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[quote=Anonymous]"&lt;He or she will question you and talk back to you after Montessori exposure.&gt;

This made me laugh. "

Me too. Any school run poorly is going to produce a bad outcome. This is true for public, private, and Montessori. It is common in every type of school for a bad administrator or teacher to try rationalize that this is what the approach requires when in fact they are just poorly executing it.

My 5 year old is in a Montessori preschool and reading just fine. She certainly is not skipping over sight words and only partially reading her books. One of the pros of Montessori for us on the academic side has been the reading and math instruction. Its provides a deeper level of conceptual understanding than other approaches researched. It seems to work with a broader spectrum of learners since it combines visual, tactile and traditional learning styles. DD was very verbal at a young age. The writing, reading, and phonetic approach worked great for her. DS has a speech delay and more difficulty sorting out auditory sound distinctions. The visual and tactile approaches, and early exposure to phonetics helped him quite a bit.

Another pro with Montessori is that it incorporates things are that are not traditionally academic but give kids a sense of accomplishment, respect for others, and pride. Both my kids really enjoyed practical life activities. At first I thought it was odd that they were laying things out in a particular order and then polishing them. I asked the teacher about it and she explained that it helps them feel a sense of empowerment (the pieces are fragile, glass, look like adult things), learn a pattern of steps but more importantly help them develop fine motor skills so when they move onto writing they are not frustrated at first.

The mix of kids from different ages, IMO teaches the kids better social skills, how to relate with peers that are different and different level of development, and provides leadership roles once the kids are older.

The comment about kids having holes in their education is ridiculous. Public school curriculums are absolutely filled with holes the size of craters. Science, art, music, history, social studies and anything that is not covered on those darn tests has been thrown out in favor of less expensive test prep time in the classroom. The worst problem in public IMO is the lack of critical thinking skills and analytical writing. These skills are very important for college and working success but they are often short changed.

The downsides to Montessori are that you need to commit and make sure you are comfortable with the school. I think it would be very difficult to jump out of Montessori in mid elementary cycle and go into a public school. It doesn't seem to be a problem entering public school at 1st grade but by 2, 3, or 4th it becomes an issue. The other downside could be less exposure to fill in the bubble tests. By the time PSATs and SATs roll around, public school kids have experienced a zillion standardized tests. Some people are comfortable in these testing situations and others are not. I would suspect for people who are not the constant exposure in public school would help them. [/quote]

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