I've never written a bad review but our experience with this establishment compelled me to finally do so. We attended our first Art Class (Level1 4-5) with our 4 year old and were thoroughly disappointed. There were about 4 other kids in the same class but it was obvious that they have been attending there given that they brought their projects with them. Our child was completely new to the class and was not properly guided and was just expected to understand the projects that were already in flight. This was the first red flag we noticed since we were under the impression that this was a "class" where teaching would occur. Instead, the instructor expressed a lack of patience and was unprofessional towards our child and did nothing to actually teach her on what to do so she can feel like part of the class. After about 35 minutes into the class she called us into the room and explained how our child is not ready for an Art class and should come back in 6 months. We were amazed how this teacher was able to come to such a conclusion so quickly on my child's very first session where no guidance or teaching was even applied. To make matters worse, she tactfully insulted us by doing this while all the other parents and students were present and able to hear the entire conversation. I actually see this as a training issue (or lack of). Discussions between teacher and parents about their child (especially if it is negative) is done in private. As far as I can recall, I've never had a parent teacher conference in public with other parents in the room (even for positive feedback). These are private conversations and I thought this was obvious to everyone but I guess not to this business. Then, the instructor told us that we can go now (again, still in front of everyone) but had to pay $30 cash for the class which we were not even allowed to complete. Absolutely ridiculous! As a business owner myself, I can't fathom treating a customer this way because I understand how important a happy satisfied customer is as well as a dissatisfied one. It's obvious that customer satisfaction is not that important to this business, even when there is so much competition in this area. I understand that teaching young children is not easy but if you claim to be a "school", I do expect some level of patience longer than 35 minutes. When I read the class description in verbatim where it states "develop students' confidence", all we can do is just laugh. What a joke!
My child loves Art and I was hoping to find a nice outlet for her to express herself. Instead, she was unfairly rejected in front of her peers. Fortunately, she's only 4 and probably didn't fully understand everything being said about her. Imagine if she was an older child, say 8 years old. This type of public criticism could absolutely destroy any confidence a kid would have. We immediately shared our feedback with our community and others have concurred with this (I advised them to post their reviews as well) and have recommended other great establishments in the area. I'm sure others have ok experiences with this place but if you have a younger child starting a session where other kids are ahead, don't expect them to help your kid catch up or show any patience by spending a little bit of time with them to help them along. Needless to say, I'll be taking my unwanted business elsewhere. read more