# Are montessori schools better than public schools **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 3, 2016, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-montessori-schools-better-than-public-schools/751097 "2016-04-03T17:28:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-montessori-schools-better-than-public-schools/751097/42 "2018-02-22T06:41:10Z")
Yeah, it’s amazing how often the articles I see about schools which have super-tiny classes, fully-personalized attention… are about schools which are also fully private, do not have any scholarship kids or anybody with physical or medical problems, if they do have any kids with learning disabilities there’s no mention of them in the article, and the tuition costs more than those of private universities. Hey, if you give me a ton of sugar I can make you sweets too, no problem! ---
**Author:** ![sbunny8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@sbunny8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sbunny8)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-montessori-schools-better-than-public-schools/751097/43 "2018-02-22T20:30:06Z")
A major difference is class size, regardless of the teaching methods used. If you really wanted to judge the effectiveness of Mortessori methods, you’d have to compare them to schools with similar class sizes (plus account for income levels et cetera). I’ve seen sources that claim that the optimal class size is 6-10 and once you get above 12 it doesn’t make much difference between 20 or 30, but there’s a huge difference between 20 and 12. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2018, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-montessori-schools-better-than-public-schools/751097/44 "2018-02-22T22:27:25Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > My daughter attended a public Montessori school though 8th grade. Even though it was a public Montessori school any student with significant behavioral issues had to transfer to a regular public school. I think that alone was enough to make the experience better for her than a traditional public school. Our school would be much easier to work in if we didn’t keep kids with serious behavioral issues. We’re a lottery school, so we never know when we’ll get a kid who got kicked out of another school and/or has no Motessori background. ---
**Author:** ![ElmerH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ea924/32.png) [@ElmerH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElmerH)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-montessori-schools-better-than-public-schools/751097/45 "2018-02-23T23:02:16Z")
I heard positive feedbacks about Montessori school ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-montessori-schools-better-than-public-schools/751097/46 "2018-02-23T23:04:50Z")
> [@ElmerH](#): > > I heard positive feedbacks about Montessori school Egad, another clincher! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2018, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-montessori-schools-better-than-public-schools/751097/47 "2018-02-23T23:24:45Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > No it doesn’t - they didn’t put “ **FACT!!** ” after the statement. I would have believed them if they had only written “believe me”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2018, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-montessori-schools-better-than-public-schools/751097/48 "2018-02-24T01:30:42Z")
Personally, from my own experience, I’d say that optimal class size is probably around 12. Too much less than that, and you don’t have enough viewpoints to get good discussion going, and not enough opportunity for the students to work with each other. Smaller might be easier on the teacher, but what’s best for the teacher isn’t always best for the students. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2018, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-montessori-schools-better-than-public-schools/751097/49 "2018-02-24T03:36:55Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Personally, from my own experience, I’d say that optimal class size is probably around 12. Too much less than that, and you don’t have enough viewpoints to get good discussion going, and not enough opportunity for the students to work with each other. Smaller might be easier on the teacher, but what’s best for the teacher isn’t always best for the students. As a librarian I find any scheduled group under 20 easy. If it’s kids coming to the the library because they need to research or read we can pack the place. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-montessori-schools-better-than-public-schools/751097/50 "2018-02-24T16:26:39Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Personally, from my own experience, I’d say that optimal class size is probably around 12. Too much less than that, and you don’t have enough viewpoints to get good discussion going, and not enough opportunity for the students to work with each other. Smaller might be easier on the teacher, but what’s best for the teacher isn’t always best for the students. See, that’s funny, because what I always feel is missing from these “class size” discussions is the perspective of the teacher. From a practical point of view, I like classes 16-24, but I don’t feel like my effectiveness declines until about 30, even 32, in terms of classroom instruction/interaction. However, if I have 6 sections of 30 kids, my teaching–which encompasses not just classroom instruction, but giving feedback, having conferences, following up with students who are under-performing, parent contacts, tracking data–all that will completely crater. Give me a single class of 16 and a single class of 30 and nothing else to do all day, and I suspect you’d see no difference in student outcomes. Give me six sections of each–96 vs 180 total student load–and the difference would be night and day. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-montessori-schools-better-than-public-schools/751097/51 "2018-02-26T05:49:33Z")
My Montessori class size was still a good 20+ kids. We just had more than one teacher in a room–a main teacher and an assistant that could also teach the lessons. You’d have three in preschool, to have one always free to monitor the kids. Still, lessons were taught one-on-one. The teacher sits down with you and demonstrates the lesson, which is usually about 5 minutes long, then you’re left to work on it for a while, while the teacher moves on to another student. The student doesn’t get to finish until they get everything 100% right. They take it to be graded by the teacher, who then circles the answers that are wrong and hands them back to the student, who must then figure out what they did wrong. If they can’t figure it out, then the teacher will eventually go back and teach the lesson again. That’s the part that I suspect has value. No one gets left behind not knowing how to do the work. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-montessori-schools-better-than-public-schools/751097/52 "2018-02-26T19:10:14Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > See, that’s funny, because what I always feel is missing from these “class size” discussions is the perspective of the teacher. From a practical point of view, I like classes 16-24, but I don’t feel like my effectiveness declines until about 30, even 32, in terms of classroom instruction/interaction. However, if I have 6 sections of 30 kids, my teaching–which encompasses not just classroom instruction, but giving feedback, having conferences, following up with students who are under-performing, parent contacts, tracking data–all that will completely crater. Give me a single class of 16 and a single class of 30 and nothing else to do all day, and I suspect you’d see no difference in student outcomes. Give me six sections of each–96 vs 180 total student load–and the difference would be night and day. Just curious, what age/level do you teach? ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-montessori-schools-better-than-public-schools/751097/53 "2018-02-26T19:14:14Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > Just curious, what age/level do you teach? High school English, so not super applicable, but the discussion had wandered quite a bit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-montessori-schools-better-than-public-schools/751097.md?page=2)