Huh, it's rare that I wish a New Yorker article was longer, but I really would love a more thorough dive into Montessori schools today.

I went to a Montessori school from pre-k to 6th grade. It was a very good experience overall. I learned at my own pace and got to do some pretty advanced math. But, I will confess, it was also a rather nice private school. I wonder how much of the benefits were from Montessori versus the small class sizes and indulgent teachers. It also ended right around when grades go from vaguely mattering in some abstract moral sense, to mattering in a very concrete, important sense, i.e. college admissions. I wonder how Montessori would have fared in that environment.

Indeed I have the fun distinction of having experienced private school, homeschooling, and public school. All have their benefits and all have their downsides.

Private school teaches you that anything can be changed if you make a big enough fuss, and that you are really special. It also puts you in an environment where everybody's paying 40k a year[1] or they're a scholarship kid. That gives kids a very warped worldview. You can get a really great education though and college admissions is a breeze if you charm your college councilor.

Homeschooling, contrary to what people may think, is not sitting at home while your religious parents teach you the earth is 4000 years old. In large cities it's often closer to freelance school. Homeschoolers pool together and pay a teacher to teach a specific class. In some cases this works really well. Students get to develop specific interests and can take some classes that would be totally unavailable even to private school kids. If you're a child prodigy, homeschooling is almost essential. However, it is extremely isolating socially unless the kid is able to seek out friends on their own. It can also create kids who don't fully integrate into society. Pejoratively, they're weirdos. That's okay though! They'll find other weirdos in college and adulthood. A lot of successful people are weirdos. And one could argue I've got the correlation backwards and the kids are homeschooled because their weirdos. But if you want your kid to be comfortable within the mainstream of society, I wouldn't homeschool them.

Finally, there's public school. It teaches the exact opposite of private school, namely that you are not special, you do not deserve special treatment and that you should put your head down and work. There's pros and cons to that lesson. For one, it does teach you how to get shit done with minimal self pity. On the flip side, if you do have any genuine differences, good luck surviving lol. I shudder to think about kids with learning differences like dyslexia or ADHD. I probably have a minor case of ADHD and it was certainly difficult for me. You also get no guidance whatsoever with college and life. I see that effect on my classmates, many of whom are following the same track of trying to get into the most prestigious college, followed by the most prestigious job, followed by idk, home ownership and death? It's a bleak path.

With all this done, I've thought about what I'd want my kids to do for school. Truthfully, I have no idea. They all seem awful in their own ways. Fortunately that decision is quite a way's off.

[1]: Yes, yes, these are absurd NYC prices but private schools are still pretty expensive everywhere.