There are two famous Salman Khans, one an Indian movie actor, and the other an American (left) born in New Orleans whose father is from Bangladesh and mother from Kolkata, India. This Khan is 36 years old and might well be an important part of the solution to education.
Dan Bent, some months ago, inquired if I had linked to the site of the Khan Academy. Deep in my memory was something that sounded like this. A week or so later, I searched for this web page and was astonished at the range of lectures on a variety of educational topics. Free! FREE!! Since then I have read several articles about the educator Khan, and am even more convinced than ever that lectures, which are 99% of how we teach, are sub-optimal, and a waste of valuable time in the educational process. Khan has a clue on how to proceed, and his You Tube clips have now exceeded 150 million views. Here is a You Tube overview, and if your impression is that this certainly comes across like a lecture, all I can say is, good point. I guess any teaching requires words.
While I'm at this, I should add that libraries are obsolete, too. To the right is the virtual library, also known as the world wide web. Some years ago I was in Vancouver when they had a municipal strike, and protesters mostly complained about the lack of internet availability because the library was closed. If this is not a message, what is!
Finally, Salman Khan has something worthy of your familiarization, but there is something else perhaps even more important than pure learning. What will make you successful is not necessarily how effective you were at learning technical information. Calculus and history and biology are not the crucial keys to success. Yes you need to be able to read and analyze, but relationship skills check-mate knowledge itself.
Related to all this is the matter of learning how to learn before you become civilized and intellectually boxed. Children at the age of two and three are imaginative. Then they join a pre-school or kindergarten and become good citizens. Our educational system needs to find a way to transition this creativity into adulthood.
I've underscored the simple solutions for education many times before, but to summarize:
1. Start school at the age of two. Click on that suggestion to learn how this might be possible economically.
2. Eliminate lectures and instead incorporate pedagogical techniques similar to the infoware of the Khan Academy. The concept of "flipped" classes and other innovations can better be advanced.
3. Focus on the other 4 R's: Rigor, Respect, Relevance and Relationship.
4. Don't lose any sleep over our supposedly declining educational system. We are doing alright! A good part of this is that we have, by far, the best higher education (universities) program in the world, and in a productive organization, you need a few visionary and progressive leaders, plus a bunch of workers with the aptitude and capabilities gained from our schools.
4. Don't lose any sleep over our supposedly declining educational system. We are doing alright! A good part of this is that we have, by far, the best higher education (universities) program in the world, and in a productive organization, you need a few visionary and progressive leaders, plus a bunch of workers with the aptitude and capabilities gained from our schools.
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