Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has announced that the first “Bezos Academy,” a free preschool for children from low-income families, will launch in October in a town south of Seattle.
Forbes reports that Jeff Bezos, the CEO of e-commerce giant Amazon, has announced that the first Bezos Academy will launch in October in a town south of Seattle. The Bezos Academy is a free preschool for children from low-income families.
In a photo posted to Instagram of a classroom bookshelf lined with books, Bezos wrote: “This classroom is just the beginning. The @bezosacademy opens its doors on Oct. 19th. This one in Des Moines, WA, is the first of many free preschools that we’ll be opening for underserved children.”
The preschool will reportedly have a year-round curriculum, five days a week, for children aged between three and five years old. According to the preschool’s website, the team decided to put the preschool in Des Moines, a town south of Seattle, based on a number of factors including income levels, rates of participation in free and reduced-cost meal programs, gaps in access to licensed childcare providers, and buy-in from local businesses who have promised to support the growth of the local preschool.
Bezos announced plans to build an entire network of preschools in November 2018 when he launched the $2 billion Bezos Day One Fund which focuses on giving to nonprofits helping homeless families and building preschools. The fund has given approximately $100 million a year to homeless-focused nonprofits since its launch.
The curriculum will reportedly be inspired by Montessori, an education method that is hands-on, collaborative, and changes based on individual students’ needs and interests. Bezos attended a Montessori school himself when he was 2 years old in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Bezos told Montessori Life magazine in a 2000 interview: “You know, intuitively, I think it was probably a very formative experience for me to be able to go to those classes, in that environment, and be so stimulated at an early age. I don’t actually know what the scientific research shows, but intuitively I have to imagine that it’s good for little kids.”
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
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