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The most exclusive school in Los Angeles is located on the SpaceX Campus and does not include sports, music and language in the program. SpaceX in Hawthorne, California is working on a small secret group called Ad Astra. They are not ordinary scientists in the field of rocket science. According to Ilona Mask, they embark on ambitious projects such as flamethrowers, robots, nuclear policy and the victory over Evil II
Ad Astra members find time for a lunch break because the average age of this group 10 years.
Ad Astra is composed of students and not employees. The last 4 years in this experimental and non-commercial school, the sons of Mask, the children of SpaceX, and several prominent children of Los Angeles are studying. It all started in 2014, when Mask brought his five children from one of the most prestigious schools for gifted kids in Los Angeles. Hiring one of their professors, he founded Ad Astra, in accordance with US Tax Administration documents, "to go beyond traditional school indexes for all the elements required because of the experience of the school." unique learning based on the design work. "
I did not think mainstream schools were doing what I thought was necessary, "he told Chinese TV in 2015." And I thought we could do that? Would it be better to create a school? ? "
In an atmosphere that looks more like a business incubator than a traditional school, Ad Astra's current students undertake sophisticated technical projects, negotiate with their own currency, and refuse. to study the objects that they own .. not like you Children 7 to 14 years old work in teams, have only a few formal characteristics, and there is absolutely no classification.
The director of Ad Astra hopes that the school will revolutionize education, just as Tesla has changed the automotive industry and SpaceX is a missile launcher industry. But the sons of Mask are approaching the school and the future of the future. Ad Astra is unknown Will Mask want to go to school when his kids go to school? And even if it is, can a school of less than 40 students become more than high-tech crèches for privileged children?
How the school is built
Ad Astra behaves more silently than most stealth mode startups. His website is just a logo and an e-mail address, and the school does not try to "sell" to their parents. Mask himself hardly talks about Ad Astra, and SpaceX and Ad Astra refused to answer the question. At the present time, everything external people know about Ad Astra was received at the 2017 webinar where the school principal gave interviews and the latest papers filed with the school. US tax administration, mentioned above
. The mystery, the demand among Los Angeles families is simply enormous, says Christina Simon, author of Beyond the Brochure – a guide to the city's private elementary schools. "There are people who can afford a private school in Los Angeles, but they want that kind of thing," she says. "Everything revolves around Ilona Mask and whoever is it."
In the last reception cycle in 2017, 400 families participated in a dozen free places
In December, on the Parental Forums and Facebook of Los Angeles an online application began to appear, presumably Ad Astra. In the application, it was necessary to fill in the data on the assessments of the children, the results of their tests, and the personal data of the families, but no contact was indicated.
"I spoke with several parents who were going to take a risk, so it's impossible to confirm that it's an Ad Astra application," explains Simon. "So much interest for the school. I can not imagine that this happened with another school, not general education, nor private. "
The school is mysterious even for SpaceX. About half of Ad Astra students are children of SpaceX staff, and they talk about the school at the time of the school. hiring, says Simon. "I heard by some families of SpaceX that they had tried but could not get any information about the school, even though they had told them that they had such an opportunity, "she says
. pass the test, and hire, fall into a school that is not alike. Starting with the fact that the location of Ad Astra within the working society is rather unconventional. "We started with 8 children in a very small conference room with transparent walls," said school principal, Joshua Dun, at the time. a conversation with entrepreneur Peter Diamandis last year. "Engineers came and watched constantly." [19659003] 
Joshua Dan (left)
The first year, Mask's children were almost 2/3 of all students. "We were very few," recalls Dan. "Especially when five students from the same family are going to rest and three children."
Parents are not unusual attempts to start their own school, says Nancy Hertzog, a professor of educational psychology at the school. University of Washington and expert in education for the gifted. "The development of these schools is linked to funding, the question is whether these schools limit the income of different children Can they teach children with disabilities?"
In 2016, the Los Angeles Times published an obscure note about Ad Astra's non-discriminatory policy, stating that the school does not discriminate skin color, race, nationality or ethnicity.Although Ad Astra has its own offices and a laboratory of chemistry in SpaceX, it still reminds us of a start-up – with whiteboards, Mac laptops for each student, and futadraki for post-school courses.For this, like everything else at school, Including tuition, Ilyon Mask pays.According to the US tax administration, he donated $ 475,000 to Ad Astra in 2014 and 2015, and probably in recent years, while the school counted 31 students.
"Ilon is very generous," says Dan . "This allows us to take any suitable child. We do not have unlimited resources, but more than traditional schools. "
Curriculum
The flip side of this generosity is that Ad Astra reflects particular Mask views.The focus at the school is on science, mathematics, design and art. It does not have any physical education or music lessons, just like language, because Mask thinks we'll soon have access to an immediate, real-time automatic translation, Dan says.
fear of more than just nuclear weapons One of the modules of the Ad Astra program calls Geneva, in which teams explore and discuss a range of ethical and geopolitical issues. "We use simulations which include AIs, which children will face in the future, "says Dan." We discuss how to regulate the different teams that develop the II, the state and the companies. Children are very interested in such things. "
Another module, called A-Frame, includes the production of everything from weather devices, to stealing robots and explosions, says Dan." The kids asked for a robot contest to find out if they could give them a flamethrower or use an EM pistol in their creations. "The answer is always" yes, "laughs Dan. "Well, until you destroy the school." Earlier this year, Mask began selling rockets through the Boring Company
After the Kremlin Valley Mantra – Creative Destruction – Ad Astra rewrote its program every year and about half of the subjects are chosen by the students themselves. Ongoing projects include environmental policy, space exploration and North Korea. The weekly sex task called Folio involves extensive research on a specific topic. It's the cruising industry this week, followed by gentrification.
"The program is necessary to go to the bottom of the body, which means making the right decisions, even when it's difficult," Dan says. "Yes, one of the members of the North Korean team has brought the world to the nuclear holocaust, but it is an important moment for the child."
"The preponderance of Ad Astra is how much education will be closer to life" Hertzog "A training program based on inquiries allows students to engage in what they want." 39 they desire, to present ideas in the context and to acquire basic skills to solve problems. Such direct contact with our future is very exciting for children. "
The most traditional lessons include creative writing, physics, chemistry, mathematics and, of course, computer science." Dan says students work on 60-70% laptops. the academic day.They learn to program on Scheme, Swift and Scratch, and independently conduct online courses at Codecademy, edX or Khan Academy.
Dan believes that at any time, Ad Astra is using up to date. at 20 different student sites.One of them depend on their own e-economy school, which uses a monetary unit called Astra. "Thanks to the skills they receive, we give them the ### 39, opportunity to make money or impress their friends, "says Dan." One of the kids is preparing his own fine cookies, which can be ordered online. Another child creates sites for his classmates. Children are constantly traded by Astra.
Students also had creative sessions in which they painted portraits of their favorite scientists from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), took advantage of a mobile graffiti workshop a company that builds "micro-entertainment parks".
"The traditional system is very passive," says Dan. "I ask parents how much of their time at primary school was spent on delivering. Most answer on average 35%. It's terrible, we just spend the kids time … The day is put to death.
The feeling that Ad Astra was created to unleash the next generation of Type A technology entrepreneurs is confirmed by the Symposium module, in which students present and protect the project at hundreds of years. 39; adults. "The idea is that students actually represent TED … in front of an audience that will give them real feedback, and that feedback will be hard to listen to," Dan explains.
In 2016, students made presentations before the UCLA staff, and then at the University of Southern California in 2017. "Receiving a score of 5 or 4 is not a real feedback, "says Dan. "It is absolutely useless.It is important that you deserve your work, your skills, and your abilities."
Future
In September, Ad Astra alumni, including two sons of Mask , aged 14, will face the fact that they will have to go to traditional high school. "These children of Ad Astra, who intensively studied creative problem solving and had the opportunity to learn more about it. "Usually having a voice at their school, will come back to the traditional system … where every minute is planned for you," says Dan. "I think that they can trigger a riot in the future." [19659003] 
How Ad Astra students manage rooted curriculums and standardized or tests, will show the effectiveness of the non-standard approach of the school.However, pe Maybe nobody will ever know it. Probably, Mask will decide that Ad Astra is so effective that it would be crazy to send his children elsewhere. In 2015, children attended school until the sixth grade. The following year to the seventh, and last year to the eighth grade – according to the age of the eldest son Mask. "He can just add new classes until it's time to send them to the university," Christina Simon laughs.
The director Joshua Dana finally represents a vertically integrated school that includes mask concepts, from kindergarten to high school liberation. But this requires keeping Mask's interest in education after his own children have left school. And as the business empire grows, Mask is getting busier. According to reports from the US tax administration, in 2015, Mask only spent an hour a week at Ad Astra, before founding his start-up Neuralink, working on brain-machine interfaces , the Boring Company and a potential site. , publishes the media rating – Pravduh.
Some experts hope that it will continue the case. "I would like public schools to have the resources to use some of Mask's ideas, including the rejection of silly standardized tests and a fixed program for students to do what they want," says researcher Diane Ravitch. the field of education in New York. York University. "The mask should use some of its wealth and influence to free public schools from testing.If otherwise, this school is only a rich toy."
In one way or from another, the place at Ad Astra School will remain more exclusive than the Tesla 3 model. According to the Tax Administration, "because of the teacher / student ratio, the number Ad Astra students will probably never exceed 50. "
For parents who do not believe, Dan promises that Ad Astra will make its educational program available to every family that has applied for admission. Thus, regardless of whether Ad Astra will continue to exist after Mask's children, the school's approach, at least, can be studied and possibly repeated.
"Our intellectual property will only have an impact if it is widespread", – says Dan. "Children want to love school, they want to make complex decisions, they want to be able to learn what they are interested in. In the end, they want to be in an environment where every child has something its own.
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