Hi, blue spruce,
I think Dude summarized it perfectly. We've been in Montessori from the beginning--DD9 is now in Upper Elementary, with a great teacher. She has had two or three awesome teachers and two or three awful ones (or maybe just one awful and two not so great ones, depending on how you look at it
. Success or failure for us has really seemed to depend completely on the teacher and whether they get and like DD. I would encourage you to be open at the visit about what you have observed about your kid at home and what others have said and see what their response is--particularly if you get to meet the teacher(s) your DD would be with. Also if you happen to know any other families at the school and are comfortable asking, that could be very useful. We've learned that some schools take the Montessori philosophy very seriously and really do their best to have the individualized instruction for which I think most people are searching, whereas for other schools Montessori seems to just be a marketing label and the classrooms are pretty much run in a traditional public school fashion (even though they have all the Montessori materials, etc.) Of course, if they're going to just tell you whatever to your face and then do what they like in the classroom (as happened to us last year), there's not much you can do to avoid that, but there are some really great schools and teachers and when you find that it is a truly wonderful thing. I hope you find a good school for your DD. Good luck.
