Over a month ago I wrote a pretty long article comparing Will Smith’s private school, The New Village Academy, to both the educational practices used by Scientology schools and the basic tenants of the Scientology religion/cult. While there are multiple educational principles listed on the website for the school, including Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard’s Study Tech, the more in-depth explanations of their mission, philosophy, testing methods and definition of ethics use both concepts and wording that are easily identified as straight from Scientology scripture. What’s more is that five out of seventeen teachers are easily identified as Scientologists.

Now the LA Times has contacted officials at Smith’s school, as well as the Study Tech expert and critic who was kind enough to provide quotes for our earlier article, Dr. Dave Touretzky from Carnegie Mellon University. Officials at Smith’s school, New Village Academy, swear that just because nearly a third of the teachers are Scientologists and they use Hubbard’s Study Tech doesn’t mean it’s a Scientology school:

New Village Academy began about three years ago as a home school for the Smiths’ youngest children — Jaden, 9 and Willow, 7 — and those of several other families. After an extensive search, Jacqueline Olivier, previously an administrator at private schools in Santa Monica and La Jolla, was hired to head the school.

Since joining the school a year ago, she has been responsible for hiring staff and preparing for the opening of the new campus.

Olivier responded to written questions about the school submitted through Will Smith’s publicist. She said some staff members are Scientologists and others are Muslim, Christian or Jewish. The school has no religious affiliation, she said.

“We are a secular school and just like all nonreligious independent schools, faculty and staff do not promote their own religions at school or pass on the beliefs of their particular faith to children,” Olivier said.

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.

“People tend to think study technology is a subject, but it is really just the way the subject is taught,” Olivier said. “They then come to the conclusion that we are teaching Scientology when actually a methodology doesn’t have anything to do with content.”

The school, she said, will use many philosophies, including Montessori, Bruner and Gardner. Olivier said the Smiths would pay nearly $900,000 to lease the Indian Hills High School campus in the Las Virgenes Unified School District for three years. Fall enrollment is expected to be about 40 students and will eventually rise to about 100, she said. The school will include pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, with a top annual tuition of $12,500.

[From The LA Times]

I didn’t mention this in the earlier article because it wasn’t necessary, but I have a masters in education and have studied the other educational experts the school’s head mentioned: Montesorri, Bruner and Gardner. The philosophy and “ethics” listed on the website for Smith’s school are straight from Scientology and bear little influence from other educational philosophies. Let’s revisit the comparisons we found between Scientology scripture and Smith’s school’s methodology as listed on their website. Most of the text below is from our last article on this.

Smith’s school uses terminology, phrases and concepts that are from Scientology scriptures

Smith’s School’s Mission:

We believe that an individual’s survival and prosperity are inextricably bound to the rise and fall of his or her family, social groups and humankind.

[From Newvillageacademy.org, emphasis added]

L. Ron Hubbard on Ethics:

Dishonest conduct is nonsurvival. Anything is unreasonable or evil which brings about the destruction of individuals, groups, or inhibits the future of the race.

[From Scientology.org, emphasis added]

Use of “Qual” as a test to judge understanding:

Upon completion of a subject chapter such as in math, the teacher sends the student to “Qual”, where he/she is given an test in various forms. If the student scores anything less than 100%, the Qualifications teacher will sit down with the student and go over the part of the exam that was not fully understood and make sure the student understands all of the words and concepts in the chapter. The teacher will also make sure the student did not skip any concepts which would inhibit learning. This is done to help students so that they gain 100% certainty.

[From Newvillageacademy.org]

The abbreviation “Qual” is directly from Scientology, and describes a concept unique to the cult. Scientology expert Dr. Dave Touretzky corresponded with me via e-mail, and provides this explanation:

I have not seen the term “Qual” used this way in the context of Scientology-affiliated educational organizations. It use here comes straight out of the Church of Scientology itself! “Qual” is where you go when you’ve completed an auditing action in Scientology, or completed a course in the Scientology church. How revealing. Also of note is the final phrase: “100% certainty”. Notice that they did not say “mastery” or “understanding” — the terms professional educators use. They said “certainty”, which is the standard profession of faith used in Scientology. Even the Delphi schools aren’t this blatant in their use of Scientology phraseology.

[E-mail received from Dr. Dave Touretzky]

Smith’s school’s definition of ethics:

An understanding of basic ethics helps students prosper as individuals while being a part of a group. Ethics is simply the choices and actions a person takes on himself, and the ability to take responsibility for his or her actions.

[From Newvillageacademy.org, emphasis added]

Scientology’s definition of ethics:

Ethics may be defined as the actions an individual takes on himself to ensure his continued survival across the dynamics. It is a personal thing. When one is ethical, it is something he does himself by his own choice.

[From Wikipedia and Scientologyethics.org, emphasis added]

So school officials say they just happen to use Scientology school methodology and have a bunch of teachers who are Scientologists, but they’re not a Scientology school. How do you explain then that their philosophy, mission, definition of ethics and testing methods are straight from Scientology itself?

And even if they only use Study Tech, it’s not like it’s ever been proven effective. As Dr. Touretzky explains in the LA Times article:

“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.”

[From LA Times]

How would you feel if you sent your kid to a 12k a year school and they were trying to indoctrinate them into a cult the whole time, but swore the school was based on other educational principles? But it’s not like Smith can admit he’s a Scientologist, can he? They’re only going to help those kids, they don’t need to tell their parents they’re teaching them to revere L. Ron.

Will and Jada Pinkett Smith are shown on 6/27/08 at Mandela’s birthday concert, thanks to WENN.