My daughter attended this "preschool" for a very short time. I had visited Bija over the years prior to having a child and loved the spiritual aspect with regard to their original mission. They spoke about parents and children working together to provide quality learning through play, meditation and yoga daily, respectful interactions within the preschool community and the surrounding neighborhood. Needless to say, I was very excited to enroll my first child within this community. I'm a former educator and continue to have high expectations for all children. The school year started late in September, well after the DOE schools which didn't please me or my husband. The first day was labeled "transition", where new children, this meant my daughter, were to stay for 1 hour. My daughter was so upset that she had to leave after the hour. She wanted to stay in school. Although our payment included a full day, I was forced to take her early. They very reluctantly accommodated me the following day with providing her with a half day. Again, we paid for a full day of school but got less than what we paid for. The orientation for the school was very odd and "off putting", with parents in little nooks and cliques. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. The presentation had no real curriculum and the community that I remembered within the original Bija mission seemed to have disappeared. I didn't think anything of this until the Director, who has taught yoga to children and has written one article on the subject, lost her Education Director. This current Site Director, Lauren is not an educator. Nor does she have children of her own. She is not a certified educator or administrator. Many of her new "radical approaches" don't align with proven research based models and outcomes within the field of education. My husband and I left the orientation without any information on the curriculum and/or what they had planned for the year. We were worried. So, I scheduled a meeting with Lauren immediately to discuss my expectations as well as some of my concerns. My daughter attended for a month and each day the BIJA visiting area white board of objectives consisted of "learning how to say please and thank you", "walking down the street on a rope" and forced rest time. I made time to speak to the Site Director, Lauren about my concerns on several occasions. During our last and final meeting, she replied "I guess you just have high expectations." Of course I do. If you're reading this, I'm sure you do as well. She offered my husband a refund after she organized a school trip that was upstate (during a school day I and several parents paid for) with little to no coordination on her part. There were busses arranged with no mention of booster seating and the group arrived an hour later than they mentioned in the group email. My family and I went up on our own via our own car. The Bija staff were also expected to attend this apple picking trip about an hour and 1/2 to 2 hours away from Brooklyn. Many of them were speechless when we all discovered the lack of bathrooms (instead port-a-potties) for a trip with 2-3 year olds and overall lack of communication about the day. When we finally got together, Lauren decided to do a last minute lesson that half the children couldn't hear and the other half just weren't listening to. After a month and a 1/2, my husband and I were done with the excuses. After the apple picking trip, I found out from my daughter that there was a little boy playing "bad guys" all day at school. He began teaching the other kids to hit each other while the teachers did nothing to intervene. This account was confirmed by two other parents I spoke to after we were given a refund. This is not what I would call a preschool. This facility is overpriced babysitting. I've spent the last several months exposing my daughter to other programs where students are reading by 3 years old. Don't bother considering this program. The site Director, Lauren is more concerned with her new Bija "radical program" that takes place in Goshen NY, where she lives. The program here in Brooklyn is secondary, in my opinion. Once my daughter was discharged on the Friday after the apple picking trip, by Monday Bija staff had all of her things in the lost and found and her photo, that was on her shared cubby, was replaced by another child. Not a nice way to treat the child of a member of the community who simply didn't agree with the lack of expectations for children. I was refunded a week later after complaining and threatening to report them to the NYCDOE and Better Business Bureau. There are better places to place your child. Look for certified teachers, an education director who is ever present and parents (as well as their children) who actually say "hello", "good morning","excuse me", "please" and "thank you" One final note, their photos are from 2 years ago. read more
