Do not enroll here if you intend to ask any questions about what is happening inside the building…read more Inquiry is taken as immediate attack on the establishment. Read further for experience.
For the first two weeks of school at Maria's Montessori, pick-ups and drop-offs were alarmingly abrupt. The door is opened long enough for kids to enter, then closed again. So with no view into the school, these were the things I did witness: full lunches returned every day (except one day when his homemade empanadas went missing, even though he said he'd only taken one bite. I will let the reader consider what happened there). My son would say he drank no water, no "work" done (Montessori language), movies, marshmallows for snack, crying and describing kids punching each other, no books read, teachers hitting kids on the head. Any concern I had about academics went out the window in comparison to my son's physical well-being.
My son had never had issues before this school. But, understanding that every story has two sides, I gave some benefit of the doubt and reminded my son and the door contact each day that he needed to eat and drink water. Thursday and Friday of that first week, stomach pain started. My husband and I decided that without any way to see into the school or avenue to ask questions, it was time to follow her procedure for communication and schedule a conference to see if Maria (owner) could shed light on our son's reports. We could also offer them some Montessori-based solutions that his prior school and I used to get him to eat and drink, plus seek some system of transparency.
We emailed Monday of the second week requesting a conference with a suggested time - no details about our specific concerns. After a followup email to Maria Wednesday evening asking if I could expect a call at the suggested time, the response I got at 6am Thursday morning was alarming. Maria stated that I was expecting immediate results in my son's academics, that I should choose another preschool, and that I could come collect my son's things that day. Review: I had not spoken with Maria about any of my concerns, seeing as her handbook clearly states that issues require a scheduled conference. In my attempt to follow policy, her response was to kick my son out.
My husband said we needed to go see her immediately. When we pulled up to the school Thursday morning, I tried to establish a shared purpose (we both want a contract), explain my intentions for a solution, and ask if the email she sent was a formal cancellation of the contract. However, she immediately launched into how her history as a business woman, and that I was not going to question her establishment. Not once did she seek to hear what my son was struggling with, her concerns were in no way child-centered, and always included how much she is having to work. When my husband came up and tried to mention that it was physical nutrition, she LAUGHED! and said they don't "force feed children". Maria kept repeating that our relationship was not going to work. On the third time, I realized she was right. In seeking a partnership around how to best serve a child to understand how my child is being treated within the school, we were told that we had no place there. She also accused me of not bringing up the issue at pickup and dropoff, when I was trying to respect HER clear guidelines.
My son is now in a different daycare, and the transparency there is like night and day from Maria's. We met his teacher, we get to meet classmates, we get a letter each day with concrete evidence of what our son worked on. Maria's Montessori is not a safe environment for children if those children are not allowed to voice how they are being harmed. If anything, the incredible defense in response to any attempt at questioning Maria should serve as an immediate warning to any parent considering the school - tell-tale sign that transparency is her enemy.
