[PiRho3141]

I send my child to a private Montessori school. With that said, there's no denying that sending your child to a private Montessori school is similar to parents who buy books in learning to parent are typically better parents not because they read the books but because they care enough to buy the books. If you care enough to send your child to a Montessori school, the parent is invested in the child's success and I think that's way more important.

[ryukoposting]

I spent months doing research for a blog post about One Laptop Per Child last year, and came to a related, but more broad conclusion: it's extremely easy to reach misleading conclusions when studying novel educational methods. No strong conclusion comes without qualifiers related to culture and economics. Moreover, a shocking amount of harm has been done by people trying to apply an educational method outside of the socioeconomic context where its efficacy was proven.

There's a dilemma here, because in order to find ways to improve education, we have to try stuff, right? But how do we remedy the situation when those experiments fail? That's less related to the Montessori thing, but it's interesting to think about.

[paulryanrogers]

> But how do we remedy the situation when those experiments fail?

Or worse, know we need a remedy when no one is even checking for success or failure?

Thankfully the US is well on its way to dismantling the Department of Education. So no stuffy bureaucrats getting in the way /s

[mlinhares]

I did high school at a prestigious technical school at my hometown, hard to get in, very competitive. The education itself wasn't that much better than my previous school but they had the name recognition and as getting in was very hard, likely the best students around town.

Almost 100% pass rate to college, mostly the best colleges. Did the education provided there affect this? Likely, but it was much more the self selection of having the best students that were doing a SAT like test to get in.

[zorked]

In my hometown there is something like that. There are two schools, one of them had a year with particularly good approval rates. Competitive parents started preferring that school, finding ways to send their kids there. That school has been sustaining better approval rates since then.

Which should make no sense because the teachers themselves work odd years in one school, even years in the other school.

[asdff]

Theres also a lot of college prep going on with private schools. We had far higher college adviser to student ratios than any public school. They started working with you earlier than any public school. No grade inflation and college admissions knew that and knew the reputation of the highschool. Academically the schedule, courseload, workload, things like freedom to pick different electives, were all designed to mirror college.

[Eridrus]

Ok, but this was an RCT, so enrollment was randomized after people self selected into this experiment.

[foxglacier]

It also had an obvious and unhelpful result. Of course kids who spend all day learning will know that stuff better than kids who don't. What really matters is long term life outcomes.

Rudolf Steiner would say all that early learning is harmful and they should have been playing and imagining spiritual things.

[jedimastert]

> If you care enough to send your child to a Montessori school

Think you mean to say that if you are well be enough to send your child to a private school...I try not to pull out the "privilege" card but good grief.

[JumpCrisscross]

> if you are well be enough to send your child to a private school

This is a similar but separate effect. Rich, uncaring parents can raise unachieving idiots.

It’s easier to be caring with resources. But plenty of public school difference-in-outcome studies have found a signal from parental participation that I believe remained after adjusting for income.

[phil21]

I grew up quite poor.

My parents cared enough to find ways to get me into private schools on grants and scholarships.

My neighbors had just as many if not more opportunities to do so but did not care enough to do so for their children.

Yes, it’s caring. Education as a top priority for poor families is the number one way a parent can give their kid a better life than they had. Most do not even try.

[gedy]

My kids went to a free charter school, with similar setup and care from parents. The outcomes were notable and it wasn't really about privilege imho. (Though some activist type folks I know who count "parents who care" as a form a privilege.)

[pfannkuchen]

Isn’t Montessori considered kind of weird by many people, though? Like you have to be into child education and actually critically assess the available options to realize it’s probably better than the standard one. Or has Montessori achieved Eternal September?

[trenchpilgrim]

I have friends who have a kid in one of those schools on financial aid

[asdff]

In my experience in private schooling only about half the kids come from money. The rest are on financial aid.

[whateveracct]

It's both.