Montessori or IB public school?

[sora]

Hi,

Anyone familiar with IB programs?

There are a few very good public elementary/secondary schools that provide IB (International Baccalaurate) . I'm not so familiar with IB but I was told that it is supposed to educate kids to be responsible global citizens. And it also encourages kids to be inquisitive. The schools with IB programs are so popular that people outside the catchment have to line up. There is a public Montessori elementary, but it's quite far from the town so it is not popular at all. It will be about 25min driving each way. I am very tempted to send my child to a nearby school close to my home with IB programs to avoid driving to Montessori. Or I could pay tuition for a nearby M school. 

Any thoughts on IB program vs montessori? Even if IB program is excellent, would montessori be better as it is child lead learning? I want my child to be learn to think critically and independently and be creative, not too much concerned about grades. But I guess it would be nice to have strong academic skills as well. IB in private schools are known for academic excellence. 

The following is IB's mission statement,. It wounds great.

he International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

Edited by sora - 11/19/10 at 3:41pm

[nanette0269]

I think the difference here is the IB program offers a better understanding of what is learned, while Montessori offers a better understanding of how learning occurs.  Not really comparable.

Just for comparison, our montessori school is a feeder school to the IB high school.  Over 90% of the montessori 8th graders go into this program, and they dont feel academically challenged in it, at least not nearly as much as their montessori school.  That being said, they thrive in the social scene (as the IB programs tend to be sheltered schools within a school) as well as thrive in the competitive athletics, as this is missing in the montessori program (and we supplement with teeball, swimming lessons, etc)...and they thrive because they dont need to worry about the academics as the incremental knowledge gain is not nearly as stressful as they see the other students experience.

So, I think the IB program's academics are an excellent standard (as compared to so-called "state" standards), and I see the IB primary feeder schools doing a good job, but I still think the academics at our montessori (not all of course) are superior.  Also, you may want to find out what percentage of children in the primary IB program eventually are admitted into the high school IB program....as its not automatic.  Maybe they even have some stats from the montessori school's admittance...that would be a great way to compare which one prepares the students better.