Okemos Radmoor Montessori - Testimonials"My children have had the opportunity to attend the Okemos Montessori Radmoor School and have benefited measurably. They not only are above their peers academically but have developed into polite, self reliant, sharing and happy children! I feel the teachers, school and perhaps as importantly the Montessori educational system have been a big part of their positive growth. Thank you for all your efforts, your dedication and love that you share with all the students every day!" - John Gilluly, President - Synergists, Inc. "Celine knows her letters, writes her name, knows the letter sounds, counts to 46 and sings all the time. She is only three (3). She loves school so much that she is disappointed when it is the weekend! She went to summer school because she was so disappointed when school ended. The Okemos Montessori School provided my child with a valuable multi-cultural learning experience in a loving, structured, learning environment. She has gained self confidence, love for other children and basic manners." - Connie Christy "Montessori teaches broad concepts about the world. Kailey comes home singing a verse about each one of the planets in our solar system and colors a picture of the earth and it's various layers inside. Montessori teaches personal responsibility in working at school, in following the instructions and rules that consider others. For example, she chooses her own work or activity and puts it all away before going to the next task. She waits her turn if others are ahead of her and prepares her snack without being told." - Dr. Peterson "The Montessori Radmoor school as given my child the chance to be himself and grow as an individual, not being judged and programmed to be like everyone else. His self reliance and self-confidence has blossomed with his academic skills!" "When my oldest child was three, I was certain that he was a genius. In my efforts to find "the best" school, I discovered that many of the students in the Okemos gifted and talented program had attended Montessori preschool. I attended Okemos Montessori's open house, and I was immediately impressed with my son's response to the classroom materials. I had very little exposure to Montessori philosophy before I enrolled my son. While he was learning, so was I. His academic progress and enthusiasm for learning sold me on Montessori. When my daughter was ready for preschool the choice was easy. Although I had originally intended to enroll my children in public school at kindergarten or first grade, their extended day experiences were so positive that I could not conceive of a break in their Montessori experience. I enrolled them in Montessori elementary, and they continued to excel, academically and socially. Due in large part to our move to a new home, my children made the transition to Okemos public schools. I will never forget the glaring difference between the Montessori classroom and public school, most pronounced in my son's experience due to the philosophy (and resulting inflexibility) of his teacher. Nevertheless, they quickly made friends, and they were ahead of their peers, academically and socially. As my children progress through Kinawa Middle School, I continue to receive the feedback that every parent loves to hear. My children participate in class, confidently sharing their thoughts and beliefs with their teachers and fellow students, and often extend themselves, beyond their circle of friends, to give support to a classmate who needs a friend. They have a strong sense of who they are, but get along well with others and often provide leadership. At home, my children are remarkably self-sufficient. They prepare meals for themselves (and sometimes for the entire family) and perform chores with little or no prodding. They gather information, arrange rides and extra-curricular activities, and can be counted on to keep track of and complete their homework. Although the transition to public school initially dimmed my son's "love of learning," both of my children continue to demonstrate "ownership" of their education and bring home good grades." - Deanna Swisher A Student's Reflections- Rebecca Makkai Every parent of a child in a Montessori school invariably asks how the child will fare when he or she eventually enters a regular school system or goes on to university. Rebecca Makkai entered high school upon graduating from the Forest Bluff School at the age of thirteen In her own words, written a few weeks before her high school graduation she reflects on her Montessori education and its preparation for life. She plans to continue her studies at university this fall with the intention of pursuing a writing career. - Ed One of the images that most clearly sticks in my head of my early years at Montessori is the bucket-on-the string experiment. I remember peeking around the doorframe of my Junior Level One class and watching the "Older Children." They had taken a small tin pail filled with water and tied a thin rope to the handle. And now, to my astonishment, they picked up the rope and started swinging the bucket in the air, in huge, sweeping circles. As I was about to run and tell on them for doing such a terrible thing, I noticed something even more amazing, something which challenged my newfound perception that there was no such thing as magic: The water was staying in that bucket. A few years later, I tried the same experiment myself, and learned that the only magic there had been something called centrifugal force; gravity had not been defied, but merely obeyed. The magic was in the nature of the water. Standing by when I learned how to perform this "magic" myself was the teacher. She had gathered a group of us for a presentation, an event for which we all held the greatest respect. It was now, we knew, that we would be able to understand what the Big Kids already knew about the world, and such amazing things as flying buckets of water. These presentations were, indeed, just that; the world was being presented to us, as was our place in that world. On my first day of school, when I was five, the teacher announced that everything in the classroom had a name. She challenged us to find an object that did not; we couldn't. We then began to learn the names of things outside the classroom; the types of trees on the lawn, and the types of leaves on them, the parts of an apple, the parts of a lizard, the states in the country, the countries of the world. We learned also our responsibility to and role in that world. We saw the tiny silhouette representing mankind at the end of the long sheet representing time. We learned that this was us. We saw that the potted plants and the groundhogs in the cage in the corner needed us as caretakers. We learned that we were that, also. We saw that there were pictures to be painted and plays to be written and worms to be dissected, and so we became artists and writers and scientists. Since the world had been presented to us, we, in turn, presented ourselves to the world. In Montessori I was allowed to delve into venues of creativity, to explore interests, however fleeting, and to develop passions. And, amazingly, my teachers were as receptive to my presentations as I had been to theirs. They sat patiently through long skits and even longer reports; they listened intently as we raised our hands to tell stories, even when they knew they weren't true. We were encouraged wholeheartedly to create and experiment and explore; I found myself with more freedom in the fourth grade than I would have in my senior year of high school. I figured out early on, as most of us did, that the Montessori teachers had handed us their unconditional trust. We were free to do what we chose, from picking what we would work on to moving freely around the classroom. I can't imagine how different my education would have been had I been denied the basic rights to talk and move around; had I, like my friends at other schools, viewed my teachers as wardens, rather than friends. In a world where "Give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile" seems to be the golden rule, this trust is refreshing. The Montessori teachers gave us a mile, and because they respected us enough to do so, we respected them enough to run that mile as hard as we could. This momentum carried me through high school as well. The respect with which I had been instilled remained, as self respect, and I therefore pushed myself to excel, to exceed the goals which had been set for me. Contact InformationSusie Hyatt - School Administrator
|