July 2, 2008, - 3:27 pm

Another Reason I Oppose Charter Schools: Actor Will Smith, Wife Start Scientology Science Fiction School

By Debbie Schlussel
As readers know, I oppose charter schools and have for many years. They are merely vehicles to suck your tax money into funding bizarre religious ideologies and further separate America.
I’m all for a competitive marketplace, and that’s where school choice among public schools takes place and, perhaps, vouchers (but those, too, can go for religious schools disguised as secular ones). Charter schools–all based on certain beliefs and other means of separation–take away from the common American experience. And there is very little oversight. One Islamic charter school I know of is “overseen” by a small community college, the personnel of which have never set foot within 100 miles of the school.

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Will & Jada Smith Start L. Ron Hubbard School for Kiddies

There is no reason you should be funding the extremist Muslim Tarek Ibn Zayid Academy in Minnesota, other Islamic charter schools around the country, and now, this latest adventure into the absurd: Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s new experiment in tax-wasting, a Scientology charter school, which they claim–just like the Muslims–won’t be a Scientology school based on the cult started by failed science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard and his non-existent “thetan” buddies.
While the Smiths are not saying the school will be a charter school, it appears it will be, and there’s nothing to stop it from becoming one. They’ve donated only $900,000 for the school, 80% of the kids will be there on scholarship, and the money will have to come from somewhere.

The founders of New Village Academy are . . . stars: Will Smith and his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. . . .
But the school’s Sept. 3 opening, on the leased campus of a former school in Calabasas, will be accompanied by a whiff of controversy. Some of its teachers are members of the Church of Scientology, and it will use teaching methods developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. . . .
One teaching method the school uses is study technology, which was developed by Hubbard and focuses on students gaining hands-on experience, mastering subject matter before moving to the next level, and being taught not to read past words they don’t understand. . . .
New Village plans to have nonprofit status [DS: That’s where your tax money comes in], as well as accreditation from the California Assn. of Independent Schools . . . .
The New Village curriculum includes literacy and math, and subjects such as living skills, Spanish, karate, yoga, robotics, technology, etiquette and art. Parental involvement is encouraged, as is limited access to television and sugary foods.
But critics contend that the school is not being honest about its links to Scientology. David S. Touretzky, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, created a website that dissects study technology and asserts that it is Scientology religion disguised as education.
Touretzky said many phrases and concepts on the school’s website are specific to Scientology. For example, the school lists a “Director of Qualifications” and another teacher who is an assistant in the “Qual” department. The “Qual,” said Touretzky, is where people who have completed a Scientology counseling, or “auditing,” session or a course in the Church of Scientology are tested by a qualifications teacher.
“There is no reputable educator anywhere who endorses [study technology],” said Touretzky, a critic of Scientology. “What happens is that children are inculcated with Scientology jargon and are led to regard L.R. Hubbard as an authority figure. They are laying the groundwork for later bringing people into Scientology.”

Scary. Almost as scary as the Muslim charter schools that claim they are not Muslim. Time to end this separation of American education into miniaturized tax-funded bins of the most loony thought imaginable. Islam, Scientology–none of this should be a part of K-12 tax-funded education.
Just wondering when the Jim Jones Charter School will be opening. I hear they serve Kool-Aid as the lunch beverage.






11 Responses

Scientology is proof that Hollywood airheads have no credibility whatsoever. That should make their leftist views all the more suspect. Anyone who sends their kid to this indoctrination tank should be charged with abuse.

spiffo on July 2, 2008 at 4:58 pm

As they are doing in Europe and elsewhere, the Muslims are using the “operating system” of the host nation for their advantage, until they gradually impose their own Islamic “operating system.”
It’s that simple.
The only solution is to BAN Islam in the West.
Banning Islam means: No Mosques, no Schools, no Social clubs, no Qur’ans, etc., i.e. nothing that reveals the existence of that evil cult.
Islam must be outlawed and the Muslims who don’t abide are very welcome to leave.
A perfect example for banning an “evil” religion such as Christianity is Saudi Arabia.
It’s time to give it back to them.

Independent Conservative on July 2, 2008 at 6:00 pm

This type of thinking is frightening. America is about choices. Christianity is about free will and choice, not dogma and retaliation. We have to be examples and continue to pray for those who have challenges…there will be no little judges or accusers in heaven…pray thay men and women get saved and converted…stope spreading hate and separatism…

JR on July 2, 2008 at 6:14 pm

I always wondered who Will Smith’s God-father was. He seemed to have little talent, but got every staring role available. No one else need apply. Well, Now I know. It is the Church of Scientology.

Burt on July 2, 2008 at 6:35 pm

wow a cult that have the average joe has to pay and attend meeting while the movie stars have a separate meeting house with room service

PNAMARBLE on July 2, 2008 at 6:56 pm

What? They can’t afford to homeschool? How sad.

bhparkman on July 2, 2008 at 7:54 pm

Will Smith once said:
“I was raised in a Baptist household and my grandmother would get up out of her casket (if I became a Scientologist).”
http://www.hollywood.com/news/Smith_Turns_Down_Cruises_Scientology_Bid/3591886
So much for grandma’s influence.

heroyalwhyness on July 2, 2008 at 9:05 pm

Another problem with charter schools is that they are causing many Catholic schools, where parents have to pay tuition out of their pockets (plus taxes for public schools their kids don’t attend), to close down.
Catholic schools have been successful in assimilating immigrants, giving them traditional American values and patriotism, plus a good education. Yet, charter schools, which are free and government supported, are siphoning away many students that could benefit from Catholic education. What these students need are traditional Catholic and American values.
http://www.reason.org/commentaries/jacobs_20080305.shtml

Gabe on July 2, 2008 at 11:03 pm

OMG!
Will Smith, Letterman’s darling. Is he also a scientologist?

sheik yer'mami on July 4, 2008 at 1:24 am

Mmm, yes, zombie Jesus saving our souls but only if you’ve heard of him and believe in him existing simultaneously with a benevolent God vs. Scientolgy, a religion based on souls from outer space flying to Earth. You’re right, we shouldn’t teach science fiction.

Dieter on July 5, 2008 at 2:15 am

it seems that Gulen’s inflitration into Turkey’s education, politics, media, and military are under investigation especially after a tell all book by a Turkish Police Chief. Next will be an investigation in America on the mismanagement of funds surrounding the 140 US Charter Schools that the Gulen Movement manages.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100901/FOREIGN/708319894/1002
The National on the Investigation of Gulen in Turkey

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-08-17-turkishfinal17_CV_N.htm
USA Today a Look at Gulen and the American Charter schools

Murat Erbil on September 11, 2010 at 5:50 pm

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