So, New Village Leadership Academy’s curriculum was based on L. Ron Hubbard’s study technology — but what does that actually mean? According to The Daily Beast, the school’s now-defunct website noted that it comprised of hands-on learning, total understanding of one topic before moving to another, and, finally, the concept of “misunderstood word.” However, some educators who had been involved with the school weren’t major fans of the approach.
Speaking to the outlet, the former head of school, Jacqueline Olivier shared that in particular, the “misunderstood word” approach — which required children to understand every single word before moving to the next — was holding children back from learning. “I said to Jada … ‘They can’t move forward and everything is bogged down. They would have fifth graders reading second-grade material — just one paragraph, because they would stop at every word,” she recounted. Another educator speaking to The Daily Beast, frequent guest lecturer Mariappan Jawaharlal, claimed that the children were too often left to their own devices. “There was no structured curriculum … In the name of ‘creativity,’ they were just letting the kids do whatever they want,” he complained.
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Granted, both Smith and Pinkett Smith have long been open about offering her own children the freedom to think and do what they wanted. And, with the school based on what Pinkett Smith had been teaching Jaden and Willow Smith in home-schooling, even if controversial, this one isn’t exactly surprising.
