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Education
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Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, have founded a new private school called the New Village Academy that's scheduled to open in September.
However, because the school, located in Thousand Oaks, California will use an instructional system developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, called "Study Technology," it's already become controversial.
To set the record straight, the couple insists they are not Scientologists, and the academy's director says the facility has no religious affiliation.
"We are a secular school, and just like all nonreligious independent schools, faculty and staff and we do not promote their own religions at school or pass on the beliefs of their particular faith to children," New Village Academy director Jacqueline Olivier told the Los Angeles Times.
Oliver said some of the school's staffers are Scientologists, Muslim, Christian or Jewish.
In addition to reading and math, the school offers classes on yoga, robotics and etiquette.
Will Smith is known as the man of both serious movies, children movies, comedy and action films such as blockbuster hits, Independence Day, I, Robot and I Am Legend, Mohammed Ali and Hitch. The Philadelphia native and former rapper has outdone his silver screen stunts by tackling the Herculean task of educating our youth, according to People.com. The actor and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, homeschooled their kids, Jaden, 9, and Willow, 7, and they are big advocates of making sure that children receive the best education.
“We started homeschooling our children probably six years ago,” Smith. “We found about eight or nine other parents that homeschool, so we put the children together.... There are just very powerful educational concepts that we believe in, and we feel like we want to design the system that revolutionizes public education.”
Once the home of a continuing education high school, the academy plans to open its doors on September 3 to welcome prekindergarten through sixth grade students, according to its Web site. Each student will be provided with a laptop as well as all-organic, low-fat, sugar-free meals. The academy offers competitive tuitions and financial aid for eligible families. In 2005, Jada Pinkett Smith told ESSENCE: “The school system in this country—public and private—is designed for the industrial age. We’re in a technological age. We don’t want our kids to memorize. We want them to learn.”
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