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| - My child is enrolled in the Gan Karmiel Pre-K class of ECDC. There were three teachers in the beginning of the semester. Then one teacher, someone my child really liked, quit because ECDC couldn't accommodate her request for a change of schedule. Her hours were from 9am - 6pm, without paid lunch break. After that, ECDC hired another part-time teacher, who was supposed to be a Reggio Emelia expert, and who, according to some teachers, was really amazing. She quit after a week because ECDC, despite its claim that it has a Reggio Emelia approach to "education", did not have a RE curriculum at all. Or maybe ECDC confuses a structured self-guided RE curriculum with structure-less free play. Then a roster of teachers came and now my child has three teachers in the morning (I'm not sure if they are licensed teachers) and a roster of people in the afternoon. In summary, my child has had at least seven teachers for this academic year..
The Gan Karmiel teachers are nice and warm, but they don't intentionally teach anything. Everyday during drop off or pickup, the teachers were either talking to themselves or simply sitting around. I almost never see engagement of a conversation or project between the teachers and the kids. They have a question every day in the morning for kids, but the questions almost, except when there is a Jewish holiday coming up, always have nothing to do with the education plan of the day or have a theme or connection to anything they are learning. It's busy work and has no meaning for the kids. Most of the kids are ready academically to be taught phonics or simple math, but when we asked the teachers what they teach to the kids, effectively, we were told they don't really teach anything. Thank God for the Amazing Afternoon classes, which cost an extra of $3000, where the non-classroom teachers do really cool arts and sciences projects, otherwise, it would have been an expensive, and glorified DAYCARE CENTER, like someone else has commented here.
The Pre-K class also has all sorts of strange rules. Recently, the kids were told that they can't bring jewelry to school. They also can't tattle or complain to the teachers, even when the other kids are mean or the child is hurt. They are also not allowed to baby-talk, even when the kids are simply playing family together and pretending to be babies. At swimming classes, the kids are only taught tiger crawls, for EIGHT MONTHS, and are not taught how to use their arms to swim. If I complained to the teachers about something, my child seems to get in trouble the same day.
Oh, another strange thing about this class is that the kids are not allowed to talk about any other holidays other than the Jewish holidays. For an "educational" center that advertizes itself as open to everyone, I would at least expect that children can share their personal experiences, including travels, holidays and significant cultural events in these kids' lives etc. The kids were not allowed to talk about the Christmas holiday at school because the teachers said that JCC is "for the Jewish People". I personally don't believe this is JCC's stance, but the message obviously is not communicated to the teachers.
As you can see, my family and I are very disappointed with my child's educational experience at this class at ECDC Squirrel Hill. There are some nice things about the class. The kids are wonderful and the teachers are warm. But if we could choose again, we definitely would not go to this class. The other Pre-K class is probably better, although it's hard to say. It depresses me to think that we pay so much money to send our kids to a school that doesn't challenge them or teach them in any meaningful way. I seriously think the lead teacher of the class should be retrained or replaced. My sense is that she is the Tsar of the class, and the other teachers don't dare to challenge her.
Concerned Parents
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