Salman Khan and Carlos Slim spoke at the NYPL to demonstrably mixed reactions about their collaborative expansion of Khan Academy’s Spanish language offerings. Mr. Slim’s 10 million dollar donation does much to enhance the learning platforms that reaches, as Mr. Khan put it during his talk, “More people each month then Harvard has in its entire history.”
With almost a million YouTube subscribers, and over 250 million videos watched, Khan Academy is certainly meeting its mission to change “education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere.” Over 4100 videos provide information in brief 10-15 minute chunks on Algebra I, the History of Dates, the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the Balfour Declaration, or Health Care Costs in US vs Europe. Anyone can get an education anywhere that has a internet connection, with a few USB keys produced to offer the educational programs to small impoverished communities where many do not have such access.
Who could object to such efforts?
During the discussion, many audience members would laugh uproariously at Mr. Slim's comments. They seemed mostly focused in the back right of the auditorium. Confused by these disturbances, other attendees glanced around, whispering possible explanations to themselves. An ophtalmologist, couldn't see who was making the disruption but suggested that it was being simultaneously translated, but poorly so that those listeners were greatly amused. One PhD student suggested that they must be past students of Mr. Slim who were amused to hear him telling the audience things they had heard so many times before. When the laughter had become increasingly disruptive, a young woman towards the front of the audience stood up and asked loudly: "What's so funny?"
"Carlos Slim's charity pretensions are laughable!" Replied a young man, who blew on a kazoo thus prompting all the other members of this group to stand, blow on their plastic kazoos and throw paper monopoly money into the air that explained Slim's information technology monopoly in Mexico. The fifty or so young men and women, between 20 and 40, dressed nicely, who must have each spent anywehre from $25 to $40 to attend the talk, marched around the room, blowing on their kazoos, quite politely heading towards the exit where security was trying to usher them more quickly.
Carlos Slim is the richest man in the world. Valued at over 63 billion dollars, he mostly made his money by taking advantage of a government loophole in telephony, explains a recent article in the Economist. Mexico Federal Competition Commission is trying to wrench such sweeping control away from Slim's company Telmex. Charges against him range from the mild-mannered tsk-tsking of bad business practices to demonstration-provoking accusations of evil corruption.
No one who has succeeded is clean. Fact.
The NYPL conversation was not about that, however, but rather about Khan Academy and how Slim's $10 million dollar donation will help produce 7000 Spanish language videos, servicing an audience that needs it. Over 10 million people in the United States speak Spanish, and little or no English. These populations struggle to get an education since even though Spanish language books are the majority of most libraries' non-English books, many subjects remain unavailable. In Central and South American, impoverished rural areas make an education difficult to procure. But the challenge exists here, too. In NYC, nearly three quarters of Hispanics drop out of high school. Only 7% of them pursue a college degree. Later, they may realize the value of an education. Khan Academy provides an extensive list of topics that can help someone learn what they need to know, or are simply curious to discover–and soon in Spanish as well.
Salman Khan started the academy in 2009 hiding in his closet. It was the most doors between him and his recently born son. Back in 2004, wanting to help a cousin who was struggling with mathematics, he used Yahoo!Doodle to provide tutorials, but as more people got interested he put the videos on YouTube. A graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School, he'd been working as a hedge fun analyst, but by 2009, realizing the potential for success, he left his job to dedicate his time to building Khan Academy. The operation is non-profit and has benefited from significant donations from Google and the Gates Foundation. Other personal donations have also helped the collection of video lessons grow, so that barely four years later Khan Academy now employs forty-five tech and education specialists.
Khan spoke after the kazoo demonstration to explain how positive his own experience has been working with Slim. He was distressed that Slim's finances could intrude on the positive efforts of Khan Academy. Slim shrugged; as the wealthiest man in the world, he is presumably accustomed to being disliked.
There is much to observe in how Khan Academy will succeed, but Khan's comments indicate he is planning for long-term growth. His book One World Schoolhouse explains how much he believes the art of education must change to improve. Education can no longer be didactic. "We don't know what jobs will exist to train people for them," Khan stated at one point, advocating for an education that encourages creative problem solving. The Academy has much to offer, and the lessons are particularly well-designed for delivering information. In my perusal of their offerings, I saw nothing though that would induct people in critical thinking. So why is that missing? I teach it in my classroom when we are discussing 19th Century Women Writers or Composition. It is the hardest thing to teach but not impossible. Khan Academy could cause a revolution if they could show success teaching critical thinking, as they have been able to show success in other educational testing areas. I'm available, Salman, for further discussion!
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