Kincaid Montessori School

Our first 2 years were TERRIFIC. Once the new teacher started, there was ZERO education for our child. His "report" was empty from the end of July 2016 till we were asked to leave. This is by no means the place to go if your child requires extra attention or guidance. Once the new owners took over, the school and direction went downhill quickly.

The new teacher who started in August of 2016 was very young and immature experience dealing with younger children. She seemed to get stressed and put the "difficult" children on a task that they knew without help in order to not have to deal with them. Our child consistently made the comment that "my teacher never has time for me".
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To tell a child that "you don't know how to do anything right, and you are a mean child" is far from a strong development.

Our child has ADHD, and was asked to leave the school because of the difficulty the teacher had in teaching our child and controlling our child's behavior.

Bullying is never seen taken seriously with the 3-6 year old class. The "friends" would not be treated fairly, and only the "friend" who was "caught/seen" would be the one getting in trouble. There was no leadership in educating this class on a "level" effort. Favorites were an obvious reality in this location.

"I have heard amazing things about Kincaid Montessori School. However my experience has been quite different. I am sure that this school does do everything that the other reviews list but with a few conditions. Your child must listen to instructions and never need redirection. Your child is allowed to work on their own and explore their learning but only as long as it doesn't need teacher attention. They will be free to move around and cooperate with other children as long as this doesn't lead to any scenarios requiring conflict resolution.
I understand that the Montessori method may not be for everyone. However I find it difficult to believe that by midway through the first day of attendance the teachers and staff figured out that "it won't work" for my daughter and that she "can't" attend anymore due to the "lack of resources".
To my wife and I it is irrelevant but for the sake of argument I should state that my daughter does have a learning disability. She has always been expected to cooperate at the same level as her typical peers and often surpasses standards. As an educator it disturbs me for a school to give up on a student so quickly. As a parent it crushes me for someone to limit my daughter and her abilities without giving her a chance."


As you will see in their following response, they would have told us that they could not provide for my daughter’s needs “before starting”. This indicates that they judged her based upon her label and not her as a unique and individual child. That is where the biggest issue lies in relation to their handling of my daughter.


This was their response. And for the record my wife did tell them about my daughter having Down Syndrome. Interesting point of view though.


"Mr. Wakefield, your post is inaccurate. NO child is expected to never need redirection. No child is expected to learn without a teacher's attention. Since you felt compelled to post tidbits of our conversation I would like to add some context here as you have made public something we would never share. A child at our school. You did not share in any form with the school that your child has a severe learning disability or special needs, and that is unfair to the child and the teachers. If we wanted your tuition we could have just kept her and not told you we cannot provide for her needs and the needs of ALL our students. Our teachers are not special needs teachers and our facility does not have what your child needs. It is not the other way around. We pride ourselves on doing what is best for the child. I have worked in special education for years in the past and I can tell you that if the special needs child isn't in an environment that is fit for their needs then that is the problem. We told you this with compassion and care for her not as an exclusionary measure. Had you been honest with us before starting we would have told you we are not equipped for her needs. You have skewed the truth here, and above being hurt I am bothered that you blame us rather than noting we called you after several hours and moving her to a different classroom in the hopes that we could make this work for her. Our specialty is not special needs and I do believe in inclusion where possible. Which is why we have had and do have children with learning disabilities. But the severity is the question. And in this instance, we did not meet her special needs. We did not give up on your child."


This review and the posts were removed from Kincaid's Facebook page even though the owners assured me that she would not do so.