WEBVTT - Basic Education is Solvable 0:00:15.076 --> 0:00:21.916 Pushkin. I'm Mave Higgins and this is Solvable Interviews with 0:00:21.956 --> 0:00:25.596 the world's most innovative thinkers working to solve the world's 0:00:25.596 --> 0:00:29.876 biggest problems. My name is Salman Khan. I'm the founder 0:00:29.876 --> 0:00:33.676 of the not for profit Khan Academy, and my solvable 0:00:33.836 --> 0:00:36.356 is ensuring that everyone on the planet has access to 0:00:36.476 --> 0:00:40.236 a free, world class education. Our guests this week is 0:00:40.276 --> 0:00:43.676 a teacher who has thousands of students all over the 0:00:43.716 --> 0:00:47.676 world and who says education needs to be radically different 0:00:48.116 --> 0:00:53.156 in order to empower millions of people to thrive. Salman 0:00:53.236 --> 0:00:56.516 Khan's Khan Academy reaches one hundred million people a year 0:00:56.636 --> 0:00:59.876 all over the world, where remote students are able to 0:00:59.916 --> 0:01:03.436 watch online videos that cover a wide variety of subjects 0:01:03.476 --> 0:01:07.396 from mats and English to computer animation and art history. 0:01:07.836 --> 0:01:11.396 They and sal agree that students results are better than 0:01:11.436 --> 0:01:14.996 those of their peers. The can Academy focuses on what 0:01:15.156 --> 0:01:19.036 sal calls mastery education, so you move through the courses 0:01:19.116 --> 0:01:21.876 online at your own pace, only going on to the 0:01:21.916 --> 0:01:24.716 next step when you've got it one hundred percent. Sala's 0:01:24.756 --> 0:01:27.956 talking to Ammad Ali Atbar about new ways to address 0:01:28.116 --> 0:01:31.316 education so that everyone can develop the skills needed to 0:01:31.396 --> 0:01:37.156 navigate a future of AI and automation. Education systems have 0:01:37.236 --> 0:01:42.356 transformed wildly since the earliest universal primary education system was 0:01:42.476 --> 0:01:46.196 established in Prussia in seventeen seventeen, when I was only 0:01:46.196 --> 0:01:49.996 a child. Many countries followed suit in the twentieth century, 0:01:50.036 --> 0:01:54.796 and later India past laws introducing universal, free, and compulsory 0:01:54.876 --> 0:01:58.596 education in two thousand and nine. Some countries still don't 0:01:58.636 --> 0:02:03.116 have laws making education mandatory. It's really extraordinary to look 0:02:03.116 --> 0:02:07.476 at literacy rates over time. The trend is hugely positive. 0:02:08.116 --> 0:02:11.836 Take literacy rates among young people and we say that's 0:02:11.876 --> 0:02:14.956 people aged between fifteen to twenty four, so sorry, all 0:02:14.996 --> 0:02:18.316 of you twenty five year olds year old. Globally, the 0:02:18.436 --> 0:02:23.196 youth literacy rate increased to ninety one percent over two decades, 0:02:23.676 --> 0:02:25.796 with the number of young people who can't read or 0:02:25.836 --> 0:02:30.756 write dramatically decreasing. But of course it's not all good news. 0:02:31.276 --> 0:02:36.196 Regional and gender disparities persist. Literacy is lowest in least 0:02:36.196 --> 0:02:41.196 developed countries and higher among males than females. So a 0:02:41.236 --> 0:02:44.036 lot done and more to do. A good question to 0:02:44.076 --> 0:02:48.316 ask is whether or not our education systems developed in 0:02:48.396 --> 0:02:52.116 response to the Industrial Revolution are still fit for this 0:02:52.316 --> 0:02:56.956 technological revolution. Add to that that even the brightest pupils 0:02:56.996 --> 0:02:59.596 are left with gaps in their knowledge as they've moved 0:02:59.636 --> 0:03:03.116 through the system according to their age, not really according 0:03:03.156 --> 0:03:06.196 to what they've learned. And that's true even in countries 0:03:06.196 --> 0:03:09.396 of the best education system. So what hope is there 0:03:09.436 --> 0:03:12.436 for people where even traditional schooling is still out of reach? 0:03:13.396 --> 0:03:17.436 In a global economy defined by artificial intelligence and robotics, 0:03:17.916 --> 0:03:21.596 people would need much more than literacy and numerousy Can 0:03:21.676 --> 0:03:27.236 we leverage technology to amplify human purpose and potential? Sal 0:03:27.396 --> 0:03:30.956 believes that we can, and his organization, the Khan Academy, 0:03:31.396 --> 0:03:35.036 shows that actually a world class education better than the 0:03:35.036 --> 0:03:38.876 one in class can be made available for free to 0:03:39.276 --> 0:03:42.836 everyone in the world. No really, and they have this 0:03:42.956 --> 0:03:45.756 really great origin story which I love. I think you 0:03:45.756 --> 0:03:49.676 will too. Okay, let's take a listen. I'll give you 0:03:49.676 --> 0:03:51.436 a thought experiment. If we were to go back in 0:03:51.516 --> 0:03:54.796 time five hundred years, a thousand years, pick a place 0:03:54.796 --> 0:03:56.676 on the planet even you know, even then five hundred 0:03:56.716 --> 0:03:58.436 years ago, Western Europe was actually one of the more 0:03:58.476 --> 0:04:00.996 literate parts of the planet. You would have seen about 0:04:01.036 --> 0:04:03.236 twenty percent of men and about ten percent of women 0:04:03.276 --> 0:04:05.836 were literate, and I suspect that if you went to 0:04:05.836 --> 0:04:08.636 someone who was literate and you said, what percentage of 0:04:08.676 --> 0:04:10.716 the population you think is even capable of reading if 0:04:10.716 --> 0:04:13.796 you had a perfect education system, they might have said, well, 0:04:13.956 --> 0:04:17.116 you know, maybe maybe thirty forty percent with a great 0:04:17.196 --> 0:04:20.036 education system. And if you said, well, I think that 0:04:20.036 --> 0:04:22.356 that beggar on the side of the street could learn 0:04:22.436 --> 0:04:24.916 to read and learn to write, and could learn to 0:04:24.956 --> 0:04:27.796 do mathematics as good as anyone in the king's court, 0:04:28.036 --> 0:04:30.916 they would have thought that you were absolutely delusional. But 0:04:31.236 --> 0:04:33.876 you fast forward five hundred years, we know that their 0:04:33.916 --> 0:04:36.756 prediction was the one that was widely pessimistic, that pretty 0:04:36.796 --> 0:04:40.076 close to one hundred percent of the population is capable 0:04:40.156 --> 0:04:43.676 of reading or doing or being numerous, or being able 0:04:43.716 --> 0:04:46.396 to write and communicate. But if I were to ask 0:04:46.436 --> 0:04:49.356 people today a similar thought experiment, what percentage of the 0:04:49.396 --> 0:04:52.796 population is capable of being a cancer researcher. What percentage 0:04:52.796 --> 0:04:56.396 of the population is capable of being an entrepreneur, of 0:04:56.396 --> 0:05:00.196 writing the next great novel, of pushing the frontiers of physics, 0:05:01.116 --> 0:05:03.236 I think a lot of very smart and even well 0:05:03.276 --> 0:05:06.116 intentioned people will say, well, today that's maybe one to 0:05:06.196 --> 0:05:09.516 five percent, maybe with the great education system it is 0:05:09.556 --> 0:05:13.276 ten fifteen percent. But what if that's a similar blinders 0:05:13.316 --> 0:05:15.796 on the blinders of just a system that we've been in, 0:05:16.076 --> 0:05:20.356 this kind of Industrial Revolution system that pushed everyone together 0:05:20.436 --> 0:05:23.676 in this factory model. If someone didn't understand something, that's okay. 0:05:23.716 --> 0:05:26.676 Because in the Industrial Revolution we had a triangular labor 0:05:26.716 --> 0:05:29.676 pyramid and you only needed so many people who could 0:05:29.716 --> 0:05:32.076 do the knowledge skills or be a member of the 0:05:32.076 --> 0:05:35.116 creative class. This would have been a nice to have. 0:05:35.316 --> 0:05:37.676 I think, if we're talking thirty years ago, wouldn't it 0:05:37.716 --> 0:05:40.396 be nice if more people could operate at the top 0:05:40.436 --> 0:05:43.556 of the pyramid in the knowledge economy? But I think 0:05:43.556 --> 0:05:45.676 this is a societal imperative. I think I think the 0:05:45.796 --> 0:05:49.556 very structure of our society is now dependent on us 0:05:49.636 --> 0:05:54.516 as a civilization making a bet in this direction. Artificial intelligence, automation, 0:05:54.596 --> 0:05:58.276 they're going to redefine what humans need to do anymore. 0:05:58.516 --> 0:06:01.116 And there's a very optimistic sense, but there's some real questions. 0:06:01.156 --> 0:06:02.996 What's going to happen to those truck drivers once we 0:06:02.996 --> 0:06:04.796 have self driving cars, what's going to happen to those 0:06:04.796 --> 0:06:08.156 cashier workers once we have automated cashiers? And those are 0:06:08.156 --> 0:06:11.156 just the most obvious places. It's likely to hit every 0:06:11.796 --> 0:06:14.836 part of what we now define as human work and purpose. 0:06:15.156 --> 0:06:17.396 And I think there's some folks, I would call them 0:06:17.436 --> 0:06:21.556 techno optimists who point at the Industrial Revolution and say, well, 0:06:21.596 --> 0:06:24.956 the Industrial Revolution people had those same fears. Weavers were 0:06:24.956 --> 0:06:29.196 afraid of kind of the weaving machines. Horses obviously lost 0:06:29.196 --> 0:06:34.076 their jobs as cars came about. But net net, you 0:06:34.196 --> 0:06:36.516 had job creation. And what I point to those folks, 0:06:36.516 --> 0:06:38.556 and I'm actually surprised how little it is of the 0:06:38.596 --> 0:06:42.836 conversation the Industrial Revolution. Net job creation did not happen 0:06:42.916 --> 0:06:45.276 in a vacuum. It wasn't just say, hey, technology, it's 0:06:45.316 --> 0:06:48.796 a little scary, but it always creates jobs. It coincided 0:06:48.836 --> 0:06:51.556 with what I would argue as the largest societal bet 0:06:51.596 --> 0:06:54.716 that we made in many hundreds of years, maybe ever, 0:06:54.836 --> 0:06:58.116 and that was the notion of freemass public education. I 0:06:58.156 --> 0:07:01.436 believe that's what allowed us to navigate the Industrial Revolution 0:07:01.476 --> 0:07:03.476 in a way that built a middle class, that allowed 0:07:03.516 --> 0:07:06.556 most people to participate. But now we're in a I 0:07:06.556 --> 0:07:09.316 would say even a faster revolution. Some people call it 0:07:09.396 --> 0:07:11.556 the Third Industrial Revolution, but whatever you want, to call it, 0:07:11.556 --> 0:07:14.476 the AI automation Revolution. And I don't think we can 0:07:14.516 --> 0:07:16.596 be complacent there. We need to make a similar type 0:07:16.596 --> 0:07:19.116 of beat on human potential. So in my mind, the 0:07:19.156 --> 0:07:22.396 only option we have is let's use these tools in 0:07:22.476 --> 0:07:27.316 conjunction with amazing educators, amazing systems to create a world 0:07:27.636 --> 0:07:30.076 where the truck driver of today could be the cancer 0:07:30.116 --> 0:07:32.316 researcher of tomorrow. Let me just stop you here for 0:07:32.356 --> 0:07:34.636 a second, because I think it's worth grappling with how 0:07:34.636 --> 0:07:38.596 you came to this conclusion of education and your platform 0:07:38.916 --> 0:07:41.316 is a place in which we can deal with the 0:07:41.356 --> 0:07:44.836 automation problem. Well, from the early stages of kN Academy, 0:07:45.076 --> 0:07:48.036 if you go back ten, twelve, thirteen years ago, back 0:07:48.076 --> 0:07:50.796 then people weren't talking a lot about self driving cars 0:07:51.196 --> 0:07:54.276 or the coming AI revolution, And so when I set 0:07:54.316 --> 0:07:57.276 up kN Academy, it wasn't with that end. It was 0:07:57.316 --> 0:07:59.756 really like, Hey, how can we give more people opportunity? 0:07:59.756 --> 0:08:01.556 How can we give young girls and parts of the 0:08:01.596 --> 0:08:04.476 planet that they don't have access to world class education? 0:08:04.556 --> 0:08:07.356 How can we give an African American student an inner 0:08:07.396 --> 0:08:09.916 city school, a majority of which don't even offer things 0:08:09.956 --> 0:08:12.436 like calculus or physics. How do we make sure that 0:08:12.476 --> 0:08:14.636 they have access to those types of materials? And that 0:08:14.716 --> 0:08:16.796 it's at a world class level even where when they 0:08:16.836 --> 0:08:19.476 do have access. So that's where we started. But then 0:08:19.516 --> 0:08:22.556 over the last I would say about ten years, as 0:08:22.556 --> 0:08:26.196 the public conversation I think rightfully started to say, hey, well, 0:08:26.196 --> 0:08:28.596 what does it mean for society If you know, right 0:08:28.636 --> 0:08:31.436 now we have five or ten million, mostly men, who 0:08:31.516 --> 0:08:34.636 are drivers, whether it's an uber or lift driver, or 0:08:34.636 --> 0:08:37.436 whether it's a truck driver. What's going to happen to 0:08:37.476 --> 0:08:39.116 them when it seems like we're going to have self 0:08:39.196 --> 0:08:42.196 driving cars in the next decade. What's what when you 0:08:42.196 --> 0:08:44.036 have five million people work in retail? What does it 0:08:44.116 --> 0:08:49.636 mean when you have fully automated stores. Kind Academy helps 0:08:49.836 --> 0:08:52.716 millions of people every year learn economics and world history. 0:08:52.756 --> 0:08:54.796 And I remember making a lot of these videos on 0:08:54.836 --> 0:08:58.196 whether it's the Industrial Revolution or these major inflection points 0:08:58.196 --> 0:09:01.236 in history, from agriculture to the advent of writing to 0:09:01.316 --> 0:09:03.796 the printing press, and I'm like, we are at one 0:09:03.796 --> 0:09:06.556 of those inflection points. And every one of those other 0:09:06.556 --> 0:09:10.516 inflection points either helped catalyze human potential, a step change 0:09:10.516 --> 0:09:13.956 in human potential, or that the tools of that inflection 0:09:13.996 --> 0:09:17.556 point were used to address the disruptions of the inflection point, 0:09:17.596 --> 0:09:19.556 and so I said, why how come people are not 0:09:19.676 --> 0:09:22.116 thinking in those terms today? In my mind, if you 0:09:22.156 --> 0:09:25.196 don't view it as an education issue, you're resolving to 0:09:25.316 --> 0:09:27.436 just have your fingers crossed that we don't get into 0:09:27.516 --> 0:09:30.596 kind of some tech feudal system where a small percentage 0:09:30.596 --> 0:09:33.076 of the population who does have the right skills are 0:09:33.156 --> 0:09:36.396 able to benefit from all of the returns from the robots, 0:09:36.716 --> 0:09:38.676 and that everyone else is on some type of social 0:09:38.676 --> 0:09:41.116 safety net. That is a dystopian society. And I think 0:09:41.676 --> 0:09:43.476 if we don't figure out a way to up level 0:09:43.516 --> 0:09:45.436 a lot of people, that's where we're heading. Can you 0:09:45.476 --> 0:09:49.156 just tell us how you started Han Academy. Yeah, if 0:09:49.156 --> 0:09:51.636 you rewind back to two thousand and four, I was 0:09:51.676 --> 0:09:54.516 a year out of business school. My background was originally 0:09:54.756 --> 0:09:57.436 in technology and software and in math, but now I 0:09:57.476 --> 0:09:59.476 had found myself. I was an analyst at a hedge fund, 0:09:59.756 --> 0:10:02.596 and I had just gotten married in the Northeast, and 0:10:02.636 --> 0:10:04.916 I had family visiting me from New Orleans, which is 0:10:04.916 --> 0:10:06.436 where I was born and raised. And it just came 0:10:06.436 --> 0:10:10.116 out a conversation with my aunt that heard Nadia, who 0:10:10.156 --> 0:10:12.196 was twelve years old at the time, was having trouble 0:10:12.196 --> 0:10:13.836 in math and because of that she was being placed 0:10:13.836 --> 0:10:16.436 into a slower math class. So I offered to tutor 0:10:16.476 --> 0:10:18.236 her when she went back to New Orleans. And so 0:10:18.316 --> 0:10:21.516 she goes back to New Orleans every day after school 0:10:21.556 --> 0:10:23.436 for her after work for me, we get on the phone, 0:10:23.516 --> 0:10:26.196 we use instant messenger, whatever we could off the internet, 0:10:26.516 --> 0:10:30.196 and I start tutoring her one thing after another. She 0:10:30.236 --> 0:10:33.156 slowly gets caught up with her class. She understands unit conversion. 0:10:33.476 --> 0:10:36.236 I called up her school and I say, you know, 0:10:36.276 --> 0:10:39.036 I really think Nadia Orman should should really be able 0:10:39.036 --> 0:10:41.036 to take that placement exam from last year. And they 0:10:41.036 --> 0:10:43.236 said who are you and I said, I'm her cousin, 0:10:43.596 --> 0:10:45.756 and they actually led her and that same Nadia that 0:10:45.836 --> 0:10:49.276 was being placed into that remedial math class only after 0:10:49.276 --> 0:10:51.556 about two months of tutoring was able to be put 0:10:51.556 --> 0:10:54.716 into an advanced math class. And so I was hooked. 0:10:54.796 --> 0:10:58.196 I started tutoring her younger brothers, and then over the 0:10:58.236 --> 0:11:00.556 next two years or so, word gets around my family 0:11:00.636 --> 0:11:03.956 that free tutoring is going on, and I find myself 0:11:03.996 --> 0:11:07.116 every day after work with ten fifteen cousins, family friends 0:11:07.196 --> 0:11:11.796 all around the country being their their tutor. And the 0:11:11.876 --> 0:11:14.876 first con Academy a lot of folks associated with videos, 0:11:14.916 --> 0:11:17.036 but it had nothing to do with videos. I saw 0:11:17.116 --> 0:11:20.196 that a lot of my cousins were having trouble, not 0:11:20.276 --> 0:11:22.196 because the subject matter was hard or not because they 0:11:22.196 --> 0:11:24.836 weren't bright. It's because they had gaps. And I wanted 0:11:24.876 --> 0:11:27.036 them to be able to practice and remediate and fill 0:11:27.076 --> 0:11:29.156 in those gaps. And so I started writing software for 0:11:29.196 --> 0:11:31.356 them so that they could get as much practice as 0:11:31.356 --> 0:11:33.356 they need and get feedback on what they got wrong 0:11:33.436 --> 0:11:35.636 or right. I started making tools so that I, is 0:11:35.676 --> 0:11:37.876 their tutor, could see what they were up to, and 0:11:37.956 --> 0:11:40.156 I could assign things. And I just put it on 0:11:40.196 --> 0:11:42.316 a website, and I needed to get a domain name, 0:11:42.356 --> 0:11:44.076 and the only one I could find was con Academy. 0:11:44.276 --> 0:11:47.156 And it was a little bit of a joke, but 0:11:47.156 --> 0:11:48.956 but I liked the way it sounded it, you know, 0:11:49.076 --> 0:11:50.516 it made it sound like it was more than a 0:11:50.756 --> 0:11:53.156 family tutoring project. And in the back of my mind, 0:11:53.196 --> 0:11:56.676 I did I did start to dream that, hey, now 0:11:56.716 --> 0:11:59.356 that I'm writing software, software can scale to a lot 0:11:59.396 --> 0:12:02.596 of folks. And I saw that it was helping my family. 0:12:02.636 --> 0:12:05.476 And I was showing off this software to a friend 0:12:05.516 --> 0:12:07.996 at a dinner party in November two thousand and six, 0:12:08.396 --> 0:12:10.676 and his name's Zulfakar runs on I have to give 0:12:10.716 --> 0:12:13.436 him full credit. And he said, well, this is all cool, 0:12:13.476 --> 0:12:16.116 sal but how are you scaling up your actual lessons? 0:12:16.476 --> 0:12:17.956 And I said, you know, Zuli, it's hard to do 0:12:18.036 --> 0:12:20.156 with fifteen cousins what I was originally just doing what 0:12:20.316 --> 0:12:22.996 Nadia or Nadia and her brothers. And he says, well, 0:12:22.996 --> 0:12:25.636 I have an idea. You could record them as videos 0:12:25.916 --> 0:12:28.556 and upload them onto YouTube for your family. And my 0:12:28.996 --> 0:12:34.036 initial reaction was, no, that's a horrible idea. YouTube is 0:12:34.876 --> 0:12:39.156 YouTube is for cats playing piano, it's not for serious mathematics. 0:12:39.596 --> 0:12:42.156 But I went home that that weekend, I got over 0:12:42.196 --> 0:12:45.956 the idea that it wasn't my idea, and I gave 0:12:45.996 --> 0:12:49.716 it a shot. And you know those videos they were. 0:12:49.876 --> 0:12:51.316 If you look at some of those early videos that 0:12:51.316 --> 0:12:53.756 I uploaded in November of two thousand and six, they 0:12:53.756 --> 0:12:56.676 say things like welcome to Level three equations, because Level 0:12:56.756 --> 0:12:58.836 three Equations was a little software module that I had 0:12:58.876 --> 0:13:01.796 created for my cousins. But they happen to be public, 0:13:02.116 --> 0:13:05.076 happened to be on YouTube. Soon became clear that people 0:13:05.076 --> 0:13:08.756 who are not my cousins were watching, and the viewcount 0:13:08.796 --> 0:13:12.116 started to grow, exponentially and comments started to come in, 0:13:12.476 --> 0:13:14.716 some of them pretty you know, just nice, like thank you, 0:13:14.756 --> 0:13:16.996 this really helped. But a lot of folks saying that 0:13:17.636 --> 0:13:20.996 this was the tutor that their family can't afford, that 0:13:21.356 --> 0:13:22.796 this was the way that the only way they're able 0:13:22.796 --> 0:13:24.836 to keep up with class. People in the military saying 0:13:24.836 --> 0:13:26.676 that they're able to go back to college or study 0:13:26.676 --> 0:13:29.356 while they're being deployed. So it really started to dawn 0:13:29.396 --> 0:13:32.076 on me that wow, even at this early phase between 0:13:32.116 --> 0:13:34.956 the software and now the lessons that were on video, 0:13:35.516 --> 0:13:37.476 this could one day And it was me, you know, 0:13:37.516 --> 0:13:39.116 operating in a walk in closet at the time, so 0:13:39.116 --> 0:13:41.556 it was delusional, but maybe this could one day reach 0:13:41.676 --> 0:13:43.876 millions or tens of millions or billions of people. And 0:13:43.876 --> 0:13:45.396 so that's when it started to get in my mind 0:13:45.396 --> 0:13:47.036 that this could, this could be more than just a 0:13:47.036 --> 0:13:49.676 family project. So I give us some of the numbers there, 0:13:49.796 --> 0:13:53.516 what is the scale of han Academy's work right now? Well, 0:13:53.556 --> 0:13:55.596 as of you know, the last numbers I saw, we 0:13:55.676 --> 0:14:01.236 have about seventy two million registered users. Seventeen million students 0:14:01.276 --> 0:14:04.036 of all ages from around the world come every month 0:14:04.956 --> 0:14:09.236 to use the platform. About two million of those are 0:14:09.356 --> 0:14:13.716 predominantly classroom users who are using US with a teacher 0:14:13.836 --> 0:14:18.636 and are using us for several hours a week, and 0:14:18.676 --> 0:14:21.876 that's associated with efficacy claims where they're able to grow 0:14:22.196 --> 0:14:25.716 twenty thirty percent faster than their peers or they might 0:14:25.876 --> 0:14:28.916 otherwise have. And it's being used in almost every country 0:14:28.916 --> 0:14:30.836 in the world. So in some of those cases, it's 0:14:30.836 --> 0:14:33.716 reaching more than just the user that's sitting there. It's 0:14:33.996 --> 0:14:35.956 going to a group of folks trying to learn together. 0:14:36.356 --> 0:14:39.036 So the impact even it seems to reach beyond even 0:14:39.156 --> 0:14:42.236 those numbers, Is that correct. Yeah, a lot of people 0:14:42.276 --> 0:14:44.036 think of kin academy, or you might do a web 0:14:44.036 --> 0:14:46.516 search looking for a photosynthesis and you stumble on kN 0:14:46.596 --> 0:14:48.276 academy and you either watch a video and then we 0:14:48.396 --> 0:14:50.956 now have practice and you can get feedback and keep 0:14:51.036 --> 0:14:52.836 learning if you like. So there's a lot of what 0:14:52.836 --> 0:14:56.756 we call independent learners, but increasingly, in fact roughly a 0:14:56.836 --> 0:14:59.436 majority of our usage is from what we would call 0:14:59.476 --> 0:15:02.276 teacher directed users. These are where the teacher is making 0:15:02.356 --> 0:15:06.636 con Academy an integral part of the classroom, and the 0:15:06.636 --> 0:15:09.716 teacher is using a much more sophisticate version of the 0:15:09.716 --> 0:15:13.156 tools that I started making for myself as my cousin's tutor, 0:15:13.396 --> 0:15:15.236 where they can keep track of where the student saw, 0:15:15.356 --> 0:15:17.876 where students might need to be unblocked, where they might 0:15:17.916 --> 0:15:20.116 be able to do a focused intervention. Tell us some 0:15:20.196 --> 0:15:24.076 stories of people who have used han Academy and materials 0:15:24.316 --> 0:15:27.396 to move towards educational success. I remember in the early days, 0:15:27.396 --> 0:15:29.796 there was a mother that emailed me and I brought 0:15:29.836 --> 0:15:32.076 my wife over because it was such a moving story 0:15:32.116 --> 0:15:35.156 of her son's. Two sons had a learning disability, and 0:15:35.476 --> 0:15:38.316 according to this mother, kN Academy was the only way 0:15:38.316 --> 0:15:40.236 that her sons could keep up with their class. And 0:15:40.756 --> 0:15:42.756 she said because of that, her and her entire family 0:15:42.796 --> 0:15:45.756 were praying for me and my entire family, and you 0:15:45.796 --> 0:15:47.876 had to imagine, I mean, that would be powerful on 0:15:47.916 --> 0:15:50.196 any level. But you have to remember my day job. 0:15:50.196 --> 0:15:52.396 I was an analyst at a hedge fund. I was 0:15:52.436 --> 0:15:55.636 not used to people praying for me, so that was 0:15:55.756 --> 0:15:58.076 or at least in that way, you know. I used 0:15:58.116 --> 0:16:01.396 to give talks and interviews like this and talk about 0:16:01.556 --> 0:16:03.516 maybe one day it'll be used, you know, in Mongolia, 0:16:03.636 --> 0:16:07.436 just imagining the furthest remotest place on the planet. And 0:16:07.716 --> 0:16:10.276 a few months after that, I got a note from 0:16:10.276 --> 0:16:13.356 Mongolia and as an email with a YouTube link. I 0:16:13.356 --> 0:16:15.076 click on the YouTube link. It was this young girl 0:16:15.156 --> 0:16:17.996 named Zia, she was sixteen at the time, from Mongolia, 0:16:18.036 --> 0:16:20.356 and she talks about how she really enjoys Khan Academy. 0:16:20.356 --> 0:16:22.196 It's really helped her and her friends like it and 0:16:22.276 --> 0:16:24.916 things like that, and I thought it was cool someone 0:16:24.956 --> 0:16:27.956 in Mongolia is using Khan Academy. I immediately assumed that 0:16:27.996 --> 0:16:31.156 she must be middle class or upper middle class. She 0:16:31.236 --> 0:16:34.156 clearly had access to the Internet and a computer. Her 0:16:34.156 --> 0:16:36.916 English was actually quite good. And then I read the 0:16:36.916 --> 0:16:38.836 text of her email more closely, and it turns out 0:16:38.836 --> 0:16:40.636 that there was a group of engineers who worked at 0:16:40.676 --> 0:16:43.916 Cisco Systems who were using their vacation time to go 0:16:43.996 --> 0:16:47.556 to Mongolia and set up computer labs and orphanages, and 0:16:47.916 --> 0:16:51.276 Zia was one of those orphans. And so that kind 0:16:51.276 --> 0:16:53.756 of it just blew my mind. It's like, wow, this 0:16:53.836 --> 0:16:55.436 is like something I would only have expected to read 0:16:55.476 --> 0:16:57.916 in like a science fiction book. And what's even cooler 0:16:58.276 --> 0:17:00.276 is that Zia, a few years after that, after she 0:17:00.356 --> 0:17:02.756 graduated from high school, became one of the top contributors 0:17:02.876 --> 0:17:06.316 to Kin Academy in the Mongolian language. So It's this 0:17:06.476 --> 0:17:08.516 meta story of if you just let people tap into 0:17:08.556 --> 0:17:12.716 their potential a little bit, they themselves can become amplifiers, 0:17:12.836 --> 0:17:16.676 especially for their own people. You know. Another analogous story 0:17:17.396 --> 0:17:20.556 a couple of years ago, it's about, yeah, eighteen months ago. Now, 0:17:21.196 --> 0:17:25.116 I got an email from actually this girl the University 0:17:25.116 --> 0:17:27.196 of Iowa who said, you have got to know about 0:17:27.196 --> 0:17:29.676 this girl in Afghanistan. And I'm like, well, what's going on? 0:17:29.756 --> 0:17:31.716 And she's like and she told me the story of 0:17:31.756 --> 0:17:34.956 this this young woman named Sultana. At the age of twelve, 0:17:35.196 --> 0:17:39.116 the Taliban take over her town in Afghanistan, forbid all 0:17:39.116 --> 0:17:41.276 the young girls from going to school, threatened them with 0:17:41.316 --> 0:17:44.436 horrible things, you know, acid attacks, etcetera, etce. And so 0:17:44.476 --> 0:17:46.276 she doesn't go to school. So she's doing like ten 0:17:46.276 --> 0:17:49.516 hours of chores a day, taking you know, cleaning, cooking, etc. Etc. 0:17:50.396 --> 0:17:54.476 And her brother in law sees that she's really curious 0:17:54.476 --> 0:17:56.516 and really wants to learn, and it's like almost like 0:17:56.516 --> 0:17:58.756 the biggest blow to her that she can't go to school, 0:17:59.196 --> 0:18:02.036 and so he got her a computer with internet connection, 0:18:02.556 --> 0:18:05.476 and so she uses that, starting at age twelve, to 0:18:05.716 --> 0:18:08.076 first try to learn English because most of the Internet 0:18:08.116 --> 0:18:11.516 is still in English, and she actually got ahold of 0:18:11.516 --> 0:18:13.876 a Time magazine in English because she was trying to 0:18:13.876 --> 0:18:15.596 get as much material to read in English, and it 0:18:15.596 --> 0:18:18.476 happened had an article on Kon Academy in it, and 0:18:18.516 --> 0:18:20.596 so she says, this is what I need. So every 0:18:20.756 --> 0:18:23.516 waking hour when she's not doing chores, she was on 0:18:23.836 --> 0:18:27.396 kon Academy and she goes from she was actually at 0:18:27.516 --> 0:18:30.236 what we would consider a late elementary school level, and 0:18:30.876 --> 0:18:34.876 especially in math and science, all the way through middle school, 0:18:34.956 --> 0:18:38.316 high school, even more advanced topics, you know, she says. 0:18:38.316 --> 0:18:40.436 You know, her big aha was the moment that she 0:18:40.476 --> 0:18:42.436 realized that she was two grade levels ahead of her 0:18:42.436 --> 0:18:45.036 older brothers who who are still allowed to go to school. 0:18:45.476 --> 0:18:50.116 And by you know, late high school, she's doing calculus 0:18:50.156 --> 0:18:53.836 and physics and chemistry and biology and she wants to 0:18:53.876 --> 0:18:56.396 become a physicist. She's so passionate about it now and 0:18:56.476 --> 0:18:58.796 she wants to study in the US and do physics research. 0:18:59.396 --> 0:19:02.556 And this is when she meets this young woman from 0:19:02.556 --> 0:19:06.756 Iowa through some type of an online language instruction program 0:19:07.556 --> 0:19:12.156 and she learns about the SAT. Sultana smuggles herself into 0:19:12.196 --> 0:19:16.356 Pakistan to take the SAT because it's not an offered 0:19:16.436 --> 0:19:18.196 enough guys yet. So if you have any family members 0:19:18.236 --> 0:19:20.676 who are grumbling about going on a Saturday morning to 0:19:20.836 --> 0:19:24.836 take the SAT, tell them sultana story. There are people 0:19:25.076 --> 0:19:27.476 who are willing to do. She lied to her parents 0:19:27.996 --> 0:19:32.076 to go to Karachi to take the SAT, and she 0:19:32.156 --> 0:19:34.836 does shockingly well for someone who has self taught in 0:19:34.916 --> 0:19:38.476 English and learned everything she knew kind of on her own. 0:19:39.236 --> 0:19:42.716 And that's the point at which why I was why 0:19:42.396 --> 0:19:45.756 they were able to get my email address, and we're 0:19:45.796 --> 0:19:47.476 all now trying to say, how do we get Sultana 0:19:47.516 --> 0:19:49.116 to come to this country. She got into a few 0:19:49.196 --> 0:19:52.316 universities out here, but if you're a foreign student, it's 0:19:52.356 --> 0:19:54.676 pretty you know, before you even get a student visa, 0:19:54.716 --> 0:19:55.836 you have to show that you have a one hundred 0:19:55.836 --> 0:19:57.916 thousand dollars in the bank, etcetera. She did not have 0:19:57.956 --> 0:20:00.396 one hundred thousand dollars in the bank. No, we're close 0:20:00.436 --> 0:20:03.356 to it, and so we kept trying to call people, etcetera. 0:20:03.356 --> 0:20:06.556 Et Luckily, Nicholas Kristoff of the New York Times caught wind. 0:20:06.556 --> 0:20:08.676 I actually don't know how, and he wrote an op 0:20:08.836 --> 0:20:12.196 ed out her titled Meet Sultana, the Taliban's Worst fear 0:20:12.196 --> 0:20:14.156 and if people do a Google search, they can find it, 0:20:14.476 --> 0:20:17.996 and that talks about Sultana's story. And after that, she 0:20:18.076 --> 0:20:21.556 was able to get a humanitarian visa, and so she's 0:20:21.596 --> 0:20:24.796 now in the country and and and studying, and she's 0:20:24.836 --> 0:20:28.556 actually already collaborating with some Nobel Prize winning physicists. And 0:20:28.796 --> 0:20:30.796