Montexpensive!

Every parent who makes the decision to transfer their child from the public schools to a private school ultimately comes to the decision that THIS will be what is best for my child. We believe that any academic inadequacies that were present in the public school system will be resolved in the new school. Not that we assume the child will go from a dunce to top of the class, but we are positive that they will be given the space in which to blossom academically within their capabilities. Maybe they will even be flagged as gifted! Each parent has additional reasons for the switch, but academics are usually the #1 reason that parents choose to spend the money to send their child to a school that they have deemed “better” than what the public schools have provided for free*.

This decision was a very difficult one for my family, primarily because I have been a visible advocate for the CH-UH Schools for four years. I have spoken at various school board meetings, co-founded ECHO (Early Childhood in the Heights Organization), volunteered to plant flowers, coordinated the “Box Tops 4 Education” program and appeared as the “Dinosaur Lady” at Career Day. I believe that strong public schools have the power to build strong minds and strong communities. Further, quality public schools are THE key to economic prosperity.

However, after a year in a public school where my son seemed to go from academically above average to below average and where my darling child was being bullied, my husband and I decided that a Montessori environment would be best for him. He agreed. After spending one day trying out the school, my son came bounding out of the building saying, “Oh Mommy, I have to go here!” And so we enrolled him.

The tricky thing about Montessori is that there is very little in the way of outward assessment. My son has no homework to speak of and does not receive grades. The only way I have to evaluate how he’s doing comes in the form of his weekly spelling tests. So far, I am less than impressed with his inability to memorize and retain information. We work on his spelling words every night. I try to teach him easy ways to remember how to spell words. He writes each word five times and then spells them out loud to me. And after all of this, when he goes to bed, I am sure that he’s got “fruit” and “shoe” and “cake” in his little brain. Friday continually proves me wrong when on his spelling test I find “froit” and “shoo” and “Kake”. I find this so frustrating, particularly because our family is now forking out Big Bucks for him to learn.  Add to this his seeming inability to remember basic addition and subtraction and his constant reports that he “did angles” all day, and I’m wondering, did we do the right thing? Not only do I feel like he isn’t learning anything new, but I also feel like he forgot anything he learned last year.

Part of me knows that the Montessori Method is quite different than traditional school learning, and that while it may seem like he’s not learning anything, the skills he is developing will help him to learn better in the future.  But then there is the other part of me, the part that controls the checkbook, that says every month, “I can’t believe I’m paying for this.”

There is hope. Next week we have a parent-intstructress conference, which is an actual assessment of how he’s doing. Maybe I will learn that my perception is completely incorrect. Maybe this Friday, my son will pass his spelling test. Maybe he will “get” that any single number plus 10 is the teen-equivalent of that number. Maybe not. In the meantime, I will continue to write the checks with fingers crossed that we made the right decision and that he will grow up happy, healthy, and able to think. 

* Of course public school is not free. Our taxes pay for public school, and in Cleveland Heights, we pay a great deal in taxes for the public schools. So in a way, my family is paying for two schools, one of which my child attends and the other where he does not attend, but still uses the playground.