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Speculation of James Holmes' motives may be premature at this point.
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I told you the Khan Academy is a con:
The highest ranking official in American education says that effective teaching requires training and planning, and then holds up as his archetype someone who openly admits to showing up to class every day unprepared. If a teacher said that, they’d be fired. And yet in the past year Sal Khan has been hailed as the “world’s teacher;” the “Messiah of Math;” and the savior for everything that ails public education.
The narrative surrounding Khan Academy has, it seems, gotten a bit out of hand.
It’s not Sal’s fault. He didn’t set out to become one of the biggest celebrities in education but simply to help his cousins with their math homework. But Ann Doerr, wife of venture capitalist John Doerr, picked up on it. Then Bill Gates. Then the San Jose Mercury, 60 Minutes, the New York Times ... and all of a sudden Khan Academy, a collection of low-res videos offering step-by-step instructions for how to solve math problems, was being hailed as the Next Big Thing in education.
It's a load of bullshit, as usual. The "quick fixes," I mean.
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Obituary: Astronaut Sally Ride, 61, of pancreatic cancer. She was the first American woman in space.
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Another obit: Oscar-winning screenwriter Frank Pearson has died. He wrote screenplays for Cool Hand Luke and Dog Day Afternoon. He was 87 years old.
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Thanks to thirty years of neoliberal policies and the elites having bought off the courts, media, and both political parties, America is completely and totally screwed.
It could be reversed without bloodshed, but nobody will do it.
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