A Letter to Sal Khan

A+Letter+to+Sal+Khan

Connor Scholl, Messenger Reporter

Dearest Sal,

I’m currently enrolled in AP Calculus BC under the tutelage of Mrs. Stephanie Elizabeth Hinz, and I encountered a matter on your website which concerned me deeply: a certain few answers seemed to me incorrect.

While this school year represents my first experience with calculus, I consider myself to have aptitude for this alluring branch of math. Possessing such aptitude, I feel that I have at least some degree of credibility to ascertain the validity of the responses I create. And yet, for every response I crafted for the “Volumes of Solids with Known Cross-Sections” exercises, I was met with the horrendously genial statement, “Not quite!”

With every incorrect answer I entered, my soul shattered ever-farther, until, finally, with the last incorrect answer I entered, it fragmented into a boundless amount of beautiful shards, drifting into oblivion, never to be seen again. And, along with my soul floated away my confidence, my dedication that drove me forward in life.

I previse with full confidence that my soul may never be repaired. I also concede that some of the answers I entered were, in fact, incorrect. Yet, an inescapable notion has grasped my heart: the notion that some of my answers may have been correct, but by some fault of the system, were deemed incorrect.

I have no doubt that you are an ingenious man; any contradicting opinion has never crossed my mind. However, no matter the intelligence you possess, I implore you, as humbly and earnestly as my fragile being can allow, to check on this section of exercises which has pained me so. Doing so would appease me fully, and I would forever venerate you.

With love,

Connor