Sal Khan: The Metairie Kid Who Gave the World Free Education

The Man Who Put a Classroom in Every Pocket

Sal Khan was born in Metairie, Louisiana, in 1976, the son of Bangladeshi and Indian immigrants. He grew up in the suburbs of New Orleans, attended public schools in Jefferson Parish, and was, by all accounts, the kind of kid who was good at math and happy to explain it to anyone who'd listen. That impulse — the instinct to teach, clearly and patiently, without condescension — would eventually make him one of the most important educators in the world.

Khan graduated from Grace King High School in Metairie, then went to MIT, then Harvard Business School. He ended up working as a hedge fund analyst in Boston, which is exactly the kind of job you'd expect from someone with those credentials and exactly the wrong job for someone with his gifts.

The YouTube Tutorials

In 2004, Khan started tutoring his cousin Nadia in math over the internet. He recorded short video lessons and posted them on YouTube so she could review them at her own pace. Other people found the videos. Then more people found them. Then millions of people found them. The lessons were simple — a digital blackboard, Khan's voice, clear step-by-step explanations of everything from basic arithmetic to organic chemistry. No production values. No fancy graphics. Just a guy who was really good at explaining things.

In 2008, Khan quit his hedge fund job and founded Khan Academy, a nonprofit with the mission of providing "a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere." Bill Gates publicly praised the platform after using it with his own children. Google gave Khan Academy $2 million. The organization grew into a global educational platform used by over 100 million people in dozens of languages.

The Metairie Kid

Khan has talked about growing up in the New Orleans suburbs as formative — the multicultural environment, the emphasis on community, the public school teachers who invested in him. Jefferson Parish in the 1980s was not the most glamorous place to grow up, but it was the kind of place where a bright kid from an immigrant family could get a solid education and develop the work ethic to turn talent into something bigger.

Today, Khan Academy is one of the most-used educational platforms on Earth. A kid in rural India can learn calculus from the same lessons as a kid in Manhattan. The whole thing started because a guy from Metairie wanted to help his cousin with math. New Orleans has always been generous — lagniappe, the little something extra — and Sal Khan gave lagniappe to the entire world.