Both of my kids had trouble in Montessori classrooms for different reasons. My older son is 2E, though we didn't know about either E at the time. He needed direct instruction and was befuddled by the Montessori way.

My younger son was reading at the time he started Montessori preschool at age 2.75. Even so, the teacher insisted that he do the work in a specific order. He spent a *year* doing the "scratchy letters" and another year doing some weird thing with sight words. He was bored out of his mind. We finally got a clue and took him out just prior to his kindergarten year to homeschool.

That said, I know that the Montessori elementary school in our town is a haven for gifted kids, and they need one, as the local district acts like they've never heard of gifted.