Reply to Beauvoir PreK vs GDS PreK

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[quote=Anonymous]Of course, Beauvior teachers allow students to approach problems or books in different ways (and, of course, GDS teachers will show kids "how" -- or "how's"!).  Especially in early education (and at schools where no one's lecturing and having kids doing piles of worksheets at this age), the difference will often be in emphasis or starting point.

The best way to evaluate whether these two schools are different (and how and which approach you prefer) is to spend a few hours in classrooms at each.

I'm not invested in characterizing the differences between the two schools -- I know GDS well, and Beauvoir only slightly -- just trying to explain what the tester was getting at and why it wasn't a ridiculous thing to say.  Some kids get overwhelmed when tasks are open-ended or when they're given a wide variety of ways to proceed up front.  GDS is unlikely to be a good fit for those kids or for kids who are like that at a particular age or stage of development.

I've seen this disconnect happen at GDS.  I also had the experience of seeing one such kid transform from being scattered and inattentive to being very focused, strategic and *creative* when presented with a context where rules and relationships were highly structured.

Some kids (hell, some people) think or work better when they have something to react to rather than an amorphous sea of possibilities.  That doesn't make them sheeple and it doesn't mean that teachers who provide more direction initially are authoritarian.  Nor does it mean that parents who choose a more structured environment are depriving their children of the opportunity to become independent.

And, again, these two schools aren't wildly different.  Choose the one you think your kid will like best based on observation and, maybe, cohort.[/quote]

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