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Tesla CEO Elon Musk Thinks Traditional Schools are Useless
When one of the world’s most powerful people like Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk says that there’s something wrong with traditional schools, it should not be taken for granted. After all, there’s no smoke without any fire. It is this concern that drove PayPal’s founder to open up a school known as Ad Astra( Latin for To the Stars) and homeschool his 5 kids. He thinks a homeschooling initiative like this caters to the needs and aptitudes of individuals which isn’t found in modern schools.
Related: Why Homeschooling your Kid is a Good Idea
Elon Musk Explains Why Traditional Schooling Cannot Prepare Students for Modern Workplace
For generations, homeschoolers and the concept of homeschooling have been criticized by various power circles. The article by Harvard Professor, Elizabeth Bartholet, is a continuation of that mindset as she labels homeschool as a prison.
However, recent years have seen a major paradigm shift and millions of Americans are opting for homeschooling. Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, is one of the most influential personalities of our time who also thinks the modern education system is not worth it and would rather homeschool his kids.
“Regular schools, they were not doing the things that I thought should be done. So I thought well creating a school [homeschooling] would be better. I hired a teacher from the institute my kids were previously at, who also agrees that there’s a better way to do it [educate].”
The founder of SpaceX and Neuralink was talking about a fundamental element that the modern education system lacks and that is: problem-solving. Elon Musk believes the way children are taught in regular schools does not adhere to their needs. Musk explains this with a great example.
“It’s important to teach problem-solving. Let’s say you’re trying to teach how engines work. Now, a traditional way is to teach all about screwdrivers and wrenches, which is a very difficult way to do it. A good approach would be like: Here’s an engine, let’s take it apart and how are we gonna do that? We need a screwdriver or a wrench for that. When we teach like this, something important happens, the relevance of the tools becomes apparent.”
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s approach to education is synonymous with the concept of homeschooling. Most of us can’t afford to start a school like Ad Astra but we can learn a lot from this concept. Any homeschool can benefit from these basic principles.
What do you think about Elon Musk’s way of teaching? Share your thoughts….
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