Great Resource for Every Student

Today at the National Association of College Admission Counselors Conference, the creator of Khan Academy, Sal Khan was the keynote speaker. He shared his story and his mission to make education a free right to every student. For centuries education was only available to those who could afford it, but in modern western society, public education has opened up a precious commodity to all students who want it.  Even with this, statistics clearly demonstrate that the best predictor of student success is parental income. This is not right. Sal Khan aims to take this factor out of the equation of student learning with www.khanacademy.org.

So, what does this resource mean to you and your student?

Do you feel that there are holes in content knowledge that have made a shaky foundation that is holding your student back in a class? Is this contributing to a lower grade in that class, which could ultimately lead to a HOPE GPA that is below the "money-level"? Are you at a loss as to how you will ever be able to help your student get caught up? Tutoring is always a great option, but it can be expensive if you have a private tutor.  Working with a teacher after school is good option, but your student will most likely have to share the attention of the teacher who is working with all of the students who may have different needs than your student. A peer tutor can be hit or miss sometimes because students are the busiest people on earth!

In this day and time, we are very fortunate to have a great solution. Khan Academy is the perfect solution.  Khan Academy's mission is to provide a free, world-class education. It is a video-based educational platform where teachers teach engaging lessons in any subject imaginable broken down into very specific tasks. It is designed to diagnose areas of weakness, to teach the skills that are weak, and to practice those skills until mastery is achieved.  If your student comes home and states that he can't learn from his teacher, Khan Academy is what you should put in front of your student to reduce this concern from growing into an excuse.

A good scenario where Khan Academy can help a student is one that is played out in high schools across America- high school math student in support situation and simply not doing well in his or her class because he or she never mastered fractions, for example.  The teacher does not have the time to stop and revisit material from four or five years ago. Khan Academy can diagnose this and work on those skills so that this will not be a hindrance to the student any more. As a parent, this is a game-changer where you have a toolbox of the strongest teaching tools to help your student, even though you may not feel that you can download diagnose the problems. Khan Academy diagnoses, corrects and practices the skill.  Before a student should ever deem himself "genetically incapable of being a good math student," this teaching tool needs to be used.

Khan Academy is free. It is engaging. It is intuitive. It is progressive as skills are mastered in any subject in which a student is struggling. It teaches ever subject imaginable- Spanish, quantum physics, Test prep, economics, so much more. In fact, this can be a great resource for you as an adult learner to be taught computer programming, for example. It can be a fantastic assignment for a parent to give when a student needs some extra help.  It can be a great resource for a parent to assign for the student who has a failing grade, but comes home each night and says that she doesn't have any homework for that class. 

The website is www.khanacademy.org. This resource eliminates many excuses for a student to not learn. It levels the playing field for every student. The only thing that will cost the student is time. It is your education, and Khan Academy can be a door that opens when other doors close.