Experience with Mills College Children's School
Hello Parents! I'm looking for parents to share their recent experience with Mills College Children's School. There hasn't been any posts since Dec 2014. I am particularly interested in hearing about your child's overall experience, opinions on the no grades system, and how your child transitioned into another school structure post-Mills. Thank you!
Aug 10, 2017
Parent Replies
Hi all. All three of my children attended Mills College Children's School (MCCS). My youngest started in the preschools. My children and I love MCCS. To illustrate how they have thrived personally and academically, I will share with you a story about my oldest child. My oldest started MCCS in second grade. She spent first grade in a classroom doing a disappearing act. She was very quiet and shy. She did her work, never raised her voice, never asked questions, and got through the school year writing the same story at the beginning and the end of the school year (same story line; same number of sentences). The teacher told me that she was doing great because she was a good girl. I took her out of the public school and found MCCS. Teachers knew her strengths and weaknesses at MCCS. She was still shy, and one of the goals the teachers had for her was to have her work toward speaking up in the classroom of 15 kids. Even in 5th grade, she would break down and cry because she needed to do a classroom presentation. Nevertheless, she was supported and did everything she was supposed to do (presentation and all). We put her back into the public school system in the middle school. That's when I really saw the difference that education at MCCS offered. My daughter was organized, had solid study skills, asked teachers for what she needed (she learned to advocate for herself at MCCS), and went after information for the sake of learning (her curiosity and thirst for information was nurtured at MCCS). She got grades for her work for the first time, and we were all pleasantly surprised. She learned to understand and manage the grading system and the testing system. Best of all, she monitored her own progress and asked for help whenever she needed it. In general, she did not want me involved in her middle school life. Last year, she graduated middle school with honors and made a speech to the whole school at graduation. She has grown from a child who was afraid of her own shadows to become a confident person. I give MCCS a lot of credit for building the foundation that she needed to navigate and succeed academically. My second child is entering a public middle school this year after graduating from MCCS. I'm looking forward to seeing how she utilizes what she has learned from the teachers at MCCS.