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In a corner of SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California you won't find rocket
engineers or even adults for that matter. For a number of years, Elon Musk ran a school out
of his rocket factory to educate his five children - not including boy number six, Baby X. They had been
enrolled at a private school for gifted kids in LA but Musk wasn't satisfied with their education
as he once told the Chinese television network. The regular schools just they weren't doing the
things that I thought should be done. Musk has been critical of the American education system -
pointing out teachers don't explain why kids are taught a subject. They're taught a mathematical
formula without explaining why that formula is important. As an analogy, he says simply listing the
tools you need to take an engine apart isn't the same as trying to disassemble the engine yourself
and by doing so, learn the relevance of the tools as you go. When he's not happy with how things are
done, the entrepreneur tends to do something about it - whether it's creating rockets, cars, computer
chips, or his own school. He named it Ad Astra which is Latin for: to the stars. I actually hired
a teacher from the school they were at who also agreed with me that there was a better way to do
it. That teacher is Josh Dahn who I spoke with over Skype. Was it a tough decision for you to leave the
private school where you were teaching at to go on this new venture? No, of course not, right? I mean if
anything, you know, Elon asked me to think about it and I responded, you know, hours after we originally
spoke, like, in the middle of the night because it was so clearly a great opportunity. Ad
Astra was far from a typical school with no classes in language, music, sports, or even grade
levels. Students were grouped based on their ability where they took part in complex team
games to test their critical thinking skills. In one simulation, teams competed at various art
auctions to try to assemble the best collections to display at exhibitions around the world, similar to what these students are doing. I like the Shrine Gate. Okay, yeah, you do that one. It's a lot for adults to juggle let alone the eight to 14-year-olds at Ad Astra. Musk reimagined how school could be taught
based on First Principles reasoning. A fancy way of saying: How could you rethink how something
is done in order to make it better? A strategy applied to Tesla's manufacturing of batteries. It
used to be very expensive to build batteries for electric cars. You could say that's just the way
it is and there's no way to bring the price down. First Principles thinking would say it's possible
to make cheaper batteries by breaking it down to the basics: figuring out what the batteries are
made of and how those materials could be cleverly combined to form a battery cell. In education,
First Principles mean figuring out how students can get the best learning experience possible to
bring about the best future for them and for the world. I can't believe that it's sitting at a desk
listening to a teacher tell you how to you know do side angle side theorems in geometry class. Ad Astra
grew from nine kids in the first week of 2014 to 50 six years later - a mix of children of SpaceX
employees as well as high achievers from the area. Sometimes they ventured off-campus. A converted
garage at the former house of Gene Wilder once served as a chemistry lab. This unorthodox approach
to education doesn't come cheap. Tuition was around $30,000 a year with some receiving
financial aid. When Ad Astra closed in June 2020, Musk donated funds to kickstart an online school
called Astra Nova headed by Josh Dahn. Although the SpaceX CEO isn't personally involved, he has
his fingerprints all over the new school. A former SpaceX engineer teaches rocketry there. And
even the application is related to one of Musk's passions. Interested students have to submit
a response to this environmental problem. What would be your answer? There's a large lake near a
small town. A corporation dumps harmful chemicals into the water. Scientists studying the lake say
it'll die in 10 years if the pollution continues. An individual, the puppet master, is concerned
new regulations will impact profits so they decide to pay a small group of scientists
to publish bogus research claiming the lake has never been healthier. The media reports on the
new study. Politicians have the power to stop the pollution but decide not to since there appears
to be disagreement over the health of the lake. Plus, the company employs so many people in town
its closure would devastate the economy. Voters who listen to the media, politicians, and scientists
are confused over what the truth actually is. They re-elect the politicians. The corporation
continues dumping harmful chemicals into the lake and the lake dies 10 years later. So, who is
to blame? There's no right or wrong answer but the school is interested in how the children reason
through ethical dilemmas. It's not about preparing the 100 or so admitted students for an Ivy League education. In fact, Musk went on the record to say degrees don't matter when Tesla's artificial intelligence team looks to hire - putting it this way: Don't care if you even graduated high school. Not to mention, many smart people dropped out
of college like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Musk has said he simply wants evidence of
exceptional ability which he hopes can be fostered at a young age. And SpaceX of course is an exercise
in possibility. The concepts are available to kids around the world online through a separate venture
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