There is a lot of debate these days about Intelligent Design (ID) and its place in the educational world. The ID proponents believe their idea should be taught in schools alongside evolution, in science classes. Its detractors believe ID is pseudoscience and should not be taught in science classes. I think we have a problem with symantics...

I personally like the approach but realized that it is not right for every child. I do worry a bit about taking a child like Cole and putting him into an environment that is so consistent with his current style. On one hand, he could fit right in and really excel here. On the other hand, it may not stretch him to adapt...

I like the school—seems most similar to Cherry but I didn’t love it. I thought the rooms were a little sparse in their activities (actual rooms and the play rooms as well) and I wished their teaching approach were a bit more methodical and intentional. Again, they seemed to do a lot of the right things

Really liked the school. What I particularly liked was emphasis on doing what is right for the kid and the family. They seemed to be very sensitive to where kids are—missing their parents, feeling uneasy about school, yet not coddling them. In addition..

They were clearly trying to sell me on the school and not on the 2 year old class, since the class doesn’t currently exist. The teachers were good but didn't really stand out enough impress me; the projects they were working on seemed a little rudimentary and the kids didn’t seem all that engaged. However, I do buy into the philosophy

I thought Cole would like it there but I wasn’t certain that it would push him mentally….. he would certainly have a creative outlet and learn new things though. It wasn’t glorified playtime. It was learning through play...

Jolie visited 5 preschools in Evanston in order to evaluate them. She used a variety of metrics to measure each school but this is a work in progress; the metrics could change as she visits more schools. This is a collection of her write-ups (edited by me).

It should be noted that we are evaluating these schools as a possible fit for Cole and us as parents. We tried to be as objective as possible in the articles, but opinion and slant is inevitable when one is writing about something as important as education. These reviews should be viewed with that bias in mind.