Josh Dahn

Joshua Dahn is the Head of School at Ad Astra, a private school in Los Angeles co-founded by Elon Musk. Josh was previously a teacher a Mirman School in Los Angeles, and before that a teacher for Teach for America.

Kids in public schools rarely have a opportunity to have their voices heard, and that's a great place to start. Give kids choices between seemingly equivalent options and let them debate on it, without interjecting your own biases and opinions. Encourage multidisciplinary work, let them compete and encourage problem solving. Let the kids be heard.

In a traditional school kids might learn about art, it's history, some geography ...etc. Meanwhile, at Ad Astra they would be put to work on a complex project, structured around a purpose. For example, kids would be asked to run a simulation around a business problem of how to make money from a limited collection of art. They would compete with their fellow classmates, optimizing for revenue, planning around various geographical and other constraints. Teaching in such environment takes on a form of a college entrepreneurship class more so than just book knowledge around various facts.

On Beyond High Street, Joshua Dahn tells David Schwab that he turned to teaching in 2008, when law school looked like a poor bet in a recession. Teach for America was recruiting at Miami University, and the draw was how competitive it was. An earlier round from campus accepted nobody. Dahn borrowed a suit, stayed up on a lesson, and pep-talked himself before a five-minute demo. He was placed in Las Vegas. Love and frustration arrived together on day one: 33 children, six hours, and the usual playbook not enough. He calls that a moral imperative. Ad Astra, the school he later co-founded with Elon Musk, comes after that classroom.

Joshua went to college in Miami, knew a lot of people, enjoyed his college experience, but was not putting a lot of work into his academics because he was not entirely interested in what he was studying. At some point he switched to American Studies and Philosophy, where he started to enjoy the material a lot more.

Joshua Dahn and Elon Musk co-founded As Astra (which means "to the stars" in Latin). The school is based in Los Angeles, and is located on the Space X campus. Currently it teachers 50 kids , ages 8 to 14. The school focuses on problem solving, building character, forward thinking, and giving children a voice and an ability to reason.

To give kids authentic experiences in school and in the world. Create a forward thinking environment that kids love. Drop the dogma of the past and encourage children to be engaged and to work collaboratively.

Josh Dahn, the head of Ad Astra, the school founded by Elon Musk, talks about their approach to creative teaching on Beyond High Street Podcast and It's fascinating.