“In my experience, Montessori schools are oriented heavily to the female learning style and both schools that I had contact with were very anti-male. (Pushing the ADHD diagnosis and medications for boys. Punishing exuberant behavior.”
Thanks for the info!
I didn’t find this at the Montessori school my son attended (Thank God, otherwise I would have pulled him immediately).
But, I did find these things at the public school - I fought my son’s elementary teachers (all females, all overweight - which I’ll explain in a sec).
I also fought the principal.
All female-style learning - sit and color (my son HATED coloring) - sit and listen to stories (too restless) - sit and read (impossible!). Plus, all PE was canceled except a mandated “45 minutes per week” - unbelievable! I told the teacher PE was as important as anything she was doing in that room - she “corrected” me and said literacy is more important - well, not if your life is shortened due to inactivity!
Kids like my son - and every other child- needed to go out and run around, needed unstructured play, to throw balls, play in the sand and dirt and get that tremendous energy out of their systems. Not sit sit sit.
He was recommended for special ed, recommended for testing, and I’m sure drugs weren’t far behind. Testing showed he was bright beyond his years. I told the teachers to “leave him alone” - otherwise it was going to affect HIS emotional and physical well-being and health (getting yelled at for acting normal tends to do that). He was not disrupting the class (that was certainly coming) - but preferred to play with leggos and blocks during story time or instead of coloring or build something quietly.
Thank God he had me and his dad to “watch his back” so to speak.
He is now a very well-adjusted, wonderful 21 year old, has tons of friends, is funny, friendly, curious and completely lovable (well, I AM his mother, LOL). At the moment he’s a junior studying math, physics, electrical engineering and software design - he even won a collegiate programming competition his freshman year. You can’t imagine how proud I was of his achievements.
I can’t imagine the nightmare if I’d listened to his elementary teachers and forced him to do what he didn’t want to do which was sit still and act like a girl - or worse, drugged up.
My mother once had to have an “Uncle Buck meets the Vice Principal” meeting with my second grade teacher. Mom tells me that she regrets sending her happy joy-filled little boy to government school... they did more damage to me than good.