Donated to Khan Academy
This year I wanted our family to donate to a worthy cause. A few factors went into my choice of who to donate to:
- I’m reminded of how many adults are always willing to sign petitions on banning dihydrogen monoxide.
- Last quarter, Abigail went to a “fun environmental science” after-school program. In actuality, she (a first grader) learned about all the unsolved global environmental disasters of our time: climate change, the acidification of the oceans, the pacific garbage gyre… fun stuff! No, not really. I strongly believe that she should have learned about how the world’s system work before being alarmed about how they don’t. It’s a matter of putting the cart before the horse.
- Political discourse in the US has taken a dangerous anti-science bent in the past few years.
This year, our family donated a sizable amount to Khan Academy to promote early science education.
The goal is to help helping to raise the science literacy of the most number of people. Originally, I set a goal of finding an organization that teaches the fundamentals of science to adults, but that, sadly, sounds like a political act these days.