Friday, November 2, 2007

Visit to Parkdale High School in Maryland


On 30 Oct, all humphrey fellows did experience the American high school visits in the DC, nearby Maryland and Virginia areas. Fellows were divided into different groups and then sub-groups. Each group visited a particular school and each sub-group to a particular class of the school. I was in sub-group 3 of the group who visited the Parkdale High School, Maryland. It's a big public school with about 2200 students and 100 teachers. Noticeable that students are mostly non-whites (blacks, mixed, hispanics). The group was taken to a hallroom where students served the breakfast with items made by themselves and the Principal delivered a short speech on his school.
My sub-group members ( me, a Burmes medical doctor, a Syrian female journalist, a Namibian lady doctor working with HIV Aids, a Panamian engineer cum researcher and a Slovakian university teacher) presented about themselves and their countries by 3-4 minutes one by one. Then students asked a lot of questions ranging from the educational arrangements to homosexuality in those countries. We responded individually as well as collectively. It was a great fun and enjoyable event.
American high schools are with great modern facilities including computer labs. Many have their own radio and/or tv braoadcasting facilities. Teacher-student ratio is very high. The class we visited had only about 15 students but the area was such a big that it was like a rural based Bangladesh primary school.

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