蜜桃影视

This is part of our Community Cultivator series, which highlights how innovators across all sectors build and sustain global communities from the ground up.

Sci-Fi Ambitions

鈥淲hat happens when we grow up?鈥� asks Douglas Wolk in his . 鈥淲e may try to put away childish things, but we can’t, or shouldn’t. The best thing that can happen is that we turn those things into something bigger and more beautiful.鈥� Sal Khan exemplifies this hope. More than 280 U.S. school districts and people in more than 190 countries use Khan Academy. As founder of the organization and its nonprofit offshoots , Khan Lab School and Khan World School, he has built a planet-changing education powerhouse that touches millions.

Science fiction and fantasy planted the seeds.

鈥淚 always wanted to be a Dumbledore-type figure,鈥� he admits, referring to the headmaster wizard from the Harry Potter series. 鈥淲hen I worked at a hedge fund, I used to tell my friends, 鈥業’m only doing this until I have enough money to start a school on my own terms.鈥欌�� Before he made the first of the bite-sized videos that gave rise to his empire, he wrote educational software that family members could use. 鈥淚 would always alternate between grandiose ambitions 鈥� Maybe one day, this could be used by millions, and 鈥� Sal, calm down. You know how unlikely that is,鈥� he recalls. The example set by nudged him onto the nonprofit road rather than the presumably more lucrative 鈥渆d tech鈥� route.

Before long, he started getting thank you letters from people he鈥檇 never met. Someone would write to say his educational platform 鈥渃hanged my view of myself.鈥� Another wrote, 鈥淭his is what gives me the confidence to become an engineer.鈥� Another: 鈥淭his helped my kids with learning disabilities.鈥� The letters, Khan says, gave him permission to dream a little bigger. And those bigger dreams originated in the comic books and science fiction novels he had devoured when he was young: Hari Seldon, protagonist of Isaac Asimov鈥檚 , aspires to shorten a 30,000-year dark age to a mere millennium by collecting the world鈥檚 knowledge. Orson Scott Card鈥檚 traces a plan for training precocious children to protect the Earth from an alien attack. Neal Stephenson鈥檚 鈥攚ell, it鈥檚 complicated, but it involves a colony of orphan girls obtaining information that the nobility wants to deny them. Outlandish plotlines converged around the vital role of learning.

Great Expectations

Born and reared in Metairie, Louisiana, outside of New Orleans, Khan belonged to an early wave of south Asian immigrants from the 1970s. In a culture where divorce was practically unheard of, his physician father left when Sal was 18 months old. The family struggled financially, but a network of uncles gave him a sense of belonging. 鈥淓ven though things weren’t optimal,鈥� he says, 鈥淚 had a nurturing, supportive family structure. We still were part of that community.鈥�

He also had the 鈥渉igh educational aspirations and expectations鈥� and showed academic promise, though admittedly not as much as his big sister. 鈥淓veryone was saying, 鈥楩arah’s going to be President of the United States, and Sal, let’s hope he stays out of trouble鈥�,鈥� he laughs.

Today, married and father of three children, he鈥檚 acutely conscious of the privileges they enjoy, compared to children around the world. 鈥淢y kids go on field trips and engage in Socratic dialogue and gardening, and all the wonderful things that we can do in these types of schools. But how do you create a great school anywhere? With Khan Academy and (free online tutoring) all it takes is a satellite, a shipping container and a teacher to potentially create a far better experience than what kids would otherwise have.鈥�

Khan firmly believes anyone can learn anything. It just takes a 鈥� a concept pioneered by Carol Dweck that distinguishes between praising students for their intelligence and praising hard work and effort. He still regrets the headline that somebody else gave his essay on the subject. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 when I learned about clickbait,鈥� he grins.

A Tale of Two Technology Cities

The Khan Academy journey has illustrated the potential of technology to transform education. Khan says it recalls the dominance of television during his youth: 鈥淭V had a lot of time-wasting things on it, but it had public television, too, and the kids would learn a lot.鈥�

鈥淯nfortunately,鈥� Khan says, 鈥淚t’s been a little bit of a Tale of Two Cities. Much of the world still lacks the tools that have been proven to unlock human potential. I think of a young girl born to a prostitute in Calcutta,鈥� he says. 鈥淪he could cure cancer; she could solve the next problem in physics, but without some type of a lifeline, she has a hard road ahead and the odds are stacked against her. Khan Academy becomes almost the shadow safety net school system for the world. That’s one of my dreams.鈥� He stresses that the ideal remains a supportive social environment, a classroom with great teachers and great parental support.

Not all distance education is perfect, he acknowledges, but the pandemic confirmed his faith in the Khan Academy model.

To convey his vision of 鈥渁n institution for the world that could last well beyond me,鈥� he invokes a comic book analogy. 鈥淥bviously there aren’t people who can fly and spray ice out of their fingers. But there are these incredibly high-potential kids all over the planet, and like the X-Men, they risk becoming marginalized because of their potential. But if they’re able to tap into their gifts properly, they’re going to save the world.鈥�

This story originally published on Early Learning Nation and is now archived on 蜜桃影视. Learn more here.