What is Sojourner Truth like?

[Anonymous]

Our now-high schooler did one year in Middle School and loved it. But Montessori may not be the best bet if your kid is particularly weak or actively dislikes a subject they need to pushed to engage in. Social-emotional experience was great for kid. And Truth has a great system for getting middle schoolers to take on executive functioning tasks that will serve them well in later middle school and high school years.

But at least 3-4 years ago, my kid learned almost nothing in Math the year the one middle school year they were there. They entered the school from a DCPS school at grade level, per Truth's own testing. And ended the year with absolutely zero gains. Went to DCPS middle school the following year, and it took a year and two summers worth of extra catch-up work via DCPS AND private tutoring to get kid back on grade level. (Kid had to do extra iready sessions after school for two years, which I scoffed at, at the time, but actually did end up helping.)

I do think our kid was able to take advantage of the Montessori system to choose to do as little as possible in math, which wasn't kid's favorite subject at the time. That said, kid had friends at Truth who LOVED math and were able to work ahead and do well, operating at advanced math levels. But if your kid actively avoids a subject they are weak in, it might not be the best situation. Also, at the time, we had almost zero idea about the challenges during the school year, because kid always tried to knock out homework during the school during the advisory time, to earn whatever rewards they got on Fridays for doing their school/home work. But all I can think is that kid must have gotten help doing it from other kids or teachers to complete the work, because the lack of gains just went so undetected.