It is at least unfair to describe this book as merely Sal's criticism of traditional school or his boastful autobiography (?!) about Khan Academy. Sal traced the origin of traditional education and explained why its origin - which definitely was not cultivating brilliant minds - brings problems to today's students and makes education a grinding experience. He has also purposed solutions and Khan Academy here works only a vessel to carry his hypothesis.

Sal's insight into education is profound - more profound than anyone I know and surely more profound than mine. And as a MIT graduate, a beneficiary of our existing educational framework, it is noble that Sal rethinks, challenges and reimagines this educational system. (I figure that might be why MIT is special to me. I have come across a few MIT graduates these years and saw idealists - who think beyond their own interests and are readily world changers. Top schools today manufacture elites, yet few bring us world changers like Khan and Sutherland.)

Following is a list of contrast between traditional school and a school in the perfect world. Note that this school here is not necessarily Khan Academy. It might be proper to call it by this book's title: One World Schoolhouse.

Traditional School

Goal：Cultivate Meek Citizen by Snuffing originality and forcing passivityTraditional education is questionable from its original purpose as it originally served as a political and a pedagogical tool to churn out loyal and meek Prissian citizen who would learn the value of submitting to the authority by forcing passivity and conformity in class. The idea of public education was not to produce independent thinkers from day one. The whole system was built on the premise that isolation from first-hand information and fragmentation of the abstract information presented by teachers would result in obedient and subordinate graduates. What's startling is that, it is reported that from 1893 to 1979, instructional practice in public schools remained about the same - and it really hasn't changed from 1979 to 2012 either. Reasons? Teacher and educational systems, sadly, sometimes can be the hindrance on the path towards better education. Today's education is not too different from Prussian public education: it trains children to be employees and consumers.

Subject：Balkanizes flowing conceptsConcepts consolidate each other by making associations, and the artificial separation of academic subjects is blocking our minds to do so. Compartment of subjects prevents such association and only makes memorizing and deep understanding harder. It also kills the profound fun of relating concepts and seeing the world as a magical network of knowledge.

Learning：Locksteps that deprive ownership of learningLearning is a sense-making process, which should be extremely personal, private and independent, but traditional education is doing exactly the opposite: depriving students of their ownership of learning by forcing them sitting passively in the classroom for hours and hours of lectures. According to Middendorf and Kalish study, attention lasts only 10-15 minutes. This means that 3/4 of traditional broadcasting lecture is inefficient - a tremendous waste of valuable class time. What's worse is that, broadcasting lectures render students from actively thinking individuals to passively receiving vessels, depressing critical thinking and independent thinking skills from day one at school. Students are not naturally passive. They need to be taught to be passive. The passivity then becomes a habit that makes them more tractable and less engaged with what they're doing. Even worse, taking away students responsibility for their personal learning, they are infantilized, treated like children, and children they tend to remain.

Homework：Isolated heavy loads of workHomework becomes necessary because not enough learning happens during the school day. In traditional framework, homework is overwhelming, not only in its heavy loads but also in that it puts students in an extremely isolated and thus frustrating situation when they trying to address problems alone, sitting under desk lamp, during the midnight, having no one there to help when they encounter problems. The purpose of teaching should be helping students out, not stressing them out.

Lesson：Tells you when to stop learning and causes a Swiss Cheese LearningThe class period is in fact rather arbitrary, but it's detrimental in that it tells you when to stop learning and breaks mind flow. After 40 minutes, the bell ring, one class is over and mind is forced to shift to a different gear, and once the milestone in the syllabus is passed, there's no coming back. This model deters truly deep understanding of concepts, and as a shaky understanding early on will lead to complete bewilderment later, learning becomes a Swiss Cheese: full of holes and gaps. A Swiss Cheese Learning makes learning more and more difficult when proceeding to more and more advanced topics.

Semester & vacations：Lost of continuity in learningThe semester setting forces students to cease learning once a semester ends. What's after 4 months of intensive learning is 3 months oblivion. Summer and winter breaks are a monumental waste of government money, school facilities, teacher resource, and the worst, student's time as teachers are dismissed, schools sit vacant, facilities are seriously underutilized, and students stop learning. Thus, continuity is broken and momentum is lost. The newly built knowledge network is too fragile for 3 months oblivion, not to mention that it is unconscionably expensive to pick up broken association and restore oneself to the previous momentum.

Class：Hushed cloister full of self-interested and stressed competitorsIn a traditional classroom, students of same age sit in an ordered, hushed cloister, passively receiving a one-pace-fits-all lecture. Overy students need to only be responsible for her own learning, whereas her personality, if she is willing to help her peers, her ability to express concepts are not measured. In the end, traditional education produce isolated, self-involved individuals who compete rather than help their peers, who are deprived of a chance to be leaders, to exercise responsibility and to learn to care for others.

Grade：Inflated measurement that only counterposes students and true learningSome teachers give high score as an act of "kindness", and as students at top schools tend to be worse at dealing with what's regarded "failure", they on average receive 3.5 GPA, which is adjusted, skewed to fit our idea of success. In fact, with this inflation of the idea of "success" brought by the biding fear of failure, we're doing students harm by telling them that they've learned something that they really haven't learned. In this setting, instead of aiming for 100% comprehension, students pursue a high grade by the end of the semester. The purpose of education becomes reaching for a grade that's "good enough" rather than a full understanding of concepts. The grading system also put learning materials in between students and a "good enough" grade, making learning materials more like a hindrance towards excellence and in turns encourages those who "play with the system" while discourges who truly strive for deep understanding.

Deliver：Works for a few and fails the majorOnemajor characteristic of traditional learning is that it's designed to be a one-pace-fits-all experience. In this setting, few students who are comformitive, driven or simply know how to play with the system might thrive, but most of them will be frustrated. Even worse, educational resource is tragically limited, both in quantity and quality. A big part of teachers at public schools, according to statistics, are overloaded and failing their mission, and at the same time, the success of top schools cannot be duplicated and scaled in the traditional setting of colleges, which makes the dichotomy between elite education and public education even worse. Accessibility is also a basic concern in developing areas - children spend few hours daily commuting to schools, only to be taught by not-so-great teachers with extremely limited access to modern facilities. Given the advanced technologies today, it seems like these modern developments are simply blocked outside of our schools. Students still spend hours to commute to a brick and mortar place, learn from broadcasting lectures with notes written on a blackboard with chalk by an overwhelmed professor who usually regards teaching an odious task that embezzles their research time. There's no way to track students data, thus the current delivering system receives no feedback from students, and makes no analysis about each students learning style, personality, strength and performance. On the bright side, traditional delivery creates a really great platform for students to make personal networks that may bring them life-long benefits. It is also a valuable resource for research and facilities. Studying with top-notched professors and peers is a delightful experience for a lot of people. The only problem is, all these above only happen at few top schools, and that's why traditional education is a tragical setting that works for a few but fails the major.

One World Schoolhouse

Goal: To foster creativity, to know who you are, what you like, what are you good at, to explore the world of knowledge, to appreciate beauty, to grow empathy, to socialize, to master skills, to accumulate real-world experienceWhat we are experiencing right now is the Information Revolution, which makes Prussian education system in fact an antique, and deep creativity and analytical thinking are no longer optional but survival skills. Economic realities today no longer favor a docile and disciplined working class with just basic proficiencies but workforce of creative, curious, and self-directed lifelong learners who are capable of conceiving and implementing novel ideas. And creativity, while might not be taught, at least can be allowed, fostered, scaffolded and better, be nourished.

Subject：Interrelated Concepts instead of subjectsSociety today needs highly crossover fields more than ever, making compartmentalized subject setting an outdated design. World is complex and interconnected, and walking along the edges of the knowledge graph of interrelated concepts is how human brain is wired. Learning is really just a continuous process - as time-wisely, memorizing happens with continuous inputs and space-wisely, concepts flow in a continuous knowledge network.

Learning：IndependantMind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled. It is a bit cliche to quote Plutarch today, but this fire is only kindled when active thinking is involved - and active thinking is at least not encouraged, sometimes discouraged in traditional class model. Education is an active, even athletic process: neurons get fired, connected, and the connection is strengthened by association and repetition. Thus, students shouldn't just take things in; they should figure things out. This active learning and the motivation behind it serve to focus on our attention and thereby make learning easier.

Homework：Guided, Mentored, Interactive and SupportedAt One World Schoolhouse, homework should be done during school time, aided by peers and teachers. Teachers serve primarily as guides and mentors rather than lecturers and peers who are more advanced can tutor those less advanced ones. Some students might struggle with their "homework" but no one would be given up with unsolved questions. Homework can be small projects, questions, discussions around a topic or other open-ended creative outputs. Students performance will be logged and analyzed.

Lesson：Self-paced aimed for thorough masteryAt One World Schoolhouse, students learn at their own pace back home, with online support from teachers and peers always available. Students advance to the next concept only after reaching 100% mastery over the previous concept. Materials are not limited to overpriced paper-based textbooks but interactive online materials that do not expire. During the self-paced learning process, student's performance, learning style, preference will be collected, logged, analyzed for a more customized learning experience that keeps evolving.

Semester & vacations：Continuous learning instead of semestersA preferred scenario would be a perpetual school experience where vacations can be taken whenever there is a need for one - not too different from what happens in companies. If students are working at their own pace, there's no longer an artificial stopping point for the whole system to shut down. Even better, with access to online learning, students can keep learning during travel and enjoy 100% ownership of their time.

Class：A chaotic hive where students tutor each otherThe idea of One Room Schoolhouse is that students of mixed ages will co-exist in a large room where the more advanced ones help and tutor the less advanced ones. Students don't have to engage in the same activity at the same time - at a given moment, some students might be doing computer-based lessons, some others might engage in a boisterous subgroup learning economics and trying out market simulations by way of board games. While nooks might be perfectly quiet for private study, other parts would be bustling with collaborative chatter.

Grade：Quantitive analysis, qualitative narrative and creative portfolioWith tracking students data made possible, quantitive data should measure students progress, which is a relative value rather than an absolute static value. Thus a student does not compare herself with her peer, but with herself. More importantly, qualitative narrative about students work style and preference, if carefully interpreted, gives a three-dimensional portrait of a student then quantitive reports. It views students as unique human individuals rather than data points. A portfolio of students' works created on their own: projects, artworks, inventions, etc.

Deliver：World-class, for Anyone, Anywhere, and It's FreeNo two educations are the same. And the first time in history, with the support of multimedia, big data mining and analysis, truly customized education is made possible. The future education embrace technology but not for its own sake - instead, for a cheaper, more portable, more inclusive and more customized solution. Systemical improvement of education is not a problem to be overlooked - It's about potential realized or squandered, dignity enhanced or denied.