What types of people does Montessori attract?

[1hipmama]

Does Montessori tend to attract certain types of people...the well educated, the religious/non-religious, higher/lower income, etc? Have there ever been any studies done? I'm just curious!

1hipmama

[kaydee]

I haven't seen studies, but in my community there are both public (charter) and private Montessori schools, so people from different economic levels have the opportunity to send their children there. People obviously have to be educated and/or informed enough to know what Montessori is about--they have to seek it out. From what I have seen in the schools in our city, there is a lot of ethnic and religious diversity. The Montessori parents I know tend to be somewhat progressive politically--then again, that describes most of the parents I know, Montessori or not! :LOL

[mamaov4]

All kinds

Hi there,
My kids go to an urban Montessori charter school across from a state university. We have professor's kids, banker's kids, kids from families in which no one works,families with stay at home moms, & 2 income families, strict Catholic families and Wicca families, families with 2 moms,etc etc..!! We are very diverse but all like the independant and hands on style of a Montessori
education. Now of course if you look at a private, very expensive Montessori
school you might get a different less diverse population but in some cases even those schools offer scholerships to maintain diversity,

[Cian'sMama]

I worked at a Montessori school for three years and I had a similar situation to the last post. Our children came from families with many different jobs, lifestyles, religions.
I notice, however, that we lacked ethnic diversity. I am not sure if this is related to the demographics in my area-the majority of the population here is caucasian. however, we do have a large native population here and I always wondered why this group wasn't better represented in the school. My first guess, and this is all it is, is that this is financial. Our school was in no way cheap, but not over the top, but there are many free services for native families. More of these kids may be in federal programs for early childhood ed.
IMO, as a teacher, these programs are a step down from what we offered. As a person who is passionate about giving equal education to all-and feels that our government is failing at this, I hope to have a school of my own someday, and will strive to have scholarship money available for lower income families. A diverse classroom is key to the Montessori philosophy, IMO.

[Lucky]

What type of people?....well, Me! ( I love dss' Montessori school.)


I agree with pp. All types are found at a Montessori school. I think the common thread among families, at the school I know, is the belief that our child's education is important.

[Karrie]

I agree with the other posters. Although our Montessori is private, and not inexpensive, but reasonable compared to other private schools in the area.

We have all sorts, and scholarships as well. I am in a very heavy Latino area and there are not very many attending the school, not sure why?

Our school tends to me more on the organic side of life, but there are all kinds.

[hockeymama]

The school where I teach and DD attends is in an affluent area of town with a pretty high tuition, so of course most of the families we get are Dr's, executives and attorneys. But culturally we are very diverse and even within parenting styles too, we have some that practice AP, some that are TOO extreme in the other direction (basically they have children, send them to school and have a nanny pick them up and bring them home to take care of), and some who are just a blend of many parenting styles. We have a few families who budget very carefully in order to have their children attend (like we do) but I wish we had more economic diversity. The important thing is that the majority of our families are here because they truly believe in the philosophy of montessori.

[mamaley]

we have all sorts of parents...there are a lot of attorneys, lol...there are many who are well off, and there are many who are not but do what they can because they want the education for the children. lots of "crunchy" people too. level of education in pretty varied, i'd say most have degrees (though several are in school now). very mixed in religion, though no one really talks about their beliefs. most people are pretty liberal, but that's probably because of where we are. everyone gets along with everyone for the most part.

[gr8tfulmom]

Parents at our public montessori range from crunchy to mainstream, single, traditional, and alternative families and by being part of our public school system, run the socioeconomic gambit. Religions are as diverse as the folks who are involved but tolerance is the over-riding feeling. We our school! I only wish more school districts would see the benefits of adding M teachings to mainstream classrooms.

[flyingspaghettimama]

At ours, I would say - particularly for those families that stay for Elementary level - that the parents are fairly independent, critical thinkers who place a high value on independence, artistic expression, and academic exploration. Montessori does work a lot with math, reading, etc at an early age, but they also make it seem like so much fun & games that you don't really notice that this is what you're learning. Montessori schools where I'm at are much less expensive than other private schools (like, by HALF), so we have parents who struggle along with parents who have no problems, with a good mix of everything in between. The school is fairly diverse for being in a mostly-white neighborhood.