My kids are in Montessori- DS4 in preschool and DS8 in elementary. Our school's director also runs a Montessori training facility for teachers and she stresses to everyone that Montessori isn't McDonald's- it's not the same everywhere you go.
The Montessori Jenna observed sounds like a pretty rigid interpretation of Montessori. I've seen those and I've seen some where all Montessori means is that they call the activities "works." Beyond that there is nothing Montessori about them. The name means, unfortunately, little. What you really need to do is to determine WHY the school calls itself a Montessori and what that means to them.
Here is what we liked about our school and why we are there- and what we would look for if we ever were to need to look.
True Montessori should believe in following the child. While a rigid Montessori will insist on completing works in order (they believe the following comes in when each child masters at his/her speed and progresses at his/her speed), our school is pretty good about noticing when a kid is capable of skipping past a work or doing some compacting. Not perfect- but pretty good.
Montessori strives for a peaceful non-competitive environment. For our sensitive kids, this has been good. They are also big on problem solving and natural consequences versus punishment. That makes more sense to my kids.
Montessori stresses mastery instead of grades. Since I have one who could probably earn As without even looking at the paper, it's nice that he hasn't ever had that external reward for his work. He masters something- he moves on. There is no "yay- you got an A!" that I got as a child and that I fully credit for part of my "I'm a fake" neurosis in college.
The three year classroom can be wonderful as well. When DS8 was 3 he spent much of his time observing Kindergarten lessons. Of course, as you reach the top of the 3 years, that's harder. But our school is pretty good about providing opportunities for those who need them to observe and participate in more challenging work.
Montessori considers the whole child. In our school that means that healthy eating is encouraged (and strictly adhered to within the confines of the school- nobody's packing junk in his lunchbox). It also means a strong focus on the arts including piano lessons as part of the curriculum and visual arts activities. And it means that the school understands the child's need to move.
Our school is extremely small. In the whole elementary there are probably less than 20 kids. The pre-k is larger at about 24 for three levels. We have a disproportionate number of gifted kids. So it's not the norm. But it is an example of how a Montessori *can* work and why it *can* be an ideal solution for gifted kids. It hasn't been perfect- but it's been pretty darn good for us over the years.
