Elon Musk is a very private person, but he puts in a lot of work to keep his children’s lives out of the public eye. Elon keeps the lives of his six sons as private as possible, and very little is known about them and their family lives.
But one aspect of their lives is public, and that is their schooling. Today, we will explain what it is like inside Elon Musk Kids School and also how the school’s secret currency works. Elon Musk’s children attend the Los Angeles Merman School, one of the most prestigious schools in the state until 2014, when Elon Musk realized there was something very wrong, he noticed the children of other famous wealthy parents attending the same schools fell into a common rich kid path of over opulent Instagram living children that have everything they could ever want.
Yet do not work for it can often end in a recipe for disaster. So in 2014, Elon pulled his children out of the L.A. School and asked his eldest son’s teacher, Josh Dann, a life changing question Would he start an experimental school? And SpaceX thinks to transform learning as we know it. Josh agreed. And Ad Astra, a school to revolutionize children’s education, was born.
Ad Astra meaning to the stars is an experimental school focusing on teaching children in a more practical setting that works for them. Its primary goal is to instill values, ethics, knowledge and skills that will be relevant in the future in a way that the children retain. Instead of repeating practice ing memorizing the curriculum to pass the test only to forget that information within a few weeks.
The kids all learn and work together to solve problems and achieve specific goals. It is an inclusive and practical educational setting where the kids are essentially taught how to learn for themselves. If they need to know something to achieve a task, then they must learn it and apply it. The kids really need to know the information, otherwise they won’t be able to achieve their goal.
So they have hungered to learn. And this genuine desire to know the information coupled with immediate application and reflection, deepens their understanding of the subject matter, allowing it to be actually retained information. Elon Musk is the richest man on the planet and has seen success that most could only dream of. He has high expectations for himself, and his expectations are equally as high for his children.
He has on many occasions criticized the traditional schooling systems, suggesting that the world moves at such a fast pace now that teachers are often unqualified or teaching out-of-date information to the students. Teachers do not explain why kids are being taught a subject, said the Tesla CEO in an interview with Ted. Elon believes the why of something is vital if we do not know and believe why something is being taught to us, then there is a cognitive bias that will work against us.
Our brains have evolved to discard information that they feel is irrelevant. If we learn something just so we can pass a test. 90% of that information is likely forgotten within 30 days of the test. So everything taught needs to be given a powerful Y and must be truly relevant and clearly beneficial to that child. Then the information can be retained and called upon when it is needed in the future.
AD Astra started in 2014, was originally held in a boardroom at the SpaceX headquarters in California. The school was tiny when it started, consisting of Elon’s kids, plus a few children of other SpaceX staff. The educational style is intended to be different, and it certainly is. Let’s start with grades. These went out of the window straight away. Adults don’t spend time with others specifically based on their age.
So why would a school do it? And ad Astra. The children are all grouped into small groups based on interest and will work on specific projects together. This builds teamwork across different ages, abilities and skills, but also teaches patience and understanding. The projects can include anything from robot development, debating solutions to geopolitical issues, development of software products to solve real issues, the students face to growing their own food.
One of the most interesting things the school has implemented is its own currency to encourage entrepreneurship. Ad Astra also has its own unit of currency called the Astra, which the children are able to trade with each other. In an interview with Business Insider, Johnston, the principal of AD Astra, stated, One of the things they do is three times a year there’s a marketplace called the Bazaar.
And at the bazaar, the kids have their own companies, essentially, Dan said. Examples would be one of the kids would build websites for other kids and parents and another banked and sold gourmet cookies. Elon Musk is the richest man on the planet so naturally wants to instill within his children good fiscal management. Dawn also revealed a subject named the A-frame in which students are given specific robotic challenges where the teams must design and build robotic projects.
Once there was a robot war where the kids had to design and build a robot utilizing A.I.. They would then battle each other. The children reportedly asked whether they would be allowed to incorporate flamethrowers and electromagnetic pulses into their robots. The answer is always yes, says Don, laughing. Until you destroy the school at a specific school, it’s hardly shocking that one of the subjects rocketry.
The children can take part in this if they opt to. And apparently it is incredibly popular. Children must design from scratch rockets that can take off while carrying specific payloads. The rocket that can launch successfully and go the highest will be crowned the winner and allegedly will earn more. Astra the school’s currency for successful projects. One of the main reasons Elon decided to create his own schooling for his children was that he did not want his children to spend time learning about his subject, only for that subject to be outdated by the time they enter the workforce.
Elon believes that our future will be heavily focused on artificial intelligence, robotics and space, which is why the ad Astra School prioritizes the subjects. The most popular class. According to Don, the school principal, is synthesis. In this class, kids play games that challenge them to solve real world conundrums, pushing their thinking to new levels. The kids working groups of 5 to 10 to play the game and are presented with a situation, problem or conundrum.
Teachers do not explain the rules of the game or how to win. They must work this out for themselves. Synthesis focuses on six main areas collaboration. The kids work together in groups. They must first figure out the rules to the game and then how to win. Embracing the Unknown. The game is a fast paced and hard. The kids get really good at communicating ideas quickly and concisely.
They are never taught the rules to the games. They need to use their wits and test their assumptions to first understand and then concur in expecting change. The kids that win are the ones that make the most mistakes quickest. This teaches them not to fear failure and embrace the unknown reflection. The kids take what they have learned from these games and apply them to their lives.
This makes their insights meaningful, so it’s easier to remember and apply the learning later. No speed limit. If the child is doing well, they are encouraged to move up the difficulty of the synthesis game. They will never be held back just by their age. When Christmann Frank, the first engineer at Class Dojo, visited Ad Astra in 2017. He said he saw the kids buzzing with excitement about synthesis, something he rarely saw in any school he visited.
He loved what he saw so much so that in 2020, during the pandemic, they created their own version of synthesis. So kids that aren’t lucky enough to attend an astronaut could also take part. Synthesis is a subscription educational company where classes are delivered online and through a box that arrives in the mail. Elon Musk is a billionaire and the richest man on the planet.
It is alleged that he spends, on average half a million dollars on running the school each year. Elon Musk has stated that my children didn’t choose to be born. I chose to have children. They owe me nothing. I owe them everything. He is proving that he is committed to providing the best schooling for his children and maybe one day we will see them using their education at one of Elon Musk’s companies.
If you had the chance to work at any of Elon Musk’s companies, which one would you choose? Maybe Tesla, SpaceX, X, or even Twitter? Let us know in the comments. Thanks for watching. Remember to subscribe for the best Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla news.
