I am writing this review because I believe prospective parents deserve to know about our experience…read moreat Montessori Stevenson Ranch. My son attended the school between approximately ages 2 and 3. He is now 4 1/2, and since leaving, he has attended three other schools. Two were private schools, and the feedback from each has consistently been that he is intelligent, friendly, well-behaved, and academically advanced. At his current school, he was leading his class in reading and was recently moved up into a Kindergarten class because of his academic ability.
I want to be clear that I am not writing this review simply because Montessori Stevenson Ranch was not considered the right fit for my son. I am writing because there were two incidents during his time there that I have never forgotten and that I believe other parents should be aware of.
During his enrollment, we were repeatedly called into meetings with the principal regarding our then-two-year-old's behavior. It became so frequent that another school administrator was brought in to observe my son. We were made to feel as though our two-year-old was unusually problematic, which was difficult to reconcile with the feedback we received from his subsequent schools.
The first incident occurred during circle time. My son was rolling around on the rug with another child. That child was wearing boots and stomped on my son's eye, causing an injury that split the area open and came close to requiring stitches. What continues to bother me is that the focus of the school's response was on my son's activity during circle time rather than appropriately addressing the fact that another child had stomped on his face. Nearly two years later, my son still has a visible scar from that injury, and it remains a painful reminder of that experience.
The second incident is the one that concerns me most.
One morning during drop-off, I realized I had accidentally left my son's water bottle in my car. I immediately walked back to retrieve it and returned less than a minute later. When I attempted to open the classroom door, something was blocking it. I went around to the back entrance and discovered that my two-year-old son was lying face-down on the floor, crying, with his body positioned against the door.
There were three adults in the room at the time: the teacher, the principal, and the front office clerk. Rather than immediately assisting my crying two-year-old, they were standing nearby with their arms behind their backs, watching him. This was during drop-off, when other parents and children were entering the classroom, creating an obvious possibility that he could have been hurt by someone trying to open the door.
When I asked what was happening, the teacher immediately began attending to my son, and he calmed down.
As a mother, seeing my two-year-old lying face-down and crying while multiple adults stood watching was deeply disturbing. I remember having to consciously maintain my composure because there were other young children in the classroom. I was extremely upset, but I remained professional.
Ultimately, we decided to remove our son from the school. That decision created significant logistical and family challenges because we were living and working in the area at the time. We temporarily had to rely on a relative's school much farther away, resulting in an extremely long daily commute, before eventually transitioning to schools in the Valley that proved to be a much better environment for him.
Most importantly, time and experience have given me perspective. My son's subsequent teachers and administrators have consistently recognized his intelligence, social development, positive behavior, and academic abilities. His current school has even advanced him academically because he was performing ahead of his grade level.
Every child and every school is different, and I understand that not every environment will be the right fit for every child. However, I believe parents should pay close attention to how a school responds to a very young child, particularly when that child is injured or distressed.
I am sharing this review so parents considering Montessori Stevenson Ranch can make an informed decision and ask questions about supervision, incident response, classroom management, and how young children are supported when they are struggling emotionally or behaviorally.
