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Book Summary and Reviews of The One World Schoolhouse by Salman Khan

The One World Schoolhouse by Salman Khan

The One World Schoolhouse

Education Reimagined

by Salman Khan

  • Critics' Consensus (2):
  • Published:
  • Oct 2012, 272 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Salman Khan, founder of the Khan Academy, has written what is destined to become one of the most influential books about education in our time.

A free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere: this is the goal of the Khan Academy, a passion project that grew from an ex-engineer and hedge funder's online tutoring sessions with his niece, who was struggling with algebra, into a worldwide phenomenon. Today millions of students, parents, and teachers use the Khan Academy's free videos and software, which have expanded to encompass nearly every conceivable subject; and Academy techniques are being employed with exciting results in a growing number of classrooms around the globe.

Like many innovators, Khan rethinks existing assumptions and imagines what education could be if freed from them. And his core idea - liberating teachers from lecturing and state-mandated calendars and opening up class time for truly human interaction - has become his life's passion. Schools seek his advice about connecting to students in a digital age, and people of all ages and backgrounds flock to the site to utilize this fresh approach to learning.

In The One World Schoolhouse, Khan presents his radical vision for the future of education, as well as his own remarkable story, for the first time. In these pages, you will discover, among other things:

  • How both students and teachers are being bound by a broken top-down model invented in Prussia two centuries ago

  • Why technology will make classrooms more human and teachers more important

  • How and why we can afford to pay educators the same as other professionals

  • How we can bring creativity and true human interactivity back to learning

  • Why we should be very optimistic about the future of learning

Parents and politicians routinely bemoan the state of our education system. Statistics suggest we've fallen behind the rest of the world in literacy, math, and sciences. With a shrewd reading of history, Khan explains how this crisis presented itself, and why a return to "mastery learning," abandoned in the twentieth century and ingeniously revived by tools like the Khan Academy, could offer the best opportunity to level the playing field, and to give all of our children a world-class education now.

More than just a solution, The One World Schoolhouse serves as a call for free, universal, global education, and an explanation of how Khan's simple yet revolutionary thinking can help achieve this inspiring goal.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Key reading: Khan was just named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World." - Library Journal

"A fresh, welcome approach to education." - Kirkus Reviews

"Sal Khan's project - the Khan academy - has revolutionized our thinking on the potential and promise of unfettered, open-access online education." - Al Gore

"The way Khan portrays the concept of education and the mechanism of learning is revolutionary. This book is a must-read for those providing real education to our children in this new age of technology." - Muhammed Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank, and the 2006 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

"Sal Khan's passion and innovation is transforming learning for millions of students worldwide. The One World School is a must-read for all who are committed to improving education so students everywhere can gain the skills and knowledge to be successful in school, careers and life." - George Lucas, Filmmaker and Founder of The George Lucas Educational Foundation, publisher of Edutopia

"I discovered Sal Khan and Khan Academy like most other people - by using these incredible tools with my own kids. Sal Khan's vision and energy for how technology could fundamentally transform education is contagious. He's a true pioneer in integrating technology and learning. I'm happy that, through this book, even more people will be introduced to this ground-breaking innovator." - Bill Gates, co-founder & Chairman, Microsoft

"The world dreams of education reform, and Sal Khan is delivering. His pioneering video lessons have brought the thrill of learning to millions. In this compelling book, he tells the remarkable story of Khan Academy, and explains the potential in students learning at their own pace and achieving true subject mastery." - Chris Anderson, TED Curator

"Sal Khan makes a powerful argument for fundamentally rethinking the way we teach and learn. The One World Schoolhouse illuminates the tremendous potential for online, universaleducation to enable any child, anywhere in the world, to succeed - not only in school, but in shaping our future." - Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google

This information about The One World Schoolhouse was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Salman Khan

Salman Khan was born and raised in Metairie, Louisiana, to immigrant parents from India and Bangladesh. Before founding the Khan Academy, he was a hedge fund analyst. He's also worked in venture capital and engineering at Oracle and several Silicon Valley start-ups. Khan holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was president of his class, and three degrees from MIT.

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