And this whip-smart thirty-three-year-old, with three degrees from MIT and an MBA from Harvard, might just do it. The voice belongs to Salman Kahn, who wants to pulverize every last ossified notion you’ve ever had about education. And I have complete mastery of basic addition - as do 171,603 other people around the world. So let’s say I had three avocados…”īy the end of the nearly eight-minute presentation, the once-empty screen is chock full of scribbles, colors, and information. You probably didn’t even think it was a fruit even if you ate one. It’s actually the fattiest of all the fruits. “Now in case you don’t know what an avocado is, it’s actually a very delicious fruit. “How many avocados do I now have? Let’s see: one… two avocados!” And then you were to give me another avocado.” Another circle, like a face drawn by a seven-year-old.

“Well, if I have one” - the arrow draws a rudimentary circle - “let’s call that an avocado. Have I not mastered this? Why can’t I look away? “Now I think you already know how to do this but I’ll show you a way of doing this in case you don’t have this memorized or you haven’t already mastered this.”

ONE.” The arrow descends, leaving in its wake a jagged, aliased line - the hasty chicken scratch of a Microsoft Paint scribble. “Let’s say that I start with an old classic. Hopefully by the end of this presentation it will seem… basic.”Ī low-resolution arrow stutters into the frame. “I know what you’re thinking: ‘Sal, addition doesn’t seem so basic to me.’ Well, I apologize. I half expect it to offer me a menu of options: Press two for advanced suuub-traction. The voice is jaunty, conversational, ridiculously awake. I stare into the empty black frame of the YouTube video - literally a blank digital slate. “Welcome to the presentation on basic addition.” Salman Khan, Founder of the Khan Academy.

Khan academy elementary math