We sent our kid to The Learning Company and Academy from when she was 2-3/4 to 3-1/2 years old.
We eventually got to be so uncomfortable with the school that we moved her to a new preschool, even though the new school will mean a longer commute and slightly higher tuition.
Below are the reasons we personally decided to leave the preschool. (Acknowledging that each family may have different preferences and priorities, and some may not care about some of the points below, our hope is that this list may help you to evaluate whether The Learning Company and Academy is right for you.)
1. Difficulty communicating with the teachers. For example, one day at drop-off, I said "I forgot to bring KidName's water bottle today. Do you have a cup that she can use? Or do I need to go home and get a water bottle?" I repeated this two more times in different ways, along with pantomiming, and eventually had to open the lunch box and point to where there was no water bottle before the teacher understood.
2. No easy way to communicate with administration. The school does not have an email address. There's no way to text them. They certainly have no app. The only way to reach them is by phone call.
(The lack of communication in the above two points has made it nearly impossible to raise concerns about any of the following points.)
3. The school is very punitive and disciplinarian. One of the only times I had any direct contact with administration, they were calling me to ask if our kid had any privileges at home that they could take away at school to force her to nap. Our kid has also been using various terms like "bad girl," "time out," and "troublemaker" that she certainly never learned at home. We have to continually repeat to her that people aren't bad or good, they can do bad things or good things.
4. Forced nap time. our kid sleeps for 12-13 hours a night, so she's not tired during the day, and usually does not nap. On weekends, we have "quiet time" for two hours in the afternoon, where she's in her room alone to wind down, but does not usually nap. During my own time in preschool, I also didn't nap; I'd go sit in a room with the older kids and color things with crayons. When I suggested that our kid could do the same, the school refused.
5. Extreme focus on academics. They have worksheets that the kids are required to do. While I never personally saw my kid not wanting to do a worksheet, I did see the teacher forcing other kids to sit and do their worksheets while dropping my kid off. This hardly seems like a way to inspire a love of learning. The school also sends home report cards (which seems awfully rigorous for a preschool).
6. Not paying attention to kids. In the report cards, they mark what the kids can do, separated into academic things, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills. Our kid has had great gross motor skills for a while. Before starting at the school, she could accurately play catch with a ball from perhaps 40ft (10m) away. Yet, her report card said that she was unable to throw a ball at all. There were several other gross motor skills that fell in this same category. The teacher either didn't pay any attention to her or else didn't provide an environment where she was comfortable enough to show her abilities.
7. Messages in songs. The school has concerts every couple of months, where the kids sing songs they've learned. At age 3, you really have to repeat something a ton of times before the kid can repeat it back, which means that the words of these songs are being deeply ingrained in the kids as core messages. Yet these songs reinforce traditional stereotypes. There was a Mother's Day concert, and the full month leading up to it, our kid had a strong preference for mom over dad and kept singing things like "mothers are for hugging, mothers are for kissing."
8. The school claims to be just renting space from a church but not actually religious, but it definitely still implicitly pushes kids into mainstream Christian culture. When I raised concerns about them hosting a Christmas concert, I was gaslit and told that it couldn't possibly actually be an issue because I was the only parent who had ever raised it. (Because I grew up with the confidence of being raised white and male, I had the comfort level to raise my concerns. Although I may be reading into things, I would guess that the woman of color wearing a hijab who sat near me during the concert was also uncomfortable with it, but just didn't feel empowered to raise it as an issue.)
9. Vaguely racist education materials. Our kid brought home a coloring page for "E is for Eskimo" (a derogatory term historically used by colonizers to refer to Inuit peoples).
10. One day our kid told us that the teacher had hit her. We think this is probably not true, but it bears mentioning as something for parents to watch out for, just in case. (Our kid also on the same day said that her sibling's caretaker in a different physical location had hit read more
