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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>On Behalf Of </span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>>…If I catch him… I’ll probably let it go, just to have this awesome photo.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>>…If you want something astonishing to read, see if you can get a copy of Khan’s “One-World Schoolhouse.” There might be free online versions of it out there…spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>What this was about was a local competition they had for Khan Academy students. They invited the top 5 achievers in each grade to a big party up at the Google headquarters, invited the parents, everybody had a blast. My son placed 4<sup>th</sup> so we went.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Khan Academy is an online curriculum, the kind we have theorized for years could exist. The lectures are about ten minutes, always about very specific skills or topics, right to the point. Sal Khan made most of them, but he brought in subject matter specialists for some of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>My son has mostly focused his attention on the math (his choice) but we also browsed among the other materials over there. They have some interesting history lectures. Khan did something I never thought was possible: explained the origin of the nation of Israel without any noticeable political slant or bias, offered the pertinent facts at a reasonable high-school level. The math lectures are excellent.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Khan Academy is free; anyone can sign up for an account, do exercises, listen to lectures or work on programming projects. It remembers your progress. You can leave it and come back a couple years later; everything will still be there. Sal Khan set up a really useful valuable free education for anyone who wants to reach out and take it. Anywhere in the world, any socio-economic class or any station in life: everyone has a shot at a ton of good stuff. Check it out:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/">https://www.khanacademy.org/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Fun story: last summer my son wanted to take programming classes, so we went thru the JavaScript class. We both took it but he got it; I sorta kinda did. I can fumble my way thru and fake it to some extent, but my JavaScript sucks and I don’t have good intuition for object oriented code. He does, and demonstrates it by spinning out reams of code, that works right. My code seems clunky and FORTRANy, ugly, cobbled together.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Well, OK then. What we are seeing now is opportunity opening up everywhere. The eagles are being allowed to soar, while the sloths are being encouraged to keep on plodding the old fashioned way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>