Elon Musk’s Montessori preschool in Texas is one of the schools that has been attracting media attention, especially after Donald Trump was elected.
The school, which is set to open in 2023, has just been licensed by the Texas child care authority, paving the way for Elon Musk to develop ambitious educational plans to create “space citizens.”
Future Children
According to the plan, the Tesla boss will build more higher education schools and even a university to train a whole future community.
The Montessori school, also known as “Ad Astra”, meaning “to the stars” in Latin, is part of Elon Musk’s interplanetary space travel plan.
The project is located in Bastrop County, home to several of Elon Musk’s companies, and is enrolling 54 kindergarten students.
To serve his ambitions, the Tesla boss has built a dedicated team of instructors to provide a dedicated learning facility of the highest standards, according to documents seen by Fortune.
Students at Ad Astra attend a focused kindergarten, taught through exploration programs that include tasks like coloring, making mosaics, and studying maps of the globe.
In fact, Ad Astra is Elon Musk’s second project in the education sector when this billionaire built a school 10 years ago with the goal of educating his children as well as serving the children of SpaceX employees.
The school opened in 2014 and was also called Ad Astra, but after Elon Musk’s children graduated, the school’s teaching staff was transferred to another independent school called “Astra Nova” in 2020.
However, this time Elon Musk’s plan is more grandiose, investing nearly 100 million USD to build the initial facilities.
With Donald Trump announcing that he will appoint him as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), billionaire Elon Musk is attracting a lot of attention and the school project that the Tesla boss is building is also attracting a lot of attention.
Work and play
Fortune newspaper said that Elon Musk’s project is still in its early stages, but the billionaire’s ambition is not small.
According to the school’s application, Xplor Education CEO Greg Marick will be the Principal.
The school’s approach will revolve around exploring life to stimulate curiosity and serve the goal of future space travel. Children aged 3-6 will learn to button, color, draw, cut and paste.
Older children will get to ride tricycles and play ball.
Ad Astra’s curriculum balances learning and play to develop children to their full potential. They will also learn how to clean for independence from a young age, how to behave politely, and how to resolve conflicts in life.
The lessons are inspired by the work of two psychologists and educators, Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs. The main aim is to teach young people to be responsible, respectful of others and to solve problems in the community.
Elon Musk’s school may also emphasize self-directed learning and hands-on experience, working in teams.
It is not yet clear which of Elon Musk’s younger children will attend the school.
Some experts say Ad Astra will likely be quite similar to the “Montessori Hala Kahiki of Lāna’i” School on the island of Hawaii, which is also operated by Xplor Education.
While it’s unclear how much parents will have to pay in tuition at Ad Astra, according to the school’s website, “Montessori Hala Kahiki,” monthly tuition is $968.
Ad Astra will initially enroll 54 students but will expand based on local needs and circumstances. The school will also enroll distance learners, according to its state application.
Although Elon Musk does not appear in any documents, the Tesla boss’s traces appear throughout this project.
For example, the X Foundation, which is funded by the Musk Foundation, owns the property the school is located on.
The state license application was filed by Jared Birchall, Elon Musk’s financial adviser and longtime confidant.
*Source: Fortune
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