Montessori kids in public school

[Anonymous]

Can Montessori kids from a Montessori program assimilate in a public school?

[Anonymous]

There are public Montessori schools here.

Do you mean can they cope in a non-Montessori setting, or do you mean they can cope with being in public school where their classmates have more economic diversity?

[Anonymous]

Most kids will be just fine. Isn't it obvious, there are far more Montessori preschools and elementary schools and not so many middle and high schools, so what happened to those kids?

When kids struggle to cope, it's because they've been allowed to fall behind academically under the guise of Montessori, or because they have some kind of special needs that makes the Montessori setting easier for them to tolerate. As long as the parents have their eyes wide open about those two things, it'll be fine.

[Anonymous]

My 2 Montessori boys have thrived.

A friend who is a principal at a local private school told me at one point that he has noticed they come in confident and very prepared.

[Anonymous]

There was a recent thread on this in private schools forum. Suggest using search to find it.

[Anonymous]

Yes! We are a big Montessori family and both of my girls transitioned to 1st grade at public school very easily. Big change but kids are super adaptable.

[Anonymous]

We live near downtown Bethesda and our kids, like many others we know, attended the Bethesda Montessori School for 3 years (incl K) and then went into first grade at Bethesda Elementary (public, MCPS). My kids still remember their preschool fondly. They learned so much there. All the Kindergartners could read well by the time they graduated.

Public was a lesson in socializing and dealing with large classes and noise. The academic content would have been easy whether they'd attended a public or a private, because primary schools always need to focus on the least advanced students, since reading and counting are so essential to what happens later. Most of the Montessori kids we know later ended up in magnet programs, advanced tracks in their public home schools, or one of the Big 3 privates.

My kids are adults and teens now. Youngest is at Bethesda-Chevy Chase high school, doing practically all AP courses.