Rogers Park Montessori School

I am an early childhood teacher myself I feel RPMS offers a high quality education that is true to the Montessori philosophy, and focuses on the whole child. This is our third year at RPMS and I have nothing but great things to say about the school, teachers, and other families. I have never been to a school where the administers are so involved with the school and families. From the very beginning we felt right at home and my daughter come out of her shell and has excelled at everything from living a healthy lifestyle, to multiplication… and she’s only in extended day (kindergarten)! The other families are so nice too. Being a part of RPMS is truly being a part of a wonderful community.

My two children attended RPMS, one through 6^th grade (before the middle school was available) and one through 8^th grade. The experience was absolutely fantastic. RPMS follows Montessori tenets to promote the whole child. The social, emotional, cultural development of the child is just as important to nurture a fully formed adult as learning reading, writing and arithmetic.
That being said, both my children (and their friends and fellow graduates) have excelled and evolved in a manner most of us never had an opportunity to do. Their years at RPMS included challenges, which of course bring not only success, but failures. Where better to falter than in an environment of loving, caring, smart, focused teachers, staff, and students, to allow our children to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and try again. And succeed. No child is gifted in every aspect of their intelligence, whether science, math, reading, writing, executive functioning, emotional, or social. We adults sure aren’t! Why do we expect schools and teachers to take our children and make them overachieving AP competitive students? To create stress and heartache for a child who excels at writing and creating but struggles in math, or a child who picks up math concepts easily and struggles with essays? Or is socially behind her peers but has amazing empathy?
Every RPMS teacher my children had helped them utilize their strengths to gain insight and success in the areas they struggled with. And to never make them feel that they were «less than» someone who breezed through those areas. The carefully structured and placed multi-​age classrooms foster a community of older children that model behavior the younger kids are developing… and the act of helping a younger child with a difficult problem (in any area) seems to exponentially help each evolve beyond what they would learn with their own peers.
RPMS students are known throughout the Chicago area secondary education system for being smart, caring„ naturally curious, involved in class discussions (even on shadow days they participate in class) and in activities, club, student government.
My children are pursuing their passions, and making their way into adulthood, high school, college, and life, with the exact qualities I would have picked from a basket. And I know that RPMS filled that basket for them.
The community of parents is MUCH larger than any one person. Many hands, hearts and heads have poured countless volunteer hours into everything from painting, scrubbing floors and washing curtains in the older buildings that were rented… to working our fingers to the bone to raise funds form WITHIN the community of parents, grandparents, employers and friends of RPMS to create a learning environment that matched the stellar work being done inside those old buildings. It would be a shame to say offhand that any one person created the space, as untrue as that is. And insulting for those who put thousands of hours into supporting RPMS to become a place for more of our community to have the ability to join.

We had the WORST experience with Rogers Park Montessori. I interviewed for my daughter, gave them a nice deposit with the application, was told that I would be contacted to get started and I never heard back from them. I waited and called and waited and called until I got so angry that I called and screamed at them. I WAITED ABOUT 2 MONTHS — when they said they had space for my daughter immediately. I also wrote a letter to the principal about my experience with JULIE EINSTEIN and I never heard from the principal regarding the matter. Now I’m glad my daughter doesn’t go there. I wouldn’t give that school 1 penny and will always talk down about it.

We joined RPMS last year in mid stream for Montessori and my daughter will be entering 1^st grade next year. We have found the staff to be absolutely the best and she loves her teachers and the classrooms. We have made some incredible friends at the school both from the teacher side and and the parents. You will not meet a more committed team who really cares about the kids and growing them. Once you meet the kids who have gone through the program and gotten into the best schools in Chicago you will see why I recommend this school so highly. Of course my daughter is having a great time as well and her best friends are her classmates.