Ever since I spent my first year out of college teaching at a charter school (which is essentially a privately funded public school operating outside the state defined curriculum) in South Central, Los Angeles, I have become more and more interested in systems of education, particularly within the United States (...the wealthiest country in the world). 

The way I see it, teachers and students are more valuable than market shares, stocks, IPOs and GDP, as teachers and students are people. Yes, my rationale is that simple.

Of course, market share and stocks and IPOs and GDP are produced by people, educated people, and so investing early in young people eventually pays itself back. But the road of human economic potential, contribution and worth is long and windy and I'd rather not go there today. 

It pains me to realize that most well educated, passionate and ambitious people will choose professions outside of education, as I hold education and society's youth as the most valued resource in any culture, most often because a teaching career is not based, nor awarded, on merit, but rather patience and one's ability to put up with nonsense and bad parenting. 

I left education because I was too exhausted, stressed and frustrated by the system, but am thrilled to see successful people like Salaman Khan make significant contributions that keep the conversation going as to how we can improve education in the richest country in the world. And for the record, I myself want to again play a part in further developing greater education. I just need to find what I can give. 

Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script -- give students video lectures to watch at home, and do "homework" in the classroom with the teacher available to help.