Elon Musk is not just another billionaire. He's most famous not for the things he's doing today, but for the things he's building for the future.
His car company, Tesla, just topped 114-year old Ford to become the second most valuable car company. Let's not begin to talk about the incredible things he's building for the future of Space Travel.
Why isn't he letting his children stay in normal schools?
Elon Musk has 5 boys, and he created a little school for them which he called Ad Astra, which is Latin for "to the stars". The school is much different from your traditional school in the sense that there's no grade structure like you'd get in a conventional school.
As of 2015, only 20 students were enrolled in the school, with the others being children of employees of his rocket making company, Space X
He said on a show on Chinese TV:
"Other schools weren’t doing the things that I thought should be done.”
How then do they teach in this school?
"There aren't any grades. There's not grade 1 or grade 2. Some people love languages, some people love Math. Some people like Music. With different abilities, it makes more sense to channel their education to match their aptitudes."Which kind of makes sense. When you remember people you met in school growing up, who hated math, but were pure geniuses in English, it felt awkward to see them at not being good students.
He also believes children should be taught to solve problems, not use tools. So take for example, you're teaching someone how to fix a car engine, and you stumble on a screw. You teach them in the practical sense that the screwdriver is what they need.
This way, they learn in context, the education is more practical, and retention is generally higher.
So remember when you were in school and you asked a question like, "how the Hell is this useless subject going to help me?" These kids will never have to ask themselves this type of question.
Over to you, what do you think about this type of model?
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