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Permalink Reply by cheryl cliff on May 11, 2009 at 9:46am

Isabel,

Happy Mum's Day to you too!

We had both our sons (Alex 10-DMD and Max 9-not DMD) in a local Montessori during K-2 and 3rd grades. Our thoughts in enrolling them at Montessori was since their program allows children to "go at their own pace" this would be great for both boys. However, we didn't have a positive experience with either school, we tried two Montessori's who were owned by the same family. Here is what we discovered: Montessori is individually run and can be good or bad depending upon individual teachers and the admin. which isn't any different than public or any other private school.

My son's teacher wasn't interested in teaching, as she confessed to me. She was here in the USA to escape turmoil in Sra Lanka, was attending college for a computer related degree, didn't like children and was there working with the rest of her family at Montessori. We were not aware of Alexander's DMD when he attended and I have to say they (Montessori and his teacher) were not professional educators (in our city). The teachers did not have proper credentials and some of the punishments for "bad behavior" (ie my son was too slow) were ego bashing and really quite terrible. Alexander came away with a severe fear of math in particular and was a solid year behind in that subject when we changed schools. He has since caught up and actually skipped a math grade so I know it wasn't because he's not capable. Social isolation was often used as a form of punshment and with DMD preventing much of the physical interaction during recess Alexander felt completely unconnected to anyone. One mother pulled her two daughters from the school, mid year, after seeing Alexander's teacher verbally (abuse) punish him. He was a sad little student and my heart breaks remembering this part of our lives.

I could not recommend the Montessori in my area but since each school is run differently, despite the Montessori name, you might find something different in your area. Montessori is a franchise of sorts and should be evaluated individually. I would ask if teachers have credentials at the school you are considering and then do drop checks to see how the class is running.

We found another private school to send our sons to. They have teachers who care, have credentials, and don't punish students in inappropriate ways. They work well with students and this has helped my sons understand their experience at Montessori wasn't normal.

I hope your experience turns out different than ours. No kid deserves what Alexander went through.
cheryl

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