Maggie's Farm

Sol Khan is a great guy, and I appreciate the fact that he's trying to bring knowledge and education to young people. I believe that he has the best of intentions. But when somebody does something, there are two factors which must be considered: What are his intentions? And what are the possible outcomes of his action? If someone is acting with good intentions, but creates an undesirable outcome, then it's a bad action. And this is the case with Sol Khan. Mr. Khan has built an educational process that completely excludes parents. In his program, kids are supposed to learn a "universal" corpus of knowledge; a philosophy that does not include local tradition, or heritage. As a result, the kids in his program will be world citizens. They won't have any ties to the land; or the community. The result will be millions of alienated kids. So even though Mr. Khan appears to have good intentions; the only possible outcome of his program is social disaster; and the destruction of many cultures.

Those kids aren't really gaining anything from his program. Yes, they might learn Algebra. But at the cost of their identity, and their family. It's a terrible deal. Education is much more than book knowledge. It's an experience that requires years of interaction with friends, family, and society. A person without a heritage isn't even a person. Khan is just another sad example of how the State tries to alienate kids, and convince them that where they live, and how they live, doesn't matter. For that reason, it might be necessary to turn off the internet. We have a responsibility to make sure that our kids grow-up to become whole people.