Angelina Jolie: For many kids, the quarantine means the end of their education

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Japan Premiere

Is Angelina Jolie already a little bit stir-crazy? Perhaps. Over the past three years, she’s gotten used to spending time in one place for months at a time, although as we’ve seen, she gets itchy to travel and explore far-flung places, often with her kids. She’s been in LA with her children for months though, and now Maddox is home from South Korea, and so the Jolie Seven are together again for the quarantine. This explains why Angelina agreed to speak to a South Korean reporter at DongA Daily about coronavirus, quarantines, Maddox’s studies and lots more. Some highlights:

On Maddox choosing Yonsei University: “I could not be happier about Mad’s choice of university. It is, of course, closed at the moment because of the pandemic. But he’s not transferring school, he’ll be back as soon as things settle. We are all so happy, as a family, that we will have the opportunity to get to know South Korea even better through Maddox, and with him, during his studies.”

She’s homeschooling her kids, but she’s worried about access to education for kids around the world: “Being suddenly out of school and cut off from friends is hard for anyone, but in some countries, if a young person’s education is interrupted in this way, they may never be able to go back, because they have to go to work or face other pressures. So there’s an urgent need to help young people to continue their education, through distance learning for example, to ensure they are able to get their qualifications and that they get the other kinds of support they need. This is my major focus, and something that I’m working on with UNESCO and a Global Education Coalition.”

She hopes governments care about refugees even in the pandemic: “The most important thing to understand is that even before the virus, the situation for refugees globally was dire, with chronic shortfalls in basic humanitarian assistance including, for instance, a lack of basic healthcare. So while of course it is right that governments are moving quickly to protect their own citizens, it is urgent that we help more vulnerable societies and communities that could be devastated by this disease.”

She’s providing more content for the BBC show My World, which she executive-produces, and she released this statement about it: “Children have not been out of school on this scale since the Second World War. This is something that throughout their lifetimes, they will remember. It is something that older generations, for all their other reference points, have not experienced. The way children go through this time – from the tools and information they can access to the ways they can communicate to and help each other – will be unique to their generation. We want to help kids to have access to trusted content and tools that will be useful to them during the pandemic: including helping them to seek out fact-based and reliable news, question the information they receive, and learn from each other’s experiences.”

[From People]

Quarantine kids are like “yay no school, I’m going play outside” and Angelina is the mom who is like “there are kids quarantined in Pakistan who would love to have your access to remote learning tools. Those kids would love access to education past the ninth grade.” And that sh-t works too, at least it did on me when I was a kid. Anyway, of course I believe her, Maddox will go back to South Korea, probably in the fall, one would hope.

Italian Premiere of Disney's Maleficent held in Rome, Italy - Red Carpet

Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Zahara Marley Jolie-Pitt and Knox Leon Jolie-Pitt arrive at the World Premiere Of Disney's 'Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil' held at the El Capitan Theatre on September 30, 2019 in Holl

Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid and Avalon Red.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

17 Responses to “Angelina Jolie: For many kids, the quarantine means the end of their education”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Gobmerg says:

    Why wouldn’t I love this woman? while others are talking smack about her she pays them no mind and keeps doing good!

  2. Astrid says:

    Team Jolie and family.

  3. Hmm says:

    I read the whole interview and I liked her comment on Harvey Weinstein/hollywood.

    Also, Mathew Perry aka Chandler from friends liked a comment against Brad Pitt. It was under the E news Instagram page re mellisa etheridge and the bleached blonde orange twins Aniston and Pitt. The comment was like “shouldn’t he be busy working on his relationship with his kids. The pandemic and FaceTime is a good chance to talk” – not exact quote but close.

    Anyway, I thought it was interesting that perry liked it. People in hollyweird know how fake he is. LoL

  4. Valiantly Varnished says:

    Love her

  5. TrustMe says:

    Much respect to Angelina as a women and as a parent and as a humanatarian .

  6. Annaloo. says:

    Gwyneth: pls look at Angelina Jolie for a good way to use your fame and reach. This is not to pit one woman against another, but a wellness platform based upon exhorbitantly priced items that are not proven whose key to success is capitalizing on the neurotic and unnessecary insecurity of moneyed women is such a waste

  7. Veronica S. says:

    Something I like about Jolie is that when she talks about her work, she never frames it as “my work” or “my organization.” She highlights those she’s working with and describes her part as contributing to fixing a problem while placing the actual issue center stage, rather than shifting the focus to what SHE does and how great HER work is. That framing has always made her come across far more genuinely to me than a lot of other celebrities, for whom a lot of these efforts are so often clearly vanity projects.

    She is, of course, not free from criticism for how her lifestyle and money may contribute to other issues, but where Hollywood is concerned, she comes across better than a lot of them. A lot of her colleagues could learn a thing or two about PR charity narratives from her.

  8. Wit of the Staircase says:

    Love her. If she ran for office I’d vote for her in a second. She has a firm grasp of issues, natural speaking ability and empathy–attributes sorely lacking in American politics today. Senator Jolie anyone? Dianne Feinstein can’t stay forever.

  9. Mireille says:

    As someone who worked with the UNHCR once told me, this woman has been on hundreds of humanitarian mission trips, undertakes what’s needed of her without complaint, fuss, or attention. And they love her for it. I know I complain about being cooped up in my apartment bored, but I know I am just lucky compared to others. Her words remind me that there are those living in impoverished conditions all over the world who are the most vulnerable to this pandemic — any pandemic or crisis — and they should not be forgotten or pushed aside.

  10. Amber says:

    I have been worrying a lot about what will happen when the virus hits refugee camps in Syria/Turkey/other places. Even before this happened, conditions for refugees are appalling and it’s a humanitarian crisis. Now it’s going to get even worse.
    Angelina does good work and puts her celebrity to good use. You can tell she takes her advocacy work very seriously and is probably the only celebrity I would actually trust to work as a diplomat or something like that.

  11. JoJo says:

    On Nightline they profiled a little girl who lives in a homeless shelter in NYC who has trouble doing her school work.Her school gave her a tablet but the shelter has spotty Wifi.It’s not just kids in Third World countries missing out on their education there are kids in America who don’t have internet access at home.So they have to sit outside a Wifi hotspot because the McDonalds dining room is closed because of stay at home orders.

  12. Awkward symphony says:

    God I love her! Unlike her peers,she truly takes her work with the UN seriously. I was really impressed to read years ago about how understanding and cooperative she is with organisers even paying it herself and bringing world media to document the visits and the causes she’s helping. Other celebs stop after one visit/recorded appeal but she has been working on these issues for almost more than 16years now!!

    @HMM interesting story. I wonder what stories he heard. Perhaps that’s why George & Amal Clooney haven’t contacted him despite his recent appearances and golden globe win! They’re clearly distancing themselves from him and possibly even Angie(as there’s rumours of George and Angie working together on something to support scriptwriter/actors charity).

  13. Sidewithkids says:

    Count me in for her as President. It’s funny b/c i just read her Time article and I was actually thinking she should be in the next President’s cabinet over education or health and human services, she would get that stuff together, for sure.

    I so don’t understand why people act like she’s in the wrong in stuff, seems to me the woman is just super smart in a dumb down society. Oh, well, maybe all of this will make us understand being smart is truly winning again.