For those of you not familiar with Crossway Community, it is a facility that offers independent apartments for single mothers and their children upstairs, and runs a Montessori School downstairs. Housing is funded by HOC as a program tenant. The Montessori School is made up of the children that reside with the mothers that live at Crossway, as well as outside children who live in the surrounding area. While volunteering at the school when I first moved in here I saw some things that seemed strange. Never really knowing what Montessori was before I came, I found the set up and ways of teaching/watching/interacting with the children by the teachers quite different from what I was used to. For starters, the children were expected to behave well beyond their years. Some of it was fascinating to watch, while at the same time I was a little concerned with the strictness of it all. These kids were not really allowed to "just be kids". They were instructed to do their "work", as it is called, and there was a set time for everything. Chattiness, playfulness, and sharing were not allowed. Each child was to sit either at the table or on the floor by themselves and do what ever work they decided to do. The teachers kind of just sat there watching unless the child asked for help or some form of engagement by the teacher. This all seems harmless sure, but I was wondering where the fun time came in. It never did. There was circle time where the kids sang songs and had story time for about ten minutes before going outside. When it was time to go outside, it was a chaotic time of getting all the kids dressed (since it was cold). There was a lot of yelling and demanding from the teachers during this time trying to get the kids to focus on just getting ready to go outside. Once outside, everyone held hands and went for a long walk around the neighborhood. There was no running allowed, or going into the grass. Everyone stayed together for the most part and then were set free to run about once we were on the track at the nearby high school. After about 30 minutes, we walked back to the building and went inside. Even though there was a playground, we didn't use it. Nothing exceptional about lunch-time except the silence. Oh, the silence! I have never experienced such a depressing lunch with such small children in my life! Everyone helped clean up and then went into another room for nap time. If a child was restless they either get yelled at or one of the teachers would sit next to them until they fell asleep. During my volunteer stint I noticed a few things. Mainly the difference in how the children from the parents at Crossway were treated, and also outside children that were less than quiet/calm. Now, let me point this out that NONE of these children were ill-behaved; quite the opposite. They ALL operated well beyond their years and were quite mature for how young they were. However, the children that DID act their age were usually kept together in one classroom, while the quieter ones were in another classroom. Once in a while if a quiet kid acted out they would switch that one with a usually rowdy child from the other room that was having a "quiet" day. These kids were not able to, or unwilling to, sit down quietly in their chair and do their work. They wanted to lay on the rug and play, talk to the teachers, talk to their friends, sing, spin around in circles, etc. Let me remind you these kids are 2 and 3 years old. The teachers would offer unsolicited explanations of the behavior of these children, most specifically 1. The family life they have at home, and 2. Their lack of enrollment at the school as an infant. One particular child was having a hard time sitting still and listening to instruction by a teacher one day. This child was running about the classroom. (There was no outside time that day because of rain). The teacher could not get him to settle down so she stood behind him and held him by his arms to try to get him to settle down. He kept trying to get away from her and she kept telling him she would not let go because he would not stop running around inside. He kept telling her to let go of him and she told him he would fall if she let go. Right after she said that, he said let go, and she did! Smacked his face right on the floor and started crying! She walked away. This particular child was highly intelligent and was in the school as an infant as well. The teacher chalked it up to "poor training" at home. This child resided at Crossway. Another Crossway child in the school would regularly fight with the other kids. Bite, kick, hit, take items away from another child, etc. What I witnessed (since I was not allowed to get involved) the teachers do about this was having the children work it out among themselves. Sometimes one of the teachers would give the child work to do with the teacher or move the child to another classroom. There was NEVER any consequence from any child that acted out, nor was there any comfort offered to the cjild that was hurt. The only consistent method used was to have the hurt child tell the other child, "I don't like it!" After a while, some of these children pretty much walked around all day saying that, leading me to wonder if they even comprehend what they are saying. I have seen children sitting in the hallway by themselves from other classrooms when they misbehave, or sit with another teacher. Often they have their head down with red faces from crying. Not once did I ever see a child that was NOT a resident of Crossway sitting out in the hall, or sitting with a teacher, or looking upset in anyway. Most of them didn't really care to look at me or smile either. This included the "outside" children that I worked with everyday. All the children that were residents of Crossway were more than happy to know who I was, say hi to me, give me hugs in the hall, etc, but the other children, of all ages, continuously looked at me as if some weird stranger! Other things I witnessed were babies taken outside in the winter with no hat and gloves, children walking the hallways for exercise on rainy days instead of using the huge multi-purpose room (I have no idea why), children being particularly afraid of one teacher over another, teachers' had obvious favorite children, and children who they literally rolled their eyes when they showed up for school, the ass-kissing of outside parents vs. the usual drop off and pick up from the Crossway mothers. Many teachers have been reported on for mistreatment of children. More than one teacher is still employed by Crossway but is no longer working in the school. I am not saying all the teachers should be fired, but in some cases, I question why they are even still in the building around the children if they have already proven themselves to have poor judgement in the case of a child. I believe in everyone having second chances, but in some cases, I strongly feel that if a school feels obligated to kick a child out of the school for ill behavior, leaving the parent the stress to find another place suitable to care for her child, than why the special treatment to protect the teacher? You show compassion enough to keep the teachers around so they don't have to find other employment, but you don't keep the kids? Sounds like a lack of true information may be in place here. No?
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