Curriculum Review: Khan Academy

If you have not heard of Khan Academy, you will be glad you read this review. Salman Khan is a former hedge fund analyst and a graduate of MIT and Harvard. Now he is revolutionizing education through video tutorials.

What is Khan Academy?

Salman Khan began posting math tutorials on YouTube in 2006 for his cousins. This was so successful that he decided to start Khan Academy in 2009. He has now posted over 6,500 instructional videos on a variety of subjects, most on math and science. There are math videos for kindergarten through 8th grade, followed by courses in algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, and more. The science subjects are targeted more for high school age, covering biology, chemistry, physics, and more. But Khan Academy continues to expand, now offering videos on economics, history, and even SAT prep.

The best thing about Khan Academy is that it is entirely free.

This makes Khan Academy an ideal homeschool resource (though formal schools can use it as well). Each subject has instructional videos, practice problems and quizzes, and even a guide for teachers. Most of the videos are under 10 minutes, and they are well done.  

Khan Academy really is revolutionizing education, and others are following suit in creating online educational videos (such as Ron Paul Homeschool). Such resources are making traditional brick and mortar schools obsolete, or at least less desirable. Of course, it is nice for students to still have in-person teachers to help them along the way. But such teachers can be provided in the form of parents, homeschool group leaders, or teachers at university model schools.

One Qualification

My only qualification is that Khan Academy does not teach from a Christian worldview. This means parents will need to guide and supplement the videos as needed. But seeing that Khan Academy focuses on math and science, this should not be too much of a problem. Christian parents should explain to their children how God is the foundation for math and science, and they should counter the evolutionary material taught under the biology course. Khan attempts to be neutral on the issue, but his analysis is insufficient. I would still have children learn the evolution material, but I would make sure they receive sound education in Scripture’s teachings and the errors of Darwinism.

I strongly recommend Khan Academy as a resource for homeschool parents, particularly for the math and science videos. I cannot endorse everything taught on the site, and I would probably use other resources for things like the humanities. But Khan Academy is a great resource for math and science. Watch some videos and see what you think.   

Why the abstraction of mathematics is so fundamental Watch the next lesson: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra/introduction-to-algebra/overview_hist_alg/v/descartes-and-cartesian-coordinates?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=Desc&utm_campaign=AlgebraI Missed the previous lesson? https://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra/introduction-to-algebra/overview_hist_alg/v/abstract-ness?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=Desc&utm_campaign=AlgebraI Algebra I on Khan Academy: Algebra is the language through which we describe patterns. Think of it as a shorthand, of sorts.