With the need for online education escalating in light of social dynamics responding to pandemic politics, it is crucial that evolutionary science—the bedrock of our civilization—not be exploited as a mass-mind tool of financial interests, which is currently the case regarding Khan Academy.
While the school’s founder & CEO, Sal Khan has three degrees from MIT, none of them is in biology. Khan is a computer scientist. What’s more, perhaps a handful of Khan’s team of 170 or so have anywhere close to the credentials to develop evolutionary science content for the digital organization. Humanities personnel are also seriously underrepresented. The Khan team is heavily weighted with software engineers, money managers and marketing types.
Meanwhile, Khan Academy is supposed to be a public charity, a 501(c)(3) whose mission is “to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.” It purportedly has millions of daily users.
Sal Khan’s salary and other income from the academy are controversial as well—estimated at roughly $1M.
Sal Khan’s roots are actually in the hedge fund world and the Khan organization started with Big Money donations from Bill Gates et al.
What’s more Khan’s Global Advisory Board members are largely all finance types, including founding partners: Bill Gates, Carlos Slim, Ratan Tata (see screenshot), plus former Google chief, Eric Schmidt. “Lifetime Giver” College Board’s CEO, David Coleman serves on Khan Academy’s “Thought Leadership Council.”
Yet, even with these deep pockets—from its platform the nonprofit begs for monthly and one-time donations (plus transaction fees): $10, $20, $30, $40, $50 on up.
The most shocking issue, however, is the academy’s ongoing indoctrination of the public with Darwinian natural selection. Even College Board pulled Unit 7 (24 pages on natural selection) from its May AP biology exam, offered online. And while Khan did a knee jerk, and removed Unit 7 from its prep menu for the AP digital exam—the academy is still dishing out natural selection as part of its instruction.
If Khan Academy is truly committed to serving the public, it needs to stop retarding science education. Don’t ask for public support if you can’t offer current science. Natural selection is a metaphor that was decommissioned at the end of the 20th century. “No one in the mainstream scientific community now takes selection literally.”
You can do it, Sal! Make that leap into the 21st century.
OSCILLATIONS 