Will, Jada Pinkett Smith Mysterious 'School': A Front For Controversial Religion?
In 2007, Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, established a "mysterious" private primary school.
The New Village Leadership Academy (NVLA) began as a homeschool in one of Calabasas, California's abandoned "Men in Black" houses.
According to The Sun, the Smiths taught between 20 and 30 children inside their $20 million house before opening a school on the adjacent campus of Indian Hills High School, where they paid $890,000 in three-year rent.
Dr. Mariappan "Jaw" Jawaharlal, assistant dean and engineering professor at California State University, lectured on robots from 2008 to 2010.
Jawa told the publication that instructors at the school were obliged to incorporate Scientology education ideas into their classrooms, stating that the majority of the institution's full-time teachers were outspoken and proud Scientologists.
In reality, literature and artwork by founder L. Rob Hubbard were purportedly exhibited around the school.
He then claimed that the New Village Leadership Academy was a Scientology training facility.
Though Will and Jada Pinkett Smith denied it, the 61-year-old stated that "there was a dramatic lean toward Scientology in that school."
The Smiths have denied in public and private that their school is associated with or has anything to do with the contentious religion.
The "Red Table Talk" host acknowledged in a 2009 interview with Ebony Magazine that their institution was "not a Scientology school."
"Now, if you don't believe me and are questioning my ethics, that's a completely different story," Jada said.
"It's horrible to think I'd bring families into that educational facility and then try to convert them to whatever faith."
According to the Sun, the school openly embraces the study of technology, an educational model developed by the Scientology founder that focuses on three fundamental principles of learning, which are "mass," "gradient," and "misunderstood word," or "word clearing," which is also at the heart of Hubbard's teaching.
This would require a pupil to comb through chains of words in dictionaries to better understand the meaning.
Jacqueline Olivier, the school's first headmaster, also told The Daily Beast that the institution was a "Scientology school," confirming Jawa's allegation that Hubbard's books and photographs were freely displayed around the school and that various other religious activities were also part of the curriculum.
Will and Jada Pinkett Smith are friends with Scientology poster boy Tom Cruise, but they have long denied being members of the religion while admitting to being intrigued by its beliefs.
The NVLA closed in June 2013.
