Berwyn Montessori

Do yourself a favor and don't send your child here as Mary puts her family first (as she should), but TO THE POINT IT INTERFERES WITH THE SAFETY AND WELL-BEING OF YOUR CHILD.

I will admit that my child has learned a lot in the almost 3 months that he attended the school and the teachers were very attentive from what I saw.

The problem really started when we attended the school graduation as the student that was graduating invited us, so it's kind of hard to say no. Mary hosted it at her home. Graduation felt somewhat like a trump rally with some of the song selections (and I was not the only parent that thought so), but I understand it was supposed to be sweet gestures for the kids, so I stomached the discomfort and smiled and clapped.
She had her dogs running around on the first floor which she said was where the celebrations where supposed to be. My son was excited to see dogs his size as he's only been around large and giant breed dogs. He was petting one of the dogs (not pulling on tail, ears, or petting aggressively, but simply on the dogs back) and gave the dog a hug (he didn't squeeze tightly and was simply trying to be sweet), and I see someone push him 3 times away from the dog within a 10 second time frame which I learned was Mary's ADULT SON. Her husband appears and asks something which I couldn't hear, and then I hear her son in a raised voice with an aggressive tone say "I just don't trust him!" I am sure that her son didn't see I was about 6 ft away as there was a wall blocking the angle. I immediately picked up my son, and left the event letting Mary know we needed to talk.

IT IS NEVER OK, FOR AN ADULT TO PUT THEIR HANDS ON SOMEBODY ELSE'S CHILD IF THE CHILD IS DOING NOTHING WRONG!!!

I spoke with Mary in person as I wanted to see if her response was going to come from educator mode or if she was going to go into "Mom" mode, and it was clearly the "Mom" mode in defending her sons actions and not that she was going to look further into the situation to prevent an occurrence like it from happening again.

She immediately took the blame and apologized for not sending a letter notifying them THAT HER DOGS ARE NOT ALWAYS SO FRIENDLY AND ARE VERY PARTICULAR WITH HOW THEY ARE PETTED AND HELD ESPECIALLY AS ONE WAS 11 YEARS OLD. If you know that your dog isn't always so friendly and that you will he hosting 14+ kids <6yrs old with the youngest being an infant...why would you leave them out as a liability risk?

She was trying to defend her TWENTY SOMERHING YEAR OLD SON pushing my 21 month old, not once but several times not because HE WAS DOING ANYTHING WRONG, but because he just didn't trust him. I'm not sure why considering the dog wasnt barking, growling, look scared or in any great distresss. Opposed to her 20 something year old son simply picking up the dog and putting her upstairs, if something about my son made him not trust him (again not because he was BEHAVING badly towards the dog).


When I could see it was clearly a moot conversation, I simply told her that and my son would not be coming back, and if she could please go get his stuff. She wanted to continue engaging in which I simply told her I had a 12 o clock call.

I do not understand why Mary does not get IT IS NEVER OK, FOR AN ADULT TO PUT THEIR HANDS ON SOMEBODY ELSE'S CHILD IF THE CHILD IS DOING NOTHING WRONG!!!