Blog Post #3
Article: "The Broken Model", Chapter 2, from "The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined"
Author: Salman Khan (founder of Khan Academy)
Talking Points
(Beginning of Text)
The reading starts out with why the current educational system is problematic in "Questioning Customs". The chapter starts with "Normal is what you're used to". The author, Salman Khan, who is the founder of the online website Khan Academy, argues that "if we are to muster the vision and the will to meaningly change education, to bring teaching and learning into closer alignment with the contemporary world as it really is.... we need to recognize that the "dominant educational model" is a "human construct". Examples that the author specifies includes the length of the class periods where at one time was considered controversial. The charter school where I have taught for 4 years used to have 40 minute blocks with each core subject meeting daily. This year, we went to 80 minute blocks meeting every other day with a "waterfall" schedule. This changes the dynamic of the class. Keeping students engaged for 80 minutes is more challenging for the teacher, but also for the students for engagement. A way to improve this construct is to break the class into "chunks", for example to have a whole class introduction, teach to different groups independently, and break the class period into different activities. For example, some will take notes, some will do group work, and some will do independent work, with teacher support. In fact, the state of Rhode Island does not want you to do whole class instruction in math classes, as part of the High Quality Curriculum model. At Highlander Charter School, where I teach, we utilize Reveal as our math curriculum. An example that Khan provides is try to change a basic habit that we follow, at least in our country, the norm to eat 3 meals per day. If you remove lunch, this will change our expected habits, including having a lunch period at school and work. From the text, "It would be exceedingly difficult to change the culture of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The whole rhythm of the workplace world would be altered. Entire industries would be challenged to adjust". This section continues with that students are "tracked" in a manner that resembles Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" which ignores human variance. The section concludes that "It is time- past time - for education to evolve again".
(Middle of Text)
In the next section, titled "The Prussian Model", Khan starts off with that education has historically taken "place in many different venues and by many different methods". He mentions apprentices and and Classical Greeks, and questions how did "primary school" and "secondary school", or K-12 education, come to exist? He continues that the division of the school day broken into periods, and the creation of "subjects", and the number of grades, "were first put in place in eighteenth-century Prussia. "The idea was not to produce independent thinkers, but to churn out loyal and tractable citizens who would learn the value of submitting to the authority of parents, teachers, church, and ultimately king." Khan continues that the Prussian philosopher and political theorist Johann Gottlieb Fichte was clear about its aims: "If want to influence a person... you must fashion him in such a way that he cannot simply will otherwise that what you wish him to will". The makes me think of keeping people down in their "station". We see "influencers" constantly whether its in the news, Social Media, and in our day to day lives. Sales is built on this premise. This is probably why I didn't enjoy it when I did it. Although teaching middle school and high school students may be difficult, I found that 100% commissioned sales is worse. Horace Mann, then the Secretary of Education for the state of Massachusetts, is also referenced in this section, as Mann influenced the implementation of the Prussian system of Education in the United States. Since I teach high school math, I thought Khan's point about Geometry was interesting. "Geometry cannot be mastered by reading the demonstrations of a text-book...if continued too long, (students) may lose its interest more completely, there is also none in which independent work can be made more attractive and stimulating." This reminds me of my 10th grade in High School in Geometry, which we were taught how to do Geometry proofs. I was always generally "good" in math, however, thought that I really didn't learn anything with these proofs, as I didn't really understand them. When I try to teach proofs to my 10th grade Geometry students now, I try to keep this in perspective.
(End of Text)
The last 2 sections deal with tests and testing, and tracking creativity. A point that Khan starts out with is that "Tests say little or nothing about a student's potential to learn a subject". It continues that in instead offers a snapshot in time. I have long thought this, and agree with the author that "Tests say nothing about how long learning will be retained.". To continue, Khan states that "Test measure the approximate state of a student's memory and perhaps understanding, in regard to a particular subset of subject matter at a given moment in time". The author also mentions retention, and how it is the transfer from short-term to long-term memory. In Highlander Charter School, although the majority of classwork assignments is accessed on-line from the students' Chromebook from our HQIM (High Quality Instructional Materials) Reveal, we give paper assessments from this same curriculum, which are counted as a Summative Assessment, composing 60% of their grade. The online classwork assignments and Modules, are considered Formative Assessments, which together comprise 40% of the students' grade each quarter. We do allow the students to be able to do test corrections to achieve a higher grade, as long as they complete their online assessments, as well as assigned Group Work, which is taken from our (paper) Math workbooks, which are also Reveal (produced by McGraw Hill). The online work, math curriculum, and workbooks are all aligned as Reveal products. However, I don't necessarily think that it's fair to students to have to do a 10 question paper test, for example with graphing, which is really just a snapshot of the standards we are teaching and expect the students to learn, and to "prove" that they learned, via mostly a multiple choice assessment. Therefore, as a math department, we build this ability to allow students to do test corrections as part of their Summative grade, which is also outlined in all of our Syllabuses. Khan continues that what these "conventional schools" do, is "to place great emphasis on test result as a measure of a student's innate ability or potential... and this has very serious consequences." Khan states that what we are effectively doing, "is labeling kids, squeezing them into categories, (and) defining and often limiting their futures." The author continues that is no accident. This is by design: "The outcome is actually what the Prussian architects of our standard classroom model explicitly intended." The author concludes in the chapter with "Tracking Creativity": In today's society "manual workers are no longer what society needs; increasingly, all around the world, mind workers are what's called for". This reminds me of an Economics or Human Resources class that I took as an undergraduate studying business back in the late 1980s/ early 1990s. This transformation to a "Knowledge Economy" has been going on for a long time now. With Artificial Intelligence, it is amplified. As a "Classic Rock" fan, I like that the author gives a reference to Bob Dylan, who was "massively creative" in his own way, and also with many others in many different fields. If you haven't seen the movie "A Complete Unknown", I recommend it.
Argument Statement (Text):
In Salman Khan's chapter "The Broken Model", from his book "The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined", he argues that the current school system is problematic, which has been set up this way for over a century in the United States (the "Western World"), and is based on systems that were designed in the 18th century in Prussia. Khan discusses that these systems were set in place to "control" students, and in effect, the citizens under the King. The "West" adopted this model, and our customs of class periods, subjects, and daily learning core subjects in small chunks, as well as the K-12 (Kindergarten through 12 grade) systems is all originally based after this model. Khan argues that we need to change and do better. Hence, Khan's founding of his well-known on-line "school", Khan Academy. (Note: this is my own words. Here is a link when I did an A.I. prompt after I wrote this for comparison.)
Video:
Short History of American School (Excerpt from the film Class Dismissed)
Subject: Horace Mann
Talking Points:
Beginning: The video except opens with "The model of going to school is relatively new. Before 1900, most children learned at home, and out in the real world". The state of Massachusetts formed the first Department of Education, under Horace Mann, in 1837. "Mann believed that every student was entitled to the same content in Education". Mann lobbied to get the Prussian module of education adopted. Mann was first to establish common schools with professionally trained teachers. The video continues that by 1852, the state of Massachusetts passed the first compulsory attendance law. Mann believed that school could be a "great equalizer", and "values such as obedience to authority, promptness and attendance, and organizing time according to bell ringing, would help students prepare for future employment, in an Industrial Age." As someone who has now taught for 13 years, this obedience to authority, commonly labeled as "Classroom Management", tends to be the most difficult part for teachers to master. When I first started out as a daily building substitute teacher at an urban Middle School, in Fall River, MA, I was placed in a 7th grade social studies class. I had never taught before, transitioning from a career in business, and except for my own knowledge and interest, didn't know how to manage a class or how to deliver instruction in World History. I do recall learning about Queen Hatshepsut!
Middle: The next part of the video continues that the "whole purpose is the subordinate children, and to get them in that mindset to be subordinate, in order to get them to be subordinate adults." The video references a Prussian philosopher in which "we destroy the imagination of children". As a teacher, this statement is discerning, as this is the "system" in which we are involved. No wonder why when sometimes pressed by different school administrations to follow certain rules and procedures, when some don't seem that right to use, including being too rigid, we modify to allow creativity, growth, and enjoyment from our "captive" audience. Sometimes, school does seem more like jail then what school should be. Teachers aren't prison guards, for example, to keep students in the classroom, under the thought that students need to be there in order to learn, which I agree with. But there is a bigger idea here. Students should not be impacted to the degree in which they are subjected to by the handful of students that consistently disrupt class. This make me thinks of the Philosophy idea of "Utilitarianism" which I remember from my Freshman year of college in the fall of 1987. What is the greater good? Classroom Management is a classic example of Utilitarianism in schools.
End:
The video continues with the premise that "the entire system is designed to regiment a large group of people and to get them to do the exact same thing". This statement make me consider further the changes we have made regarding instruction. As I mentioned above in this week's Blog post, at Highlander, as well as the State of Rhode Island, we are supposed to differentiate our instruction, particularly when it comes to teaching math. Next, in my Blog under my Personal Thoughts section, I mention Principal Mr. Bill Aguiar and my instruction and mission of the Somerset Berkeley Community High School, which is an alternate path to a High School education and degree. The video concludes that we want students to be "cogs" in a machine. This makes me think of the classic Pink Floyd song "Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 (1979)"... We don't need no education. We don't need no thought control...".
Argument Statement (Video):
The argument of this week's video is that the model of the modern education system, including that in the United States, is based on conformity. This model is designed for everyone to learn in the same way, at least that is the history. We want everyone to do the same thing. Students are "cogs" in the system. (Note: I ran an A.I prompt for comparison after writing my thoughts regarding the main argument of the video. Here's the link with the prompt.)
Additional Personal Thoughts, Connections, and Reflections:
In my References (Links) section below, I include a current article from the business magazine Fortune from this past week, which has the CEO of Khan Academy, who is also the author of this week's reading, discussing how Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) will potentially reduce the workforce, which could drive our economy into recession, or worse. There is also a video link embedded in this Fortune link, with the CEO of Nvidia, which has over an 80% Market Share of the A.I. computer chip market. Nvidia is the largest company by Market Capitalization trading in the the world at $4.45 Trillion (number of shares times the number of outstanding shares). Both are highly relevant with this week's discussion. I have supplemented using Khan Academy to teach math in my classes, particularly where I teach in the Somerset Berkley Community Evening High School part time in the evenings, since 2014. During Covid especially (2020- 2022), I utilized Khan Academy in the Evening School when we went fully remote, but also have used this as an extra resource. I have used Khan Academy where I taught summer school remotely for Argosy Collegiate Charter School in Fall River, MA, when I worked there primarily as a middle school math teacher and interventionist during the day, and also during the Covid era, and have also used Khan Academy as an extra test prep resource at Highlander Charter School where I primarily teach High School math. In fact, last spring we encouraged our students to utilize the new "chat bot" feature to ask questions. What I found is that the majority of the students didn't really like chat bot feature, even when encouraged by the teachers to do so.
I also want to take some time to reflect on my experience with the Somerset Berkley Community Evening High School, where I also teach, since 2014, and where I am still currently teaching part time in the evenings. I have including a link to the 2025 Graduation Ceremony this past August, led by Principal Mr. William Aguiar. I recommended watching it, at least the beginning. Mr. Aguiar gave me a chance to teach when I first made a career change from working in business, including in Financial Services in the investments operations industry, and later in insurance sales, to teach high school math. Mr. Aguiar never wavered in his belief and saying that as a teacher, you need to meet the students where they are, and bring them to as far as you can take them. Mr. Aguiar also had a steadfast belief that all students can succeed, they just need a chance. Unfortunately, after 58 years with the Somerset Public Schools, Mr. Aguiar passed away suddenly last December. I have known Mr. Aguiar since I was in 5th grade, as he was also my Middle School guidance counselor, as well as my High School Guidance counselor, and even handled my college applications. I also worked for Mr. Aguiar during college for a couple summers through Somerset's Town Recreation Department, maintaining the baseball fields, parks, beach, and town boat ramp. This reading by Mr. Khan, who I have watched and taught with many of his Khan Academy videos, and have even incorporated some of this style into my teaching over the years, ties into Mr. Aguiar's and Khan's statement that change may be necessary. As Mr. Aguiar used to say, whatever these students faced in day school didn't work for them. Be different. Mr. Bill Aguiar embodied the statement of "No Child Left Behind".
Technology, Links, Other Texts, References, and Additional Connections:
Aurora Institute The Broken Model (Analysis)
Salman Khan: The Broken ModelKhan Academy: Teacher Dashboard
Sal Khan Article from Fortune (2026)
Rhode Island High Quality Curriculum HQCM
Reveal Math Algebra 1 Volume 2 Workbook (Cover Image)
Somerset Berkley Community Evening High School (Fall River Herald News Article)
Somerset Berkley Community Evening High School August 2026 Graduation (Video)
Darryl Your post does a strong job tracing the historical roots of modern schooling and connecting Khan’s argument to both policy and classroom practice. What stood out most is the tension between structure and learning. The Prussian model was built for efficiency and uniformity, yet today we ask students to demonstrate creativity, problem solving, and flexible thinking. Those goals conflict with a system organized around fixed time blocks, age grouping, and single-moment testing.
ReplyDeleteYour example about 80 minute blocks highlights this well. The difficulty is not only student stamina but the assumption that learning should occur at the same pace for everyone during the same time window. Chunking instruction, small group work, and independent practice are essentially attempts to soften a rigid structure without fully redesigning it. In that sense, teachers are constantly adapting an inherited framework rather than working within one designed for mastery learning.
I also appreciated your point about test corrections. That practice aligns closely with Khan’s argument that assessments should reflect eventual understanding rather than a single snapshot. When students revise, they demonstrate retention, reflection, and transfer, which are closer to real learning than first-attempt accuracy.
The video connection reinforces this idea. School originally prepared workers for predictable routines, but modern society rewards adaptability. If the economy values thinking workers, then education systems must value iteration, feedback, and time flexibility. Your reflection about meeting students where they are shows how teachers already move toward that model, even when the structure has not fully caught up yet.
Hi Andrea, I like your point that by breaking a long class block into smaller activities, we are essentially trying to make a rigid system less so, rather than making the system designed for mastery learning, as you state. I have done this previously in other school settings, particularly when I have taught Middle School math in another district which is different from my "day job". Trying to have good classroom management when teaching 12 year old students in the summer, when they have already "failed", without breaking into "chunks" is quite the challenge. I typically start with some small introduction/ instruction with printed worksheets (since there are no Chromebooks) and do the "I Do", "We Do", "You Do" model. Later in the class period, I try to incorporate a partner activity, and sometimes run a whole class Kahoot, to increase both engagement and learning, which can also be used as a formative assessment. Also, thank you for your feedback regarding test corrections, as well as your comment that ties into Khan's viewport that assessments should reflect eventually understanding, and not just a single snapshot in time.
ReplyDeleteANother rich and detailed post that shows how your brain is just weaving a web of new and old knowledge. It feels like this is really making you thinkg. Thanks for sharing the video of Mr. Aguiar. I am sorry for your loss. May we all be so lucky to have a mentor figure for so many years!
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