How do I ensure my child's success? This question often ways on the mind of parents as early as the preschool years. We worry that we will pick the wrong preschool for our little squirts and that will erase any future success they may have. As a parent and a high school teacher, please, do not worry that much! Nowadays, there are so many options to choose from that it can be difficult to decide so we need to keep a clear and rationale perspective. When hearing the news today, one would believe that public schools are the scurge of society and that your child is doomed to failure if you attend one. We hear about underfunding, bad teachers and low test scores, but what we do not hear about are the majority of those students and staff who are success stories. Can private schools like Montessori offer a good alternative? Yes, in a few cases. I am a public school educator so I obviously believe in the value of a public education, but I also believe in the value of alternatives. I have a nephew who has lasting sensory delays from a virus that attacked his nervous system as an infant. He has attended both the Montessori and public system and has reaped benefits from both. If you are looking for a slower paced, less structured environment, then I believe you would be happy with Montessori. For my nephew, this was a benefit in that it helped him to become more calm and work on his pace. One suggestion I can give is to stick to Montessori if you stay with it past the Kindergarten year. The school offers benefits, but is structured so different than the public schools that it can be hard for students to transition from one set of expectations to another during their primary and intermediate school years.

A clear negative I see with Montessori is a lack of extracurricular options and special need options. Most public schools can offer services for learning disabled up to gifted students that private schools cannot. Public schools are also more diverse, which is a benefit in my opinion. In the Montessori setting, most of the families are wealthy and not very diverse, this makes it somewhat of a sheltered environment. I know your response, "Well, isn't that a good thing?" I say no for these reasons:

1. Our world is getting smaller everyday and our children need to learn how to interact with those who are not like them in order to be successful. Yes, Montessori does teach about other cultures, but that is nothing like living with those cultures.

2. Lack of interaction

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