That camping trip your family still talks about? Science says it’s worth more than any toy under the tree.
Penn Badgley is opening up about his unique approach to parenting.
The 39-year-old “You” and “Gossip Girl” actor appeared on the Nov. 4 episode of Bustle’s “One Nightstand” podcast when he started talking about his views on education when it comes to his kids.
As far as Badgley is concerned, many parents today start that process a little too early.
“The 5-year-old right now, we have him in a kind of a hybrid homeschooly vibe. He's not in kindergarten yet," he said of his son, whom he shares with wife Domino Kirke.
"We don't need to be teaching these kids as much as we try to teach,” he continued. “Our reading and math comprehension is going down because we actually start too early.”
Instead of enrolling his 5-year-old in kindergarten, Badgley wants his child to enjoy being a kid.
“You sometimes hear parents in Park Slope, Brooklyn, talk about their kids in the park, and it's just like, God bless 'em all, seriously, I know we're all trying our best, but the neuroses and the anxiety," he said.
"It's like, can we let these children be children?” he added. “And the answer is actually no, because we don’t know how to play.”
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Domino Kirke and Penn Badgley started dating in 2014, according to People.
The couple tied the knot three years later and welcomed their first child, a son whose name has not been publicly revealed, in August 2020. They went on to welcome twin boys earlier this year.
Badgley is also a stepdad to Kirke’s 16-year-old son Cassius from a previous relationship.
Penn Badgley says Cassius is in a ‘serious private school’
Elsewhere in the podcast episode, Badgley — who graduated from high school at age 13, according to The Mirror — opened up about how he and Kirke didn’t want Cassius to go to school in New York City.
The couple ultimately decided to move to a small town for a year and a half after the pandemic.
While he talked highly of the town and confirmed his plans to move back there someday, Cassius wanted to move back to Brooklyn — where he was born and raised — to attend a private school.
“So, he’s in a serious private school here and that really works for him,” Badgley said on the podcast.
“It’s the right kind of stimulation and I actually feel good about it,” he said. “I don’t think it’s for everybody. It is intense, but I have to say, again, he’s thriving in that. He needed that and kind of wanted that.”
Badgley went on to discredit the current education system in the United States as flawed.
He stopped short of blaming teachers — though he admitted there are bad ones — and clarified that he is pro-education, but is also “all for finding alternatives for the time” when it comes to his younger kids.
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“I never lost my love for education because I wasn’t a part of the educational system,” he added.
