I’m joining in on Rx Fitness Lady’s Mini Blog Challenge…Today’s prompt: Controversial Topic!
When it comes to raising kids, everyone has an opinion and sometimes they don’t mind sharing. There’s spanking vs time out, breast vs bottle, disposable vs cloth diapers and on and on and on. When you’re a celebrity, people really love to get on the internet and let their thoughts be known about how you raise your kids. One couple in particular I read about A LOT are The Smiths. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read people’s rants about Will and Jada Smith and how they run their household.
From Willow and her hair and music that some think seems a bit old for the 12 year old. Then there’s the constant discussion about whether their kids attend school. People certainly have an opinion about this family.
I have to say, I have even weighed in on some things about their daughter Willow once upon a time. For the most part, I just observe. Enter Jaden Smith’s tweets. 
I was cruising around the web yesterday as I do, and I saw a post about Jaden “slamming” education. He tweeted the following:
“If everybody in the world dropped out of school we would have a much more intelligent society.”
“All the rules in this world were made by someone no smarter than you. So make your own.”
“School is the tool to brainwash the youth.”
“If newborn babies could speak they would be the most intelligent beings on planet Earth. Education is rebellion.”
Huh? I don’t follow him on twitter, so I didn’t know if he was trying to be deep or what. His statements caught me off guard, but then they didn’t. Based on interviews I’ve seen with his parents, this didn’t see that off base to me. I don’t know what he’s been exposed to to make him feel this way about education. I don’t know if he’s been enlightened by some deep, philosophical reading he’s done. Who knows.
While, I agree the education system needs an overhaul, I wouldn’t go the whole drop out route. Um, yeah, no bueno. Even as a joke or off-handed comment – no bueno. I think as parents, we have to fill in the gaps that we feel the schools leave out. If we think our children are learning too much of one thing and not enough of the other, we can change that. If we want our kids to be more individual and free-thinking, then we encourage that. That’s a whole other post though. Is that where he was coming from? Again, who knows.
What I do know is that Jaden has over 4 MILLION followers on Twitter. Many of which, I’m sure, are around his age. If he was trying to make some deep statement, context would have been great. I just picture a bunch of kids RT’ing without knowing the basis of the statements.
Sometimes kids really look up to other kids that are in the spotlight. So kids that are in the spotlight, need to watch what flows from their keyboard. When you have influence, you have to use it wisely. Of course, a lot of that comes with age. At 15, you go full speed ahead. At 30 something, you know when to pump the brakes.
That’s the downside of social media though. When you’re a celebrity, people zoom in on everything you say and do on social media. How else would the world have known that Miley Cyrus un-followed her now ex-fiance on Twitter? Who is watching her account like that?!?!?! I digress.
I wouldn’t have even paid Jaden’s tweets any mind if I hadn’t seen the post about them. The thing that struck me is the writer pointed out how many followers Jaden has. That got me to thinking… it is his job to think about who he’s influencing or is it on his fans to think about who they allow to influence them? Thoughts?
11 Comments on You’ve been brainwashed! Jaden Smith says so…
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Due to his privilege, Jaden may become successful following his “who needs education” philosophy, but that is not the case for average kids.
As someone who works with dropouts every day I know first hand that, yes, many dropouts highly intelligent people.
What Jaden, at age 15, fails to realize is that without the money he has access too, being a dropout won’t lead to success for the average dropout. Employers want to see that diploma or GED. They don’t care if you have a beautiful mind if you can’t produce that documentation.
Jaden is responsible for what he puts out there. However, the parents of his followers are responsible for letting their kids know they need to stay in school because they aren’t Jaden Smith!
Hopefully, as he grows and matures, he’ll be more mindful of his tweets.
Jenni recently posted…Fun with Mommies
I know a parent who took her kids out of school to homeschool them and felt the same way. She felt she could do a better job of teaching than the school system. Granted the school her kids were going to did lose their accreditation I feel that kids need school. I teach at home what they don’t teach in school just to make sure they have that extraness. I think everyone can be intelligent with or without school.
Kita recently posted…You are not the only blogger
First off: I need Jayden Smith to have all of the seats.
My problem with this is that Jayden has grown up privileged. With access to opportunities that most children will never dream of. And like you said, he has all of these followers his age who believe every word that comes out if his mouth. And he is influencing the next generation. Who already have enough issues without adding education of lack of to them, what is that saying? With great power comes responsibility? I’m going to need him to think on that.
a child who has NEVER been to traditional school has NO room to speak on it. He needs to have several seats and just concentrate on being a kid.
Krissy recently posted…Randomish
Hm..I know nothing about the Smith family but I don’t agree that schools brainwash our kids. There are so many different schools in this world. So many different homeschoolers. So many gifted teachers..
Tamara recently posted…Safe and Sound.
Wow great post. I am hearing this for the first time from you. I gotta tell you, I didn’t understand what his tweet was supposed to mean. But if it he meant traditional school sucks then I’d sure hate for my kid to be one of the 4 million who take Jayden’s tweets to heart. Humph!
Kenya G. Johnson recently posted…My CELLPHONE is better than yours…
Thanks to Twitter, I also read about Jaden’s “awesome” advice. While the Smith children are uber cute they are also privileged and seemingly arrogant. Too each it’s own with how you raise your children but when your children begin spreading foolery without any thought to society at large then a smack down needs to take place.
Andrea recently posted…I Choose to Only Buy Brown Dolls for My Brown Skinned Daughter
He may never need an education, the money will never run out, but just in case his followers are busted they should educate themselves with a career in mind.
If they drop out now they won’t be accused of being over qualified for the position.
I think celebrities need to recognize their influence be responsible about what they put on social media, but Jaden Smith is a kid who just doesn’t get that yet. I personally think he’s spouting a load of hogwash, but I’m an adult and I know better. Kids will emulate him and listen to his words without putting them in context.
Dana recently posted…What a difference a decade makes
Amen to us being wise about who we influence. I think in this situation it is a shared responsibility but I do feel that Jayden responsibility should be more of like 75% vs his fans 25%. That may not seem fair, but it’s just like the preacher. He is just a child of God like the rest of us but he is held to a different standard and must recognize and operate in that. I totally don’t get what is possessing Jayden to tweet this nonsense.
Joi recently posted…Throwback Thursday Ten Years: Senior-itis STOMP’s the YARD