Guidepost Montessori reviews

Guidepost is a chain of poorly run daycares falsely advertising having "Montessori trained guides" and operating as "Montessori schools" with low employee morale, high turnover, and low program quality, capitalizing on parents' need for full-day care and the popularization of Montessori in modern parenting vernacular. Aside from the classroom materials and marketing, Guidepost is singularly about profit... forget about nurturing trained Montessori guides or paying teachers livable wages. The experience could be described as ... - Working year-round, usually around 9 hours/day with extremely limited holidays (you will receive PTO, but watch out- you must arrange fully on your own even if you are short-staffed... never mind seeing remote GP or HG leaders sipping margaritas on "work trips" via social media) - Worrying about the exhaustion levels and low morale of your guides as you manage an understaffed school, constantly worrying about staff calling out - Having to work on Federal holidays... and then having to have your teachers work on those days (Think July 5th, Memorial Day, Veteran's Day, and days most company's have off- ex. between Christmas and New Years) - Opening new classrooms regardless of whether the school is ready (physically or staffing wise)... Again, it's all about the profits - Having to constantly hire UNTRAINED guides to place in full classrooms and feeling frustrated because Montessori is all about the prepared guide. GP advertises their online Montessori training program but guides have to take it on their own limited time and it is fully virtual. A Montessori environment can be overwhelming to someone with limited experience or training - No support for children with special needs or diverse ways of learning (GP remote "Child Study" department will blame guides for children not improving, force meeting after meeting until the guide gives up, and does not recognize the positive benefits of early intervention) To me, this is an incredibly disrespectful practice - No before/extended day programs or boundaries/spaces, which leads to great stress for guides - Being told to make unethical decisions such as ignoring state-mandated child-teacher ratios by remote supervisors with no knowledge or respect for state licensing

Unfortunately, the corporate structure is more appropriate for childcare than school and undermines the Montessori goals. As a results, the Montessori-trained teachers grow frustrated and move on to a more authentic environment. In my experience, the corporate solution to this problem is to hire untrained teachers and train them in-house. I was informed that the teacher I replaced was found in the bathroom crying more than once, and I can understand why. There was little corporate interest in resolving issues that could not be blamed on the teacher. There is a lot of lip-service to things like cultural inclusion, which in practice simply means "we'll provide babysitting for all holidays, including Christmas, Easter, and all national days of recognition."