Jaden Smith: School is brainwashing. Education is rebellion.
September 20th, 2013
I’ve only seen two Jaden Smith movies, “Karate Kid” and “After Earth.” I was not a huge fan of either, primarily due to the writing, but looking back I am impressed with Jaden’s performance in both, primarily because he disappeared so thoroughly into the role, something his father has always had trouble with. In After Earth he’s even playing the son of Will Smith’s character, and he still successfully created a character distinct from himself. That’s quite a challenge. The other thing I liked about both these movies was the emphasis on the primacy of choice in the development of the main characters. And now it seems some of that message has impacted the development of the young actor.
This week the entertainment press is squawking about some controversial tweets sent by the younger Smith. They’re condemning him for everything from his blaspheming against the gun-run education system, to his improper use of capitalization (apparently they are unaware that the normal rules of spelling grammar don’t apply on Twitter, or more likely, they’re lack of anything intelligent to say has them grasping at straws).
Jaden’s tweets show a remarkable degree of insight for a 15-year-old. They read:
“People Use To Ask Me What Do You Wanna Be When You Get Older And I Would Say What A Stupid Question The Real Question Is What Am I Right Now”
“All The Rules In This World Were Made By Someone No Smarter Than You. So Make Your Own”
“School Is The Tool To Brainwash The Youth. Education Is Rebellion”
“If Newborn Babies Could Speak They Would Be The Most Intelligent Beings On Planet Earth.”
And finally, the headline tweet:
“If Everybody In The World Dropped Out Of School We Would Have A Much More Intelligent Society . . . Everybody Get Off Your Phones And Go Do What You Actually Wanna Do.”
Jaden’s grandmother, Caroline, was a school administrator who worked for the Philadelphia school board. His parents, Will and Jade founded their own school, the New Village Leadership Academy, in Calabasas, California. For some reason critics of Jaden’s tweets call these details “ironic.” I suppose it is ironic in the same sense that John Taylor Gatto being named New York City teacher of the year 3 years in a row, and also saying that compulsory schooling is dumbing us down is ironic. By that I mean, it’s ironic until you think about it for about 30 seconds.
If I had to guess, I’d say Jaden didn’t come from a family that valued school, he comes from a family that values education, which is a different thing entirely. In that sense, coming from a family that has worked closely within the school system, both public and private, lends credibility, not irony, to Jaden’s statements. The New Village Leadership Academy employed a wide range of unconventional educational methods before it was shut down last June. Why would that be if the Smith family wasn’t critical of conventional methods?
It apparently extends beyond education in the Smith house. Will Smith frequently advocates the unconventional parenting style he and Jada have employed. He said, “We respect our children the way we would respect any other person. Things like cleaning up their room. You would never tell a full-grown adult to clean their room, so we don’t tell our kids to clean their rooms.”
Imagine being raised that way, being treated with respect, as a full fledged autonomous human soul, and then being told, now you must read these books you don’t want to read, you must play these sports you don’t want to play, and you must raise your hand to use the restroom. Can you imagine treating a full-grown adult this way?
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