Open letter to Sal Khan

I'm reminded now of some years ago when I was in differential equations class and had trouble understanding my professor (his handwriting was terrible and incomprehensible, and his lesson structure very hard to follow). Khan's videos were an absolute blessing to me then.

In regards to the criticisms: as valid as they may be, don't assert that his offerings are not good -- it's better that they exist vs. not existing. We're at a more evolved state now with having had Khan's videos: now a new player can emerge who can produce better videos with the knowledge of what Khan's mistakes were.

I think it's actually a little bit irresponsible criticizing Khan's video like this in a public and confrontational way: it adds to the hysteria, now you'll have parents actively avoiding Khan's videos because of concerns of their pedagogical techniques. And that's not good: have you opened a standard calculus book these days? It's very hard to follow, don't these folks have some criticism for those (and their high prices, which often make it unaffordable for a lot of folks)? Video form of learning is still rather new, and Khan is a pioneer of it. Give it some more time to find its optimum form.

Khanacademy is being optimized for effective learning. But that takes effort, and it might never be perfect.

We have great respect for the stated goal of Khan Academy — “A free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.” Yet, we have some serious concerns about the quality of the instruction providing this education. Indeed, if either of us were supervising Khan’s instruction, we would point to some concrete and important gaps in his practice.

The key is "if we were supervising". That's the real problem. That someone is making something huge happen, and they are not playing a role in it. Guess what - nobody is stopping this guy or anyone else from producing a few hundred of educational videos with great content and making it available for free. However, some way or another, the people who are capable of a stunt like that are much fewer than those who can hate things on the Internet.

I am a parent of a 10 year old who likes Maths; my choices in fostering and encouraging this trait were to (A) enroll her in a really expense private school, (b) enroll ins Kumon (its a canadian after school private tutoring type of service) (c) private tutors -- which I can't afford. Please note that her teachers have shown no inclination to help advance her learning beyond the curriculum.

Sal and KhanAcademy make it easy for me to help her with learning above her grade level. I do the lessons with her -- last week we were working on advanced probability problems and the lectures were invaluable to me as well as my child. Sal and KA augment my capability and help me become an effective tutor to my child. Regards