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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I really hope the OP can come back and fill us in when she gets her child into a better program.

I had a child at Logan last year, and I wasn't impressed. The school is old and has decades of deferred maintenance which they are trying to catch up on. I think that the class sizes are far too large, and as such the children lack supervision. I found the principal to be completely disengaged and disinterested. I think the school is coasting on it's reputation from the time it was at Peabody. [/quote]

This Montessori program used to be housed at Watkins, not Peabody, and the leadership was shaky in that setting as well.  When it was part of the cluster there was always a "pass the buck" mentality whenever a parent raised concerns.  As in the Montessori lead teacher would say "you have to talk to the principal" and the principal would say "I'm not in charge of the Montessori program."  I believe the former Cluster principal is now the principal of the new location.  Don't know if the same lead teacher is still there... I also remember that classroom control/behavior management did not seem to be a priority, though I know the Montessori philosophy on that part of child development is different than a more traditional approach.  Which is why Montessori works well for some kids and not so well for others.  The typical morning routine when the program was at Waktins was sort of a rolling arrival on the playground from 8:30 to 9-ish with just a few adults (often parents) supervising.  The Montessori kids would stay out on the playground after the Watkins traditional kids had already gone inside--I was never really sure how they accounted for everyone...

Some of the teachers were good and many families were happy there at first, but others were shocked to find that their kids were very far behind academically by the time they reached the upper grades. Several families switched over to the upstairs traditional classrooms by 3rd or 4th grade, even though they were intially told they could not do that--that they had to commit to the program all the way through 4th grade.

AGain--not trying to speculate about which program OP is working with, but just a note that the Montessori approach is very unique and typically works best with children who are intrinsically motivated, can be self-directed, and who don't rely much on external structure and routine.  Might be that OP's child needs a different type of school?[/quote]

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