Welcome to the home for innovation, and today I want to spotlight a very special school in our area - is doing some very special things. You know on our show. We talked a lot about STEM education and frankly, we talked about a lot. The the problems that are in schools today and the lack of funding and so forth, but you don't want to be fair, there's some real bright spots around us, and this is one of them: the Highland school of technology, it's in Gaston County in North Carolina, the Head of the school lead, Dedmon is really a charismatic and active leader in the school and they're doing some really unique things. I want you to check this out. It is a school choice. It'S a magnet school and that's a big key that the kids choose to come here. We have 700 applicants each year for about a hundred and forty five spots and the kids get an opportunity to select what they want to take makes a big deal for them. So they come fairly prepared, but out of the 140 to 145 students we take each year about 70 % of them are average, or maybe 80 % of them are just average good students that want to try hard and work hard. So this is a school that number one. If you're there, you realize you're part of an elite group, there's a lot of kids that want to go to Highland school that don't get in. So if https://www.techtricksclub.net/discord-picking-up-the-game-audio/ , you recognize how lucky you are to be their number. Two they also they hold up the engineer. They hold up the smart person. The social norms are changed at Highland, so, yes, the Jacque gets recognized, but so does the smart people. They don't get alienated at school. They also get experience you're learning they get to touch. This stuff and put their hands on whether they want to be a dental hygienist or they want to be a hydraulics engineer. They get to actually put patients in the dental chair see what it's like to be a dental hygienist. They get to experience that part of the job. It'S amazing! If this particular school it's cool to get good grades. You might hear a conversation in the lunchroom that you know. I got a 92 in that test in world history and another kid will say man. I got a 93 and the kid they got a 92 ago: hey good job, it's an encouraging environment and the culture that we have here through the students and the teachers is amazing. So not only have they changed the social norms in this school. In you could try these out of what is what does it mean to be cool but they've also embraced, the private sector, local community and business leaders are very active at Highland and Highland is very active in engaging these folks. That'S one of the things that really makes this work. We can't survive with that business and we're constantly on the lookout. We have an advisory group that we meet quarterly. It'S filled with people from the business community, very few educators, but mostly business community. That can do things that we can do for them and they can do for us. So, at the end of the day, while Highland school is somewhat unique, they are not the only school with this kind of solution. There are more of them than you would think, and there are a growing number of them, but Highland really has established a model. We can look to for the future in terms of what do we want young people's education? To look like, let me close by saying this. One of the other things I noticed when I visited Highland is not only just how good the act. You know the academia was and the leadership there, but how well-behaved these kids were because of their involvement in education. These kids were very well-behaved, very respectful for to adults and very engaged in what they were doing. I think there's a correlation here. We need to pay attention, see you here next time on the home front of Asia.