First of all a thank you to Lynda Weinman, Lynda of lynda.com for giving every single one of the company’s employees a copy of this book over the holidays. Books make the best gifts and when I start a job and first thing they hand me is a stack of free books I know I’ve landed in the right place. 

You have heard of Salman Khan the creator of the Khan Academy and this book published by TwelveBooks serve as an introduction to his story and his thoughts or manifesto on learning. I was inspired by this book. Sal started out tutoring one student–his cousin Nadia and before he knew it he was spending his spare time tutoring more family members. He was very good at it. And from there his teaching starts to spread, his ideas start to catch on and now he is on a mission to create a free world-class education for anyone, anywhere. 

I could relate to Nada’s issue. She had missed one important concept and that put her on a lesser school track. When I was a freshman in high school in my first Algebra class–maybe I was talking…maybe I was sleeping… but I missed something important. That semester I received my first ever D! My teacher told my mother I was lazy and she needed to take my television and music away from me. (I knew the woman hated me! And yeah I was probably too busy talking.) From then on I was put in the more basic math–not the college prep and I had to repeat the semester in order to change my grade for college transcripts. The next semester when I took the class, I took the textbook and studied on my own. Then it clicked and I spent the rest of semester doing my homework during lectures. This time I received an A. 

And I do owe a big apology to my older brother the engineer who didn’t talk alot in class and studied harder. He actually tried to sit down and teach Khan-style concepts before I received my D. At the time I just wanted to learn how to do my homework, I didn’t want to learn the concepts he attempted teach me. C’mon I had Brady Brunch re-runs to watch! Luckily he seems to have had a better student in my niece. 

I like what Salman has to say about learning–covering the basics and practicing until you can prove you’ve got it to move on, and to also move at your own speed. Okay–you got me. The guy speaks my language. After all my career has been all about learning–first in creating how-to technology books to self-paced elearning, ILT courseware to certs and now in online video training. Not ironically, a career that has also called on my “talking” skills so there Algebra teacher! Technology loves self-learners and there is plenty to learn. This book did make me think about what concepts are basic and essential for the business technology subjects I cover.

I’ve also spent a lot of time on Khan Academy the past few days. I always regretted that I never really made it past basic Algebra and Geometry. I thought it was because I hated math, but the fact is I’ve loved puzzles. I’ve done quilting which requires a lot of math. And I use data analysis and statistics regularly to uncover business insights. So I’m going back to the basics–starting at the beginning just like Salman Khan suggests (and how can you not respect someone that Bill Gates says is his favorite teacher!). His site also has Science, Art History and more. Stuff I want to learn. 

Check out his book and the Khan Academy site.