Elon Musk has many references to his name. He is the founder of SpaceX, CEO of Tesla, owner of X, head of Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and currently an educator.

Last week, on November 14, Texas officials granted the first permit to Elon Musk’s pre-kindergarten Montessori school called “Ad Astra” (Latin for “to the stars”).

The question many people now ask is what kind of school is Musk’s institution? What will the curriculum be like? So, would you enroll your children in this facility?

What is Elon Musk’s new school initiative in Texas?

Elon Musk’s school, known as Ad Astra, is located in Bastrop, a picturesque farm town that is home to Musk’s other companies such as SpaceX and The Boring Company. According to reports, Musk has big plans for Ad Astra; plans to build an elementary school, a secondary school and, if all goes well, eventually a university. The billionaire has allocated approximately $100 million for this purpose through his non-profit X Foundation.

For now, plans focus on the kindergarten, which has the capacity to accept 54 students aged three to six. The institution is located on a 40-acre former horse farm that also houses a basketball court.

A news report prepared by Luck The preschool’s state application indicates it will be led by Xplor Education CEO Greg Marick, he said. He will be accompanied by three more faculty members.

The preschool began advertising applications in August, saying it was awaiting a license from Texas officials. However, some delays were encountered, resulting in the license now being issued.

Ad Astra premieres in Bastrop, Texas! Applications have started for the 2024-2025 academic year.https://t.co/jOCsILQjj2

— Ad Astra (@adastra) July 31, 2024

What will be taught in Ad Astra?

The school promises to be different from traditional educational institutions. The school’s mission statement on its website is: “To foster curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking in the next generation of problem solvers.”

The site also states: “Ad Astra’s educational approach focuses on hands-on, project-based learning where children are encouraged to explore, experiment and find solutions to real-world problems. “Ad Astra offers a progressive learning environment that emphasizes the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) into the curriculum.”

The focus is on exploration and tasks such as coloring, creating collages, and examining maps and globes will be undertaken.

According to the school’s website, students will be provided with uninterrupted study periods that allow them to fully participate in the tasks they choose for themselves under the careful and individual guidance of their teachers.

Additionally, classes will be organized by multiple age groups. This means children of different ages will be grouped into one group, and the school says such an arrangement will encourage lasting relationships.

A. Luck The news stated that the curriculum was inspired by the work of two psychologists and educators, Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs, to “teach young people to be responsible, respectful and competent members of our community.”

The school will also focus on the holistic development of children by instilling social and emotional life skills. Children will be taught empathy and compassion, as well as grace, kindness and respect, raising well-rounded individuals who can make positive contributions to society.

It’s unclear how much parents would pay for their children to attend the Bastrop Ad Astra school.

So how to get into Ad Astra? The school’s website states that Ad Astra School admits students on the basis of merit to all rights, privileges, programs and activities generally granted or offered to students at the school, regardless of race, color, national or ethnic origin. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

Where did Musk get the idea for Ad Astra?

Although Elon Musk’s idea of ​​building a school in Texas is new, his experiments in education date back almost 10 years.

In 2014, Musk pulled his five children from their prestigious private school in Los Angeles and placed them in a SpaceX conference room with several of his colleagues’ children and a teacher. He himself called it Ad Astra, but it spun off into an independent, distance-only school called “Astra Nova” in 2020 after the tech mogul’s children graduated, according to a 2021 interview the co-founder gave.

When asked about this, Musk said in a 2015 interview that he did not like the way “regular schools” were run and wanted to try his far superior ideas. These included a curriculum that included fighting flame-breathing robots but no music, sports or languages.

He said: “It is important to teach problem solving or the problem, not the tools. Let’s say you’re trying to teach people how engines work. A more traditional approach might be: ‘We’ll teach you all about screwdrivers and wrenches.’ This is a very difficult way to do this. There might be a much better way, like ‘Here’s the engine’. Now let’s break it down. How do we separate this? ‘Oh, you need a screwdriver!’”

The school also did not have a grading system; all the children were going through the same classroom at the same time, like on an assembly line.

So what about Musk’s Utopia in Texas?

In particular, the Ad Astra school in Texas is part of Elon Musk.
snailbrook — a town he built for his family and the staff of all his companies. Musk calls it “a kind of Texas utopia along the Colorado River” where staff can both live and work.

Reports say he has purchased as much as 2,430 hectares (6,000 acres) of land in the Austin area where he plans to build everything from homes to factories and even a church.

His move to Texas came in 2021 in response to California Gov. Gavin Newsom signing into law a bill that would ban school districts from having policies requiring parental notification if their children identify as transgender.

With input from agencies