Going through Willow(14) and Jayden Smith's(16) interview on New York
Times just makes me wonder...On what "thinking plane are these teens
really?
It definitely will not be unconnected to their upbringing in
Scientology. I also remember their parents, Will and Jayda, say they
don't interfere with their children's lives. Their parenting style
leaves the children to make decisions themselves.
Here are a few of their thoughts that caught my attention:
What are you searching for in those pieced-together moments?
JADEN: Honestly, we're just trying to make music that we think is
cool. We don't think a lot of the music out there is that cool. So we
make our own music. We don't have any song that we like to listen to
on the P.C.H. by any other artist, you know?
WILLOW: That's what I do with novels. There're no novels that I like
to read so I write my own novels, and then I read them again, and it's
the best thing.
JADEN: Willow's been writing her own novels since she was 6.
How does fashion relate to what you do?
JADEN: Willow just dropped a song ("Cares"), let me quote the lyrics:
"I do not care what people say." We both don't really care. I like to
wear things that I make, but I throw it on as though I was throwing on
anything. It looks cool, sometimes.
WILLOW: I like to go to places with my high-fashion things where there
are a lot of cameras. So I can just go there and be like, "Yep, yep,
I'm looking so sick." But in my regular life, I put on clothes that I
can climb trees in.
What are the things worth having?
JADEN: Something that's worth buying to me is like Final Cut Pro or Logic.
WILLOW: A canvas. Paint. A microphone.
JADEN: Anything that you can shock somebody with. The only way to
change something is to shock it. If you want your muscles to grow, you
have to shock them. If you want society to change, you have to shock
them.
WILLOW: That's what art is, shocking people. Sometimes shocking yourself.
So is the hardest education the unlearning of things?
WILLOW: Yes, basically, but the crazy thing is it doesn't have to be like that.
JADEN: Here's the deal: School is not authentic because it ends. It's
not true, it's not real. Our learning will never end. The school that
we go to every single morning, we will continue to go to.
WILLOW: Forever, 'til the day that we're in our bed.
JADEN: Kids who go to normal school are so teenagery, so angsty.
WILLOW: They never want to do anything, they're so tired.
JADEN: You never learn anything in school. Think about how many car
accidents happen every day. Driver's ed? What's up? I still haven't
been to driver's ed because if everybody I know has been in an
accident, I can't see how driver's ed is really helping them out.
WILLOW: I went to school for one year. It was the best experience but
the worst experience. The best experience because I was, like, "Oh,
now I know why kids are so depressed." But it was the worst experience
because I was depressed.
Read the full interview here:
(http://nytimes.com/blogs/tmagazine/2014/11/17/jaden-and-willow-smith-exclusive-joint-interview/?_r=2&referrer=)
My take on this interview is that there's the good, the bad and the
ugly... I agree with their thoughts of school being overrated.
Photo-credit (Jayden and Willow): usmagazine.com
