Intercultural Foreign Language Montessori School

 

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Mandel D.

Skokie, IL

I brought my daughter here on the advice of a co-worker. I was not impressed.

I grilled the people that interviwed us for a slot. None of them could tell me what experience the headmaster had with children or with schools. I asked to see their emergency plan. They could not provide one. I asked about the teachers and was told no more than they all had certification.

From your reviews we gather you are happy with this expensive day care center, but lets look at the core of the school. Feel free to answer.

The headmaster has X years of postdoctoral experience in education at X schools. The headmaster's concentration was in X and has taught X number of years prior to assuming the helm of this institution.

The teachers are all certified and nationally ranked in Japan. Yes or No.  If yes, please name the institute and their rankings.

Intercultural has X number of exchange programs in Japan. Intercultural is ranked as an institute in Japan. Yes or No.

Intercultural has a certified social worker or clinical psychologist on staff. Yes or No.  His/her name is X

Intercultural's Headmaster and direct reports (not teachers) have X number of years experience managing schools (not just working at one) and have X number of years experience with Montessori.

Finally, what about that guardrail that shields the children from traffic on Ridgeland, is it installed facing the wrong direction?

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J N.

Oak Park, IL

Um, I was sad after reading the first review.  Not knowing what sort of experiences others have had, my daughter seems to love it at Intercultural.  It's a wonderful departure for her from regular day care, and I love the fact that she is getting a healthy dose of the Japanese language every morning.

The teachers communicate well and are good at sending home what the children have been working on.  My daughter just started at the beginning of November and is happy every morning that she attends school as opposed to not wanting to go to her previous day care.

Obviously I don't have as much experience with the school as others do- I am interested to hear what others think.  I give it 4 stars simply because it is super expensive. (As are all private schools of quality)  We're shelling out a lot of cash monies to read a bad review of this place..... eeek.

Thought I'd update my review - Feb. 08 - my daughter does not attend this school any more. We took her out at the end of last school year. She seemed to be the one kid who couldn't handle not understanding the language. She wouldn't talk to, or hardly look at the (Japanese) teachers. It made me sad to take her out because I really wanted her to have the early understanding of another language. She also seemed to dig the Montessori learning techniques.

She's super happy at her new school and seems much more comfortable. comfortable

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F B.

Oak Park, IL

As I indicated before...I agree to disagree with the negative reviewer.  I agree that your questions should've been answered on your visit there and you have every right to know a school administrative staff's credentials.  Here is the information you should've received:

- All lead teachers at IMLS must have a Montessori certification in the age-group that they are teaching.  Thus in the PreK/Kindergarten campus all IMLS lead teachers are 3-6 Montessori certified and in the elementary program the lead teachers are certified to teach in the appropriate age groups.  To be certified to teach in the method, one must be certified in 0-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12, etc.  These are separate certifications.   Fortunately, we have one of our Montessori teachers are are certified in 3-6, 6-9 and 9-12, so she is flexible enough to teach in any of those age-groups if needed.

- Because of the language immersion aspect, the teacher(s) that is/are teaching Japanese or Spanish must be a native speaker.  Please keep in mind, they are not teaching Spanish/Japanese in the same curriculum as we would if we were taking this at a regular school.  They are not learning to conjugate/write in 3-6.  They are learning the Montessori method in a full language immersion setting.  So if we were at a Montessori school in France, we would be taught in French and so on.  So these teachers are not certified to teach a language, they are native speakers teaching in their native language the Montessori language.  As they move into the Elementary program, they will learn more of the grammatical, etc. aspects.  But at that time, they will already be fluent in their chosen language.

- As for the Head of School, she has been involved with various Montessori schools in the administrative capacity (leading, assisting, etc.) in the past 2 decades, she has her MBA concentrating in HR and has been professionally associated with reputable Montessori schools such as Alcuin and Brickton.

Moreover, schools do look for directors from time to time.  Alcuin just hired in the in the past year a new HoS after a long 2 year search, so has West Surburban.  So this is not indicative of a poorly run school, if anything, it is indicative of a school that wants to find someone that can positively lead a strong institution.

I am not here to change your mind about the school.  I understand your have to find the right atmosphere and environment for your child.  But I felt strongly to respond because it is not a day care.  It insults our intelligence that we did not choose the best school for our children.

I will tell you right now, my 5 year old (who just turned 5), learned how to write in Hiragana before he turned 4, has been doing addition problems (up to 100), knows most countries flags if you asked him and can set up a table and wash dishes because he wants to (to name a few).  These are things that have been possible for him to achieve because he wants to do these "works" and is nurtured positively to achieve these things.  He is not learning by memory.  He is learning for life.  Most importantly, I would not leave my child anywhere if I didn't feel it was safe and nurturing.  My husband and I could take him elsewhere.   But moreso, I have a young son who is respectful of himself, others and his environment.  He is becoming a whole-person.  

We did research other schools, but for us, this was the best choice and we have no regrets. So, for the negative reviewer, I hope that you did find a school that fits your child.  Again, that is the most important thing..and that is what we did for our son.

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yamani h.

IL

Intercultural Montessori is not the same school as Intercultura...clearly that negative review was written during the transition period of an old school to a new one and by someone with little tact. I knew people who went to the old school and still decided to send my son because of the value of immersion language education and the mulit-cultural demographic.

This school has all of the hope, vision and growing pains of a newly formed school which is seeking to reinvent itself. My son has been there for a year. In my opinion, a school is best judged by its teachers and the teachers at Intercultural are absolutely STELLAR. His 6 hours in spanish immersion montessori and 2.5 hours in English are amazing. He had a bumpy time transitioning to montessori and his own discipline but he made the transition and has blossomed into a classroom leader. Montessori has turned out to be an excellent choice for my child's learning style. My kindergartner tells me about isoceles triangles, the order of the solar system and tons of other things that I knew nothing about at his age!

No school is perfect. My only criticisms of the school are: the cost...(though it does have financial aid) and the location (its in oak park and as a city dweller the reverse commute kills us). I would be happy to talk to any parent about my positive experience.

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