s scores on statewide academic tests are 15 percent higher than the rest of the district; their SAT scores are an average of 139 points higher.”
All of them study courses like computer animation and biotechnology in the school’s state-of-the-art labs. It seems Amir had a vision comparable to Bill Gates. That certainly is good company.