Anonymous wrote:Our kid is dyslexic and struggled until we went private. And the Montessori Mafia (the boosters) is intense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a disaster for our kid with ADHD (boy). Teachers did not believe in IEPs or supports, they insisted on treating all kids the same (the way Maria Montessori would have treated them in 1924, apparently). He spent a lot of time isolated so he would not distract the other students. We thought it would be a good model for him because they emphasize choice and independence and movement; turned out the primary teacher was extremely rigid about following all of the "works" in a specific order for a specific number of repetitions (which drove him nuts, he was forced to keep doing something after he was bored with it, even if we was clearly interested in switching to something else), and then the lower EL teacher insisted on quiet during the 3-hour work period which was impossible for him.

We should have pulled him out after primary when we realized it wasn't working, but we believed the BS about how the Montessori model can work for any child. Maybe with more flexible teachers, but not the way they were doing it in APS. Ended up switching to private (regular) school so he could get the attention he needed to catch up academically.

That sounds....not legal.

Anonymous wrote:Our kid is dyslexic and struggled until we went private. And the Montessori Mafia (the boosters) is intense.

Anonymous wrote:It was a disaster for our kid with ADHD (boy). Teachers did not believe in IEPs or supports, they insisted on treating all kids the same (the way Maria Montessori would have treated them in 1924, apparently). He spent a lot of time isolated so he would not distract the other students. We thought it would be a good model for him because they emphasize choice and independence and movement; turned out the primary teacher was extremely rigid about following all of the "works" in a specific order for a specific number of repetitions (which drove him nuts, he was forced to keep doing something after he was bored with it, even if we was clearly interested in switching to something else), and then the lower EL teacher insisted on quiet during the 3-hour work period which was impossible for him.

We should have pulled him out after primary when we realized it wasn't working, but we believed the BS about how the Montessori model can work for any child. Maybe with more flexible teachers, but not the way they were doing it in APS. Ended up switching to private (regular) school so he could get the attention he needed to catch up academically.

Anonymous wrote:It was a disaster for our kid with ADHD (boy). Teachers did not believe in IEPs or supports, they insisted on treating all kids the same (the way Maria Montessori would have treated them in 1924, apparently). He spent a lot of time isolated so he would not distract the other students. We thought it would be a good model for him because they emphasize choice and independence and movement; turned out the primary teacher was extremely rigid about following all of the "works" in a specific order for a specific number of repetitions (which drove him nuts, he was forced to keep doing something after he was bored with it, even if we was clearly interested in switching to something else), and then the lower EL teacher insisted on quiet during the 3-hour work period which was impossible for him.

We should have pulled him out after primary when we realized it wasn't working, but we believed the BS about how the Montessori model can work for any child. Maybe with more flexible teachers, but not the way they were doing it in APS. Ended up switching to private (regular) school so he could get the attention he needed to catch up academically.

Anonymous wrote:OP here...I am also trying to find out about the school culture. Did you get to meet other parents? Get to know the parents in your DC's grade? Have an organized feeling from the teacher? Get information about what is going on in the classroom?

We are coming from years of private school experiences ($ doesn't buy you a way out of the current state of education in this area when you don't want to be at the $40K and above pricetag) but youngest child doesn't have a great crop of students at her current private school. She needs a wider pool of kiddos. And our neighborhood APS school is the absolute pits.

Thanks for any insights!