good for you and your daughter! our Montessori learned the hard way, too - but they learned.
post-Montessori, we found an independent school that trumpeted its differentiated approach: no academic ceiling, they said. if ANY of their sales pitch had been true for the lower grades, everything would have been fine.
instead, the teachers started them all at square one, and sent the message to the kids that everyone would progress at the exact same rate, doing the same number of repetitions. my kid, apparently eager to please, spent a huge percentage of the year pretending she couldn't do more. it was easy to miss - at the conference before the winter break, they wouldn't talk about academics "this early in the year" because it's only Pre-K.
so at the spring conference, it all finally came out. interestingly, even after my kid "just showed them," they still wouldn't offer her work at her level. the attitude from the teachers continues to be "she's well beyond grade level, so what's the problem?" uh, the problem is that she is 5 years old and wants to quit school because you say she can't read the books she actually enjoys! needless to say, she's not going back in the fall.
it's so hard to be THAT parent, isn't it? but i guess what i've learned this year is that i have THAT kid, so wherever we go, some form of this conversation is probably going to be required.
Last edited by doubtfulguest; 04/18/13 08:36 AM.
