Specialized Schools Motivate Kids

Melinda Murphy Offers Study Hall Report

(CBS) 
But now, aside from zoos and airports, there are high schools in museums, hospitals, even shopping malls. And schools specialize in police and fire training, fashion careers and cooking. The key to them all is to keep student interest sky high.

Aviation High School principal Reba Gilman says, "It's that wonderful expression of curiosity when they can see an application to what they're learning in science, math, or in humanities, by coming to a place like this. It's the piece that you can't get in a traditional classroom environment.

"Just a little better than a blackboard. It's the real thing!" she exclaims.

And with the school's mentor program, the lesson inside a flight simulator is as real as it gets.

As the students follow instructions, the instructor says, "Gentlemen, do you realize you just took off in a 767 and I really didn't do anything."

Bob Kessinger works for the Alteon Corporation. He volunteers his time, and his bosses donate the equipment.

When asked, he says, "We charge probably about $2,000 an hour to flight crews." For the kids it is free.

But don't think these kids have it easy. The truth is, classes here are tough. But where else can you walk from an every day classroom, into a living one?

At the flamingo exhibit, teacher Christopher Trammell from the Los Angeles Zoo Magnet School says, "It was no longer 'Go to a textbook.' It was no longer 'Let's go on the Internet.' It was 'Let's go and see these animals in person.' And they loved that."