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- Hi, everyone, Sal here, I
was enjoying the view outside,
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when you caught me.
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Welcome to today's Homeroom Live Stream.
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Today, we're going to have
a, just an ask me anything.
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So if you already have some questions,
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feel free to put them into
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the message boards on
Facebook and YouTube.
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And we have team members who
will surface questions to me
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and feel free to ask
literally about anything.
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But before we jump into that,
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I will make my standard announcements
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or reminder that Khan Academy
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is a not-for-profit organization.
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We can only exist through
philanthropic donations.
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So if you're in a position to do so,
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please think about going
to khanacademy.org/donate
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and make a donation.
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I also want to give a special shout out
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to several organizations
that have helped Khan Academy
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over the years, but
especially through COVID,
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you can imagine we were already
running a deficit pre COVID,
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and that deficit only accelerated
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as our server costs went up.
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We wanted to accelerate a
whole series of programs
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and content so special,
thanks to Bank of America,
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Google.org, AT&T, Fastly, Novartis,
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and many others for helping us close some
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of that gap during this
hard time for the world.
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But especially COVID is
we've tried to support folks,
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but we still have a gap.
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So anything you can do to
support us would be very,
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very much appreciated.
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So with that,
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I am eager to take all of your questions
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about literally anything,
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so we're waiting for some
of the questions to come in.
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Sometimes, you know, I
have to get more used
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to just being comfortable with silence.
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So maybe I should just be
silent for a little bit
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while we wait for some,
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while we wait for some questions.
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So let's see, I could go to the previous,
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ask me thing and find
some of the questions
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that we have from there.
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Let me see if I scroll
back to the previous AMA.
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Okay, so from YouTube
Mananawar Aurora is asking,
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hello Sal, I have a question for you.
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Do you have distractions
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or simply can we manage distractions?
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No, I have no distractions.
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I'm always laser focused on
exactly what I need to do.
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No, I have, I have plenty of distractions.
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I would say for me, the things
that I find myself doing,
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when I'm procrastinating
is, well, you know,
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I would say there's good distractions
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and maybe less good distractions.
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The good distractions are, I like to read.
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And so I'm doing a lot of reading.
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I'm actually just started
on Viktor Frankl's,
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Man's Search for Meaning,
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some really profound quotes in here
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that I've always heard about.
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So I thought I would read the actual book.
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So that I would categorize
as a good distraction.
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It's the type of
distraction that you need so
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that it expands your mind.
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You're not just always
laser focused on school
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or on work and you can
kind of think more broadly.
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I, you know,
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I am guilty of watching a
little bit more TV sometimes
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than I should,
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but even there there's
some good distractions
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and not so good distraction.
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So anyway, there's that
I try to avoid things
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like social media and text messages
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and that I'm very utilitarian
about those things.
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I use social media,
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some of y'all might've noticed primarily
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that just kind of get word out
on things that are going on
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at Khan Academy or things
that folks should know about.
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And I'm infamously bad at
responding to text messages
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from friends and family,
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because I find that phones
pull you in and make you
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and distract you from your life.
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So, yeah, so those are,
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so I would say generally speaking though,
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I do pride myself on being a pretty,
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pretty good at not being
distracted by distractions.
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One of the things that
really helps is meditation,
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which I've talked about
before, which is, you know,
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oftentimes your biggest
distraction is your own mind.
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You're we all have these
little parts that are surfacing
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from our subconscious
reminding us to think about
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that or worry about that,
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or worry about the future or
regret something in the past.
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And you need that every now and then,
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but every now and then you
need a break from all of it
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and you just need to be
in the present moment,
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let your mind still, and just
kind of sit in your awareness.
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And when you do that, I
actually think it makes your,
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your brain better at not
being distracted in general.
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Cause if you can't get
distracted by your own brain,
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it's going to be a lot more
difficult to be distracted by,
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by other things.
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So from YouTube Humble Harry says,
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what is the next revolution
in education after YouTube?
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Well, Humble Harry, give YouTube credit.
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YouTube has created
something over evolution.
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You know, the other day I had
to fix a sink in our bathroom
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and I was able to go to
YouTube and figure out how
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to do it by myself, with
the tools we had at home
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versus having to hire
an expensive plumber.
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And obviously there's many other things
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you can learn on YouTube.
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A lot of our videos from
Khan Academy are there,
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but you know, one thing
I always point out is
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Khan Academy is much, much
more than the YouTube videos.
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That's really, you know,
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even when I first made
them for my cousins,
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that was meant to just be a
supplement for the exercise and
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the feedback of doing problems.
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And so the real part of the
learning process is that ability
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to work at your own time
and pace and do exercises
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and get immediate feedback.
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And if you have a teacher
who can support you for them
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to know where you are, so
when you get to the classroom,
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they can dig a little bit
deeper in and unstick you.
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So I'd like to believe
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that personalization and
mastery learning, which is,
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which are things that Khan
Academy's very focused on
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are really hopefully
helping bringing out a world
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where everyone has access
to their potential,
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whether you know, early
learner on Khan Academy kids
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or whether you're on kind
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of the main Khan Academy for, you know,
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that goes all the way
through early college.
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I think other revolutions in education,
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I've talked about some of them, you know,
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I have a separate project, it
is not a Khan Academy project.
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It is a separate non-for-profit
called schoolhouse.world
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to pair students who
need help with tutoring,
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with volunteer, vetted tutors were willing
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to run group tutoring sessions.
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So encourage folks to go
there if they're interested
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in either being a tutor
or a student or both,
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but related to that,
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we're also thinking about ways
to certify your knowledge.
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Are there ways that let's
say you go on Khan Academy
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and you're able to record yourself getting
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90% plus on a unit test
or a course challenge,
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are there are ways to use
community to validate that?
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And then maybe use that for
things like college admissions,
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you know, really moving towards
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what you could call a
competency based system.
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So that's another thing that I'm working
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on a little bit outside
of Khan Academy right now,
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but I think that could be
a pretty valuable thing
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for the world over time.
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So, you know, these general
ideas, personalization,
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mastery learning, education
not being bound by time
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or space, and then ways
to prove ways to get help
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from a community wherever you are.
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And then also ways to prove what you know,
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so that it can get you opportunities
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like hire know college admissions or a job
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or apprenticeship.
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And so, you know, stay tuned,
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especially on the schoolhouse.world site
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over the next couple of weeks,
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you might hear something about
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that around college admissions.
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Let's see other questions.
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So from YouTube, Susanna Garcia Dumangas
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who I feel like I know even
though we've never met,
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but she always asks great questions.
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Hey Sal, you mentioned
that you went camping.
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Can you share a little bit of that trip?
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Well, I wish I had kind of
made a slideshow at a time.
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I could have shared that,
but yeah, it was my family.
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We went to Yosemite and you know,
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the it's called Half Dome Village, now.
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It used to be called Curry Village,
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but we, you know,
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we book it, you have to book
it like a year in advance
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and we were unsure whether
we should go because of COVID
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and whether it would be COVID
safe, but we went, you know,
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we had a little tent cabin, it
was pretty, you know, basic,
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but it was a great time and,
you know, knock on wood,
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you know, it all felt pretty safe.
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And I think it turned out safe.
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This was about a month ago,
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but yeah, it was, I
can't highly, you know,
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I'm probably ruining my own ability to go
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to Yosemite when it might
be a little bit more quiet,
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but I can't highly,
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I can't recommend Yosemite enough.
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It is really just one of
those places where you go
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and it's both intimate
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because you're surrounded
by these huge kind of cliff,
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like formations that were
formed by ancient glaciers.
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So it feels kind of intimate,
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but the scale of things
are also just massive.
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So yeah, we did a little
bit of everything, you know,
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my wife and I actually,
when we were engaged,
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we went and this was 18 years ago.
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We did Half Dome when we
were younger and more and,
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and maybe more foolish cause it,
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I remember I did it on
brand new hiking boots
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that hadn't broken in, so my
feet hurt for several days.
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But this time with the
kids, we just, you know,
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we didn't go all the way up to Half Dome.
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We just kinda went up kind
of that four mile loop there.
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Then we went to Glacier Point, we,
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and then we rented
bicycles and we, you know,
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in hindsight I should
have brought bicycles.
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I have a bike rack, but
we rented them there.
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It's actually a very nice
place to bike around in
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and weighed in the rivers.
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So yeah, it's unfortunate right now.
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I think they just had to close it down
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because of the fire South of it.
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So Yosemite the air is
as far as I can tell.
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Very not so good right now,
but yeah, beautiful place.
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So from Facebook, Neyha Dayal says,
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thanks for bringing in this
wonderful platform for kids.
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I'm finding it hard to
have a defined curriculum
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for both my kids while homeschooling them,
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eight and six years old, any pointers?
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Well Neyha for your six year old,
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well, your six year olds
probably at the upper end
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of Khan Academy kids.
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So for any student who is kind
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of just getting their basic literacy,
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their basic numeracy or earlier,
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I think Khan Academy kids is great.
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And the Khan Academy kids team,
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I hope is going to be able
to move into first grade.
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Well, they already have
first grade standard.
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So if you're a six year old
is working on first grade
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standards, I highly
recommend Khan Academy kids.
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It covers reading, writing, math, social,
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emotional learning.
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So all of the major common
core standards you need.
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But if your child is a little
bit more precocious getting
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into second or third grade
standards, especially in math,
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I highly recommend, you know, doing 20,
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30 minutes a day on Khan Academy,
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if your six year olds a
little precocious, second,
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third grade, if you know, they're,
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they're still kind of getting over some of
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the motor skills of using
a keyboard or mouse,
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you can sit with them
and help them through it,
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but let them kind of think through
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and struggle through
the problems their own.
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An eight year old, same
thing, get them on.
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You can get them on third
grade or fourth grade,
-
depending on their level.
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If you're not sure
about their foundations,
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you can use our get ready
for grade level courses so
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that you can understand where they are
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and fill in the gaps as necessary.
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And if on math that
they're able to put in,
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I would argue 30 minutes a day, engaged,
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if you're sitting next to them,
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it sounds like you're homeschooling them.
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I have a lot of confidence
that they're going
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to progress a lot in mathematics
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and reading there's a
lot of tools out there.
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Khan Academy has some English
and language arts reading,
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comprehension things.
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There's other tools,
Lexia, Raz-Kids, Newsela.
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But a lot of it is if you
just find kind of Lexile,
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Lexile level appropriate
reading for your children
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and have them read it,
discuss it over lunch,
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even that can be a big
deal on the writing.
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Do some journaling, having a
writing project of the week,
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maybe a blog that you share with friends
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and family on social media.
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I think that could be really
motivating for your kids.
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One thing that I've, I really liked,
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let me see if I have the books here.
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There's a curriculum.
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I thought I had some
of the books over here.
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It's by E.D Hirsch.
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And you know,
-
it's like all things in
education is probably more
-
controversial than it should be.
-
E.D Hirsch is a little bit,
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I guess you could call a
traditionalist, you know,
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a big believer that you do
need the intuition for things,
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but you also need a lot
of content knowledge.
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And, you know, I think he makes,
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I think a very compelling argument
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that our education system, you know,
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traditional education system,
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Victorian Era Education was
all about memorizing facts
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and probably not enough
about connecting the facts,
-
and building an intuition and,
-
and making things and having creativity.
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But sometimes, you know,
-
the pendulum might have swung too far
-
where the kids aren't getting
enough content knowledge.
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And so I'm a big fan
-
of E.D Hirsch's core knowledge curriculum.
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You can get those books, you know,
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there's like what,
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every fourth grader needs to know,
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what every fifth grader needs to know,
-
what every sixth grader needs to know.
-
And I actually think
you'll enjoy reading them
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because they are kind of the essentials
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of what you need to know.
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But I think you're going
to find that there's stuff
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that even as an adult, you're like, yeah,
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I should have known that in
fifth grade, but I didn't.
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So I'm a big fan of that as well.
-
If I were doing a home
schooling curriculum,
-
I would use some
combination of Khan Academy,
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E.D Hirsch's, A Core Knowledge Curriculum
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and then supplement with
other enriching things
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that I find maybe some other tools.
-
So from Facebook, Sumith chatter G says,
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what suggestions you have
for youngsters about money.
-
So this is something that I
have a strong opinion about
-
because I see so many folks, frankly,
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make bad decisions around money.
-
I would say that the two biggest
levers you have, you know,
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people are, you are led to believe
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that there's all these secrets
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and there are these get
rich, you know, get rich,
-
quick schemes or that, you know,
-
people got wealthy by somehow
cutting corners on their taxes
-
or having incredible
lawyers or tax accountants.
-
And there's these loopholes.
-
That's not really what really allows folks
-
to do okay financially.
-
What really is, you know,
-
your career is going to
make a big difference,
-
and being able to be kind
of gainfully employed.
-
And then the next one is
living below your means.
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If you do those two things,
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you're going to be fine financially.
-
And you know, the career
one I'll highlight
-
because I know folks who, you know,
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they'll get an education,
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but they get a little bit, I would say,
-
precious about what
they want to do in life.
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And that you should be,
-
you should think a lot about
what you want to do in life.
-
But when I say precious, you know,
-
they might've gotten
a degree in something,
-
but they're like, oh,
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I'm not going to apply for a
job until it's the perfect job.
-
And I do sometimes get afraid
that it's not of a fear
-
of rejection, but you know,
-
you really have to put yourself out there
-
and be willing to embrace
that people are going
-
to reject you as part
of a job search process.
-
And then once you're in a job, you know,
-
sometimes the jobs,
-
especially at the early phases
or even at the later phases,
-
aren't always ideal.
-
And you know,
-
there's things about it
that will frustrate you.
-
There will be days that
your manager says tells you
-
something that you don't like,
-
there's parts of your job that
you're not going to enjoy.
-
And if it's miserable, you should,
-
you should think about making a change.
-
But if it's, but you know, those,
-
those aspects of work that
feel a little bit difficult,
-
that feel a little bit frustrating,
-
that you're a little impatient to,
-
with those are the ones
-
that are actually really growing you.
-
And, you know, as long
as you have a manager,
-
that for the most part is a good person,
-
but every now and then my kid
might annoy you a little bit,
-
that also will grow, you, grow you.
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If they, you know,
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sometimes they're growing
you in a positive way.
-
And sometimes you're
having to sort with, okay,
-
that feedback, they give me
how much of that is real,
-
how much of that is in
their head or whatever.
-
But these are the types of struggles
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that really make you grow.
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But from a financial point of view,
-
if you're not working,
you're really, you know,
-
the opportunity cost
is really, really high.
-
I remember when I, you
know, was leaving college,
-
I was blown away by a friends
of mine that said, oh, well,
-
you know, I've worked so hard, four years.
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I'm gonna take three months off.
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And for me,
-
I looked at the opportunity
costs of those three months.
-
I was like, wait, that's
going to be like many,
-
many thousands of dollars.
-
And I had a lot of debt and, you know, we,
-
I didn't have a lot of money growing up.
-
So I was like, that's not acceptable.
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So I remember I graduated on a Saturday
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and then I started work on a Monday
-
and I don't think I've
allowed myself to, you know,
-
I've taken vacations,
-
but I haven't kind of taken
breaks from work since then.
-
So anyway, that's my two cents.
-
You might have other
viewpoints there, but I've,
-
I've always been pretty
conservative when it came to money,
-
is that, you know, be employed
in some way, shape or form,
-
if it's not the perfect job,
-
stick with it until you find another job,
-
I've never been a subscriber of, you know,
-
quit a job just cause you don't like it
-
and then try to find another job later.
-
And I'll tell you a secret,
employers, you know,
-
sometimes if you have gaps
in your resume, they'll say,
-
okay, was that a gap they
were just taking a break
-
or was that, you know, they'll
try to read into things.
-
So it'll also help you if you don't,
-
the more that you can avoid
those gaps the possible.
-
And then the other thing is just really,
-
really live below your means,
you know, budget things out,
-
if you can, but I'll tell
you if you really live below
-
your means even like
getting a detailed budget,
-
isn't as important
because you're just going
-
to naturally save money.
-
That's the money is going to
be helpful for a rainy day,
-
helpful to save up for a
house, pay off your debt.
-
And if heaven forbid you get,
you know, you lose your job,
-
you get laid off, you have
a emergency and you know,
-
then you have a cushion to rely on.
-
You know, Khan Academy at some point,
-
I did have to quit my day job
-
to work on Khan Academy full time.
-
But it was because I, you know,
-
we had lived below our means
for many, many, many years.
-
And we had been able
to save up enough money
-
that it was going to be a
down payment on a house,
-
but it also allowed us to live
off of that a little bit as
-
I've tried to get Khan
Academy off the ground.
-
So that living below your
means can also make you
-
a much more resilient entrepreneur,
-
whether you want to be a for profit
-
or not-for-profit you kind of in your mid,
-
mid or later career.
-
So from YouTube, ZF says, hello,
-
I'm a seventh grader
that struggles on math.
-
Are there any crucial things
you need to know when solving
-
math problems and making the
most out of math class time?
-
Well, Z what I would recommend
if you're a seventh grader
-
who struggles in math go to Khan Academy,
-
I would start with the get
ready for seventh grade course.
-
And I would take the course
challenge of the get ready
-
for seventh grade course.
-
And if you're struggling
in seventh grade math,
-
I suspect that's because
you have gaps from
-
before seventh grade.
-
And when you take that course
challenge in the get ready
-
for seventh grade course,
-
it's gonna sample a lot
of the prerequisite skills
-
for seventh grade.
-
And so the things, the units,
the skills that you get wrong,
-
go back to those units and
try to get mastery in those.
-
If you can spend 20,
-
30 minutes a day above and
beyond your schoolwork,
-
I know it's extra work, but
trust me, it will pay off.
-
If you can spend 20, 30 minutes a day,
-
maybe four or five days
a week, doing that,
-
working at your own time and pace,
-
trying to at least get
familiar or proficient,
-
ideally mastery in
everything on the get ready
-
for seventh grade course.
-
And then once you're about 80
or 90% mastered on that move
-
on to the seventh grade course
and just keep working at,
-
you know, 20, 30 minutes a day.
-
I strongly believe that you in
a matter of months are going
-
to become much more confident in math
-
and not only build strong foundations
-
eventually catch up to your class.
-
But I would guess that you're
probably going to get ahead
-
of your class and the reason
why I'm so confident here
-
as I've seen this over and over again,
-
my first cousin that I was tutoring Nadia,
-
she was your age when I
started tutoring her in 2004,
-
she was 12 years old.
-
She was a seventh grader
and she didn't think
-
that she was a good in math.
-
And there was no Khan Academy at the time.
-
You know, just me as her
cousin was, was what,
-
all that was all that
existed of Khan Academy.
-
But I worked with her 20 minutes every day
-
for her to get that help.
-
Yeah, that's the thing I would recommend.
-
Another thing, you know, I
talked about schoolhouse.world.
-
Feel free to go there.
-
We're accepting kind of
these registration process.
-
If you want to be to
participate in group tutoring,
-
that's a project outside of Khan Academy.
-
But look for that for some extra tutoring,
-
if you're interested.
-
So let's see Nischala from Facebook,
-
how to help kids not make
silly mistakes in subjects
-
they understand well.
-
This is a good question.
-
You know, I think, you know,
-
it's easy sometimes to get over confident.
-
I was definitely one of those
kids that somehow wanted
-
to go through my math test really fast.
-
And then I would be like upset
when I got a question wrong
-
because I made a careless error or,
-
or I didn't read the prompt correctly.
-
You know, that's a skill of just being,
-
having an attention to detail.
-
And so, you know,
-
I think the best way to not
make silly mistakes is to keep,
-
take, getting practice with things
-
and that when you miss things,
-
because you made a silly mistake,
-
that's a good part where
your brain says, ah, brain,
-
we've got to stop doing that.
-
We got to start reading the
question prompt a little bit
-
better, or we got to not rush
the question and make sure,
-
and maybe check our work a little bit.
-
Cause it's a very,
-
very valuable skill in life, generally.
-
Obviously if one day
you're designing a bridge
-
or you're operating on someone,
-
even if you know what you're doing,
-
if you're rushing through it,
-
or if you didn't read
the directions properly
-
or if you didn't do the
analysis exactly right,
-
it could be a disaster.
-
So it's an important skill,
-
but you know, that's what
Khan Academy's there for.
-
Cause you're going to get as much practice
-
and feedback as necessary.
-
You know, I've,
-
I sometimes watch my own
kids on Khan Academy.
-
You know, they know the
material on that third question,
-
they get it wrong.
-
It's like, oh, that was
just a careless mistake.
-
I was just like, yeah, it
was a careless mistake.
-
So you have to learn to be
more careful, which is a,
-
which isn't, which is a skill above
-
and beyond the academics as well.
-
From Facebook Resh Mahaidha asks,
-
our college is going to be obsolete.
-
What about ingenuity, ethics and morals
-
taught at legendary
institution or institutes?
-
I don't think college
is going to be obsolete.
-
I think there,
-
I think some form of
college will always exist.
-
I think college is going to
adapt and I think there's going
-
to be alternative paths, you know,
-
right now the narrative
is you pretty much have
-
to go to college in order to have a,
-
a decent shot at a middle class
-
or an upper middle class lifestyle.
-
And that is for the
most part true, I think.
-
But we're also seeing that
the cost of college is so high
-
that people are going and
getting a lot of debt.
-
Sometimes they don't graduate
-
because they might've not
had strong foundations
-
going into it or they do graduate
-
and they're underemployed or they're not,
-
they're having trouble getting
a job for various reasons.
-
You know, they major in, you know,
-
some degree and they thought,
hey, I can, you know, it's,
-
I can become a whatever doing that.
-
But then realizing that the job markets
-
maybe a little bit more
difficult than expected.
-
And so I think all of that says,
-
are there other paths that could be,
-
maybe it doesn't even have
to be instead of college,
-
it could be on top of college.
-
You know, you went to college,
you didn't get the skills,
-
you need to get a job.
-
There could be another path
where you can get those skills
-
and then get an apprenticeship, get a job.
-
Hopefully those paths are
lot cheaper than college.
-
And for some folks,
-
they might just go
straight into those paths
-
and say, look, given
the opportunity costs,
-
given the constraints in my life.
-
It's just really important
for me to get that,
-
that gainful employment
sooner, sooner than later,
-
I also think colleges are
going to adapt, you know,
-
right now colleges,
-
whether it's two years
of community college,
-
associate's degree or four
years in a regular college,
-
you know, they've kind of just
been engineered around, okay,
-
let's keep people here for four years
-
and then fill it up with
things, some of which is useful.
-
Some of which is not.
-
I'd like to believe that
colleges will unpack
-
that a little bit.
-
That things will be a
little bit more unbundled
-
that employers won't just say,
-
do you have a bachelor's degree?
-
They will say, what are
the skills you developed?
-
And they might not even care as much,
-
whether you spent four years or two years
-
or got kind of the Meta-diploma.
-
They care more, whether you
built the skills that you need.
-
And those don't have to
all be quote hard skills.
-
A lot of what happens in
college is a socialization
-
being part of a community,
-
having peers around that push you.
-
And I try to think that's
the part of college
-
that it will be the
hardest to replace with,
-
you know, I guess you could
say just pure technology.
-
I think technology in conjunction
-
with a really good community
and peers can, you know,
-
might be a really good
model for some folks.
-
And I think some colleges
are already thinking
-
about blending in that way.
-
So, The Friendtastic from YouTube,
-
when is AP computer science
A coming on Khan Academy?
-
So we do have AP principles,
-
Computer Science
Principles on Khan Academy.
-
So that already exists, but the, you know,
-
the computer science and
I always forget the A,
-
the B on the terminology,
we don't have those yet.
-
You know, I hope in the future,
-
that is something that we
might be able to address,
-
but unfortunately it's not
currently on the roadmap.
-
So let's see other questions,
-
from Facebook Bernie Killingsworth.
-
How do you fit all that
knowledge in your brain?
-
Because you seem to know
about just about any,
-
and every topic.
-
Well, you know, Bernie,
-
I'm glad that I was able
to project that impression.
-
And what I would say is I
actually think most people's
-
brains are capable of, I mean,
-
the brain is this incredible instrument
-
that we don't understand.
-
I mean, we're really,
-
if you really think about
it, your sententiousness,
-
your consciousness, you know,
-
that part that you're
aware of is sitting on top
-
of or within, however you
want to conceptualize it.
-
This incredibly sophisticated
tool called your brain.
-
And I've over time learned
to actually not view
-
my brain and my subconscious as me.
-
I've started to view it as my helper.
-
And so, you know, even when I
have a hard problem, I don't,
-
I don't hit my head against the wall.
-
I don't get frustrated if
I don't have a solution
-
immediately, or if I'm having
trouble learning something,
-
I just try to think about it a little bit.
-
And then I say,
-
okay, I'm gonna delegate
this to you brain.
-
And then I do tend to find
in, you know, 48 hours,
-
it just kind of says, okay, here's a memo,
-
here's the solution, have
you thought about this?
-
I'm like good job brain,
you know, pat on the back,
-
you know, I don't know how
to treat my brain just yet.
-
You know, here's a little, you know,
-
Scooby snack for you, but it works.
-
You know, I found that
sometimes we've all had
-
the experience where you have
trouble remembering a name or,
-
you know, who sang that song or some fact,
-
instead of getting
frustrated about it now,
-
I just say, you know
what, brain, you know,
-
you have to figure it out,
-
go into the deep archives, you know,
-
get it to me within the next hour or so.
-
And that your brain
actually does tend to do
-
that type of thing.
-
And we all know folks who, you know,
-
you might not view as
kind of the jeopardy,
-
the jeopardy champion or the,
you know, the academic person,
-
but they know all sorts of facts about
-
whatever it's video games or pop culture,
-
or they memorize a song
lyrics or whatever it is.
-
So our brain can store a
lot, a lot of information,
-
not just information, but
connections and intuition,
-
which is really, I think how
the brain processes things,
-
I think even facts exists
because of connections
-
that it's able to draw with other,
-
with other facts or other knowledge,
-
however it's represented.
-
So what I would say is, you know,
-
keep giving your brain practice
and delegate to your brain,
-
challenge your brain.
-
And then I think you'll see
and actually get enough sleep.
-
And I think you'll see
that your brain actually,
-
as you know, as your friend
can do a lot of this a lot,
-
a lot more than you suspect.
-
Yeah, that's the best I can.
-
And, you know, I,
-
and you would also be surprised
-
if you're just a curious person
-
and you're always just looking, you know,
-
reading and looking up
and looking at geography
-
and listening, you know,
watching documentaries,
-
you'd be surprised how many
interesting facts will all
-
of a sudden surface from
your brain at various times.
-
And, you know,
-
I've had the extra luxury of
have been able to being able
-
to make a lot of content
that obviously I was exposed
-
to for most part in school,
-
but now I get to revisit at
a deeper level and, you know,
-
just that exercise also,
-
I think draws a lot more connections
-
and makes it a lot more easy,
-
easy to surface when I need it.
-
So let's see, yeah, maybe one, one or,
-
one or two, so SmartBear wants me
-
to make more meditation videos.
-
I should do that, I should do that less.
-
So I consider that done SmartBear.
-
I will make more meditation videos.
-
From YouTube, Rahath Ali says,
-
how do you keep yourself motivated
-
and stop yourself from procrastinating?
-
So I procrastinate like
everyone else, you know,
-
I am guilty of reading
articles on Quora on how
-
to escape from bear attacks.
-
My Quora feed seems to give
me a lot of information on how
-
to escape animal attacks.
-
And I think because I click on them,
-
it's giving me more
information on how to escape
-
from animal interactions
or, you know, you know,
-
animal battles that might
not have been possible,
-
but in someone's imagination Quora,
-
I do tend to click on that.
-
So those are, that's kind of one of my,
-
maybe not so good distractions,
-
but there's some
interesting facts I learned
-
from there as well.
-
But you know, the way that I
avoid procrastinating is I try,
-
you know, every day I have,
-
I have a list of things that I need to do,
-
and some of them are more
blurry and, you know,
-
my brain might say, oh, I
don't want to get started.
-
Cause I don't know how hard it's going
-
to be while some of them
are a little bit easier,
-
like making my bed or going
for a run or meditating or,
-
you know, just getting ready.
-
And I find that if I,
-
if I'm pretty good at getting
some of the low hanging fruit,
-
I make my bed, I go for
my run, I do this or that.
-
Then I kind of build a momentum,
I start proceeding myself.
-
And that day is like, this is a good day.
-
This is a productive day.
-
So don't be afraid of diving into that.
-
You know, that thing
that you have to write
-
that you aren't sure how hard
it's going to be or that one,
-
you know, you know.
-
Digging into that one
domain that you would need
-
to make a video on that you, at first,
-
you don't fully understand
what you should, jump into it,
-
it's gonna be fun and I
find that most, you know,
-
building that momentum and
then just keeping moving
-
and just forcing yourself to
start does goes a long way
-
to stopping the procrastination
is my best advice.
-
So maybe one time for one
more question from Jean Wang,
-
Facebook, conversations about
college with my high school,
-
senior goes sour.
-
How should I talk to my
teenager about college,
-
especially during this time?
-
Well, Jean, you know,
-
take everything I have to
say with a grain of salt.
-
My kids are five, nine and 11.
-
So I haven't had that
college conversation yet.
-
I have talked about it with
cousins and other family,
-
friends who are the
same age as your child.
-
But, you know,
-
I think there's always the
advantage when you are like the,
-
the uncle or the cousin or
the family friend versus
-
when you're the parent.
-
You know, I think kids
tend to roll their eyes
-
a little bit more with parents.
-
But one thing that I
try to remind myself is,
-
you know, when you talk to
them, try not to make it about,
-
you know, what you are telling them to do.
-
It's more about that you really
see them as a human being
-
and you want to understand
what's, you know,
-
where's their mind and,
you know, listen to them,
-
listen to what they're thinking.
-
And I think the more that you,
-
and I'm not saying that
you're not, but, you know,
-
really understand, you know,
-
how are you thinking about things?
-
And if they're kind of
saying, hey, mom is like,
-
she's just trying to push me
because all of her friends,
-
kids went to college or
went to that college.
-
And you know, she's worried about
-
what they're gonna think,
-
then I think a lot of kids,
-
especially with a rebellious streak
-
might check out a little bit like, mom,
-
don't worry about it.
-
Don't worry about it, mom.
-
But if it's like, hey, mom's
actually kind of seeing me
-
for myself and realizing
that I might have, you know,
-
a different path, but you know,
-
I think deep down inside, most
kids, most people, you know,
-
I say, well, you know, okay,
-
they see me and maybe
they do have something
-
that's interesting that
I could learn from,
-
because I am actually a
little bit insecure about some
-
of these big life changes or decisions
-
that are in front of me
-
and maybe mom can help me out.
-
So that's my best advice is try
-
to keep it as Socratic as possible.
-
Kind of more on the question
asking than on the advice side.
-
Not that I'm saying that you're,
-
you're telling your child
exactly what to do, but I've,
-
I've been in experiences
where I've had someone else,
-
well-wishers say you need to do this.
-
And why aren't you thinking about that?
-
And I think all of us are our egos tend
-
to kind of fight against that.
-
It's like those force fields you see
-
in science fiction movies,
-
that if you hit it really
hard, you bounce off.
-
But if you go in slowly,
-
the force field doesn't know what to do.
-
So that's my best advice.
-
You have to really have
real conversations with them
-
and then, and then see,
and then see what surfaces,
-
another thing that I've been
toying with is, you know,
-
making videos about your advice
-
and just sharing it with your,
you know, with your family,
-
because sometimes people don't
want advice in the moment,
-
but, or they don't want to
give you the satisfaction
-
that they're taking your advice.
-
But if your advice is just sitting there
-
and they know about it,
-
everyone has their moments of insecurity.
-
And they're like, well,
-
maybe I am curious what
mom has to say about that.
-
And then it has time to
sink in and they don't have
-
to feel like they have to rebel
-
against whatever's being told.
-
So anyway, that's my pop psychology.
-
I'm completely unqualified to
give, to answer that question.
-
So anyway, thanks everyone.
-
It looks like we're all out of time.
-
Again, this is always a lot of
fun, but thanks for joining.
-
And then tomorrow we're
gonna have a Kristin Dicerbo,
-
who's Khan Academy's
Chief Learning Officer,
-
and we're gonna talk a bunch
about, as you can imagine,
-
learning, especially learning right now
-
in these very interesting and trying time.
-
So thanks everyone for
joining today's live stream.