When taking the plunge it’s best to start them at a young age. Landon has been enjoying Sal Kahn’s work.

The chapter began with Sal spending every free minute he had working on Khan academy and struggling to decide if he could just run Khan academy or needed the salary from his hedge fund job. He had people trying to convince him to make it a for profit program. As he continued struggling with the decision two different things happened that helped in ultimately making the decision to take the plunge.

Kahn Academy was chosen to be a finalist for a major award.
Kahn received an email from a Kahn Academy user.

The user was a minority college student who was denied a full education based on race. He persevered through the struggles and was able to graduate and go to college. He still never had a full grasp on basic math concepts. He took the learning into his own hands through access to Kahn Academy.

On pg. 155 Sal shared parts of the letter he received.
“He wanted me to know that he’d “spent the entire summer on my YouTube page…and I just wanted to thank you for everything you are doing….Last week I tested for a math placement exam and I am now in Honors Math 200….I can say without any doubt that you have changed my life and the lives of everyone in my family.”

This quote captures why I wanted to be a teacher. I do not need the recognition, but like to know that I have made a difference in a person’s life and helped them achieve things they may never have thought possible.

When I started in District 109 I was fortunate to be given a student on my caseload who was on the autism spectrum. When the child and I first met he had difficulty trusting me. Over the next year and a half I was able to gain his trust and help him develop stronger academic and social skills. He went from not wanting to work with me to telling his mom that he wished I could continue to be his teacher through college. Just like Kahn chose to leave his hedge fund job upon receiving the email on how impacted one person life with Kahn academy. My experience with this child a few years into my career reaffirmed for me that I chose the correct path in becoming a special education teacher.

After taking the plunge Kahn spent the next few months trying to raise money for the academy. This was initially a bit of a struggle. People he spoke with liked the concept, but were hesitant to jump on board as others hadn’t yet. Sal began to experience some self doubt and remorse after a few months with no major financial support. He then received a larger check from someone named Ann Doerr, who became an advocate for him and helped him to see all the word of mouth publicity Kahn Academy was getting. It eventually began to snowball and take on a life of its own.

We have all had to face adversity in our lives in one way or another. For some it was dealing with a sick family member, an illness of our own, some kind of a disability, financial distress, etc. but through whatever life throws us we all find the strength to persevere. When I look at Landon it reminds me of the all the basic skills we need to master in order to thrive. Sal Kahn found that strength even when he felt as though the idea of Kahn Academy was going to fail.