How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education

Matthew Carpenter, age 10, has completed 642 inverse trigonometry problems at KhanAcademy.org.
Photo: Joe Pugliese

“This,” says Matthew Carpenter, “is my favorite exercise.” I peer over his shoulder at his laptop screen to see the math problem the fifth grader is pondering. It’s an inverse trigonometric function: cos-1(1) = ?

Lawmakers in the nation's capital have floated a plan to require high school students to apply to college or trade school -- even if the students have no interest in attending.

The proposal is a bid to ensure students in the troubled Washington, D.C., school system at least have the know-how to navigate the admissions process.

Another "government schools becoming prisons" article. Soon they will no longer be newsworthy.

Special Needs Student tapes two teachers who verbally abuse her. Leads to one teacher resigning and the other getting "mandatory bullying training".

A New Jersey father sent his 10 year old autistic son to school wearing a wire, and what is heard is truly disturbing.

I think apprenticeships have the potential to create a much more efficient learning model. Most people learn by doing, not by reading books, listening to lectures or taking tests. If you tray to cram too much information inside at a time, you will not retain much for very long. Testing a person for their knowledge has huge drawbacks namely that you are testing for memory skills, not practical working knowledge. If you learn a little and use it right after, it will reinforce that knowledge and make the learning of the subject much more satisfying.

As a third-grader in Winsted, Connecticut, last year, Matthew Asselin was sick -- a lot. He was lethargic and plagued with a persistent wet cough, respiratory infections and painful headaches. As the school year wound down, Matthew's health worsened. In all, Matthew missed 53 days of school. But over the summer, a strange thing happened. Matthew was healthy. He was energetic. "When we put him back in school this year, within three weeks, he missed 10 days with a respiratory infection," Melissa Asselin said. That's when she had an a-ha moment. "When he was out of school, he was well.

Reality Check: The story behind the Ron Paul newsletters

Historians on Tuesday criticized proposed revisions to the Texas social studies curriculum, saying that many of the changes are historically inaccurate and that they would affect textbooks and classrooms far beyond the state's borders. The changes, which were preliminarily approved last week by the Texas board of education and are expected to be given final approval in May, will reach deeply into Texas history classrooms, defining what textbooks must include and what teachers must cover.

In the United States today, our public schools are not very good at educating our students, but they sure are great training grounds for learning how to live in a Big Brother police state control grid. Sadly, life in many U.S. public schools is now essentially equivalent to life in U.S. prisons. Most parents don't realize this, but our students have very few rights when they are in school. Our public school students are being watched, tracked, recorded