Eleven thousand miles away in Accra, Ghana, students at the African School for Excellence are studying logarithms. Their teacher is the same one firing off math tips in California–both groups of kids are learning by watching online videos. While the screen shows a march of equations and diagrams, the students never actually see the face of the lecturer. There's just a voice, deep, patient and unrehearsed—think NPR host crossed with Mister Rogers. His inflection rises at times to underscore a point or when he gets really excited. "Math is not just random things to memorize and regurgitate on a test next week," he says. "It's the purest way of describing the universe!"

Khan is already butting up against veteran teachers nervous about their roles in his brave new classroom. But the biggest obstacle of all may be Khan himself. For all his grassroots fandom and Silicon Valley cred, he's not an educator, and he's never worked with children. Are parents and teachers ready to upend hundreds of years of precedent about how basic subjects are taught on the word of a guy who has spent more time analyzing financial statements than standing before a blackboard?

Fonte: Time, July 9, 2012. Texto adaptado.

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