The Montessori School Rochester Crystal…
The Montessori School Rochester Crystal Lake is not a real Montessori school. They demonstrate blatant disregard for student well-being. Your money won't go towards your child's education here. We withdrew after 7 weeks.
Where to start... When my older son was so riddled with anxiety one day he refused to get out of the car at school drop-off I knew I had to spend some time in the classrooms to see first-hand what was going on. Up until this point we had heard disturbing stories from the kids, were suspicious of the lack of work being done, and had already had a meeting with the headmaster over a separate safety issue that was going on at school. What I found when I visited the classrooms was virtually no academic work being done, the core components of a Montessori program not being delivered, and a hazardously cold building.
HAZARDOUS SCHOOL BUILDING. At $17k+ tuition, you'd think a school would have basic necessities like heat. I have a photo of the thermostat from inside my 2nd grader’s classroom on the day we pulled him out of this place. 53 degrees in the 3rd week of October. I was told it was "too early" to turn on the heat. You can look up the violation notice from the City of Pontiac building department for no heat and not maintaining the minimum temperature required. This citation was a week after we left. Let that sink in… another week went by with kids in freezing cold classrooms before they acted.
FALSE CLAIMS TO BE A MONTESSORI PROGRAM. This school claims to be "fully accredited" and we were told (in writing) that they were a member of AMS (The American Montessori Society), yet when I verified their membership status I found out they haven't even been members since 2020.
NO INDIVIDUALIZED OR CHILD LED LEARNING (i.e. not Montessori). Kids had same lessons assigned. The Upper Elementary and Middle School are grouped together under the same lead teacher (we were not told this when we signed up). Montessori should have a 3 year age range, not 5. I observed my 4th grader and my 7th grader working on the same materials, and that work was way below even the 4th grade level. The teacher (Ms. Carey) admitted to giving my 7th grader the wrong math and science work for the previous 7 weeks. Ms. Carey admitted that our kids at 7 weeks into the program did not have the materials or the adult support to work on anything beyond what was setup for the classroom for the start of the school year.
CHAOTIC STRESSFUL ENVIRONMENT. A Montessori learning environment is supposed to provide a peaceful and quiet environment where students can work uninterrupted for long periods of time. This environment was so chaotic and full of constant interruptions (including flying sharp objects being thrown across the room and other safety issues) that my kids were nervous wrecks. My older son’s friend was hit in the face with a fork that someone threw in the classroom.
DOCUMENTED LEARNING LOSS. In the 7 weeks we attended this school, my kids went from having great grades and high scores on their academic testing at the end of the previous school year in Math, to failing the math placement tests for the same school they attended last year. We now are paying for weekly private tutoring to get caught up. This is all well documented.
If you are looking for a Montessori program, knowing what I know now I suggest you go directly to the AMS website and use their directory to find an accredited school or an active member working towards accreditation.