EXCLUSIVE: Jada Pinkett-Smith defends using Scientology to homeschool her kids Willow and Jaden and claims it was BETTER than traditional learning
Jada Pinkett-Smith writes in her memoir Worthy that using Scientology methods to homeschool her children helped them attain 100 percent proficiency
She also writes that she turned to Scientology after her father suffered a severe relapse from his drug addictions
This comes after years of speculation about her and husband Will Smith's relationship to the controversial church
Jada Pinkett-Smith has defended her use of Scientology to homeschool her children and claimed it was better than traditional learning.
The actress writes in her memoir that it enabled Jaden and Willow to attain '100 percent proficiency with a subject' instead of just learning things by rote.
Jada denied she was a member of the Church of Scientology and said that for her it didn't have a 'stigma'.
She also claims that she sent her father to a Scientology drug treatment program and that within a month he went from being close to death to fit and strong, a transformation she calls a 'miracle'.
Jada's comments in her new memoir Worthy, come after years of speculation about her and her husband Will Smith's relationship to Scientology.
Despite speculation that Will is a Scientologist, a former Scientology executive said in 2015 that he was not a member.
Yet in 2008, Will and Jada opened the New Village Leadership Academy in Calabasas, California, a private elementary school which was said to employ Scientologist teaching methods.
They included Study Technology which was developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and a method that Jada used on her own children, she writes.
Former students have recalled how there were pictures of Hubbard on the walls of the school and his books were used as learning materials.
In Worthy, Jada says she homeschooled her own kids because she wanted them to be able to travel with her and Will when they were away for work.
She writes: 'Some of the controversy about my approach to education probably had to do with the use of the Study Technology learning method I'd discovered when I was introduced to Scientology.
'Study Tech, although it came from Scientology, is legally defined as secular. Because of my experiences on Sundays at the Ethical Society and my Christian, Islamic, Judaic, Buddhist and Sufi studies throughout my adult life, I didn't hold the same stigma around the Church of Scientology as most do.
'I was very clear when I stepped into the Church of Scientology that becoming a member would not be possible nor was it my goal. My goal was to embrace the Basic Study Manual to educated myself about a method of learning.'
Jada says that the goal of Study Tech is to 'help a student achieve 100 percent proficiency with a subject, as opposed to memorizing and regurgitating but not gaining command over said knowledge or skills.'
She says it can help a child 'gain a sense of self determinism with respect to whatever is being taught.'
She goes on: 'The system offers many different processes for how to engage children in their education and to create habits that make them lifelong learners.'
Jada writes that Jaden 'thrived' with homeschooling but Willow asked to attend a regular school when she was middle school age. Willow didn't like it to begin with but stuck with it.
In the book, Jada writes that she turned to Scientology again after her father suffered a severe relapse from his drug addictions.
She writes that she got him into Narconon, a program affiliated with Scientology to help people with addictions.
Narconon claims to have an 80 percent success rate and rockstar Beck is said to be a fan, but it has faced lawsuits from families whose relatives have died while attending the program.
In Worthy, Jada writes that her father Robsol was in 'disastrous shape' and he was so sick from drugs that he needed a wheelchair to get around.
Jada writes that in her view he was 'clearly on the brink of death.'
Yet after attending the program for less than a month Robsol was 'drug free, out playing basketball' and was recovering 'speedily,' Jada claims.
She describes his transformation as 'nothing short of a miracle.'
For a time Robsol continued studying with the Church of Scientology but left after a while because he was a Christian.
The New Village Leadership Academy closed in 2013 and Jada had denied to Ebony magazine that it was a Scientology school.
Speaking in 2009 she said it was 'straight evil to think that I would bring families into that educational institution and then try to get them to convert into some religion.'
In a 2017 Twitter thread Jada said that she had studied Scientology and 'appreciated the merits' of Study Tech but was not a Scientologist.
Daily MailIs anyone shocked? Anyone at all?
