San Jose, CA
Carden Day School

Parents' Comments

Parent #1
This school offers your child a very academic program. Your child will become discipline and respectful to all. There are no fundraising for the school but for individual groups such as the 8th graders to help offset their expense to the East Coast. The class sizes are very reasonable - the largest is size is 21 with 2 teachers.

Parent #2
Overall program too structured for this age group. Teachers have little or no ECE and it shows - lack of patience is often displayed. It's commmon to hear yelling by the principal and some of the teachers. My friend left because the male teacher in Kindergarten bruised her sons arm while disciplining hime

Parent #3
The owner is warm and friendly and gives the impression that the school classes are this way as well. Also, we were told that their students are a year ahead of the public schools. Our experience has shown this to be false. Very few children are reading at the appropriate level and they are behind in math as well when compared to children of my friends from public and private school. Administration does not want parents to ask questions, teachers are not available or the prinicipal (who yells like a truck driver) has to be there to oversee the discussion. Children seem both bored and unhappy. We had to stay a year because of a contract they make you sign for the year. We were happy to go. Many teachers are aggressive - yelling, slamming things down when disciplining the children. There was one field trip the entire year and it was cancelled. The curriculum is boring. The kids do the same thing over and over again. If your child is academically advanced, this will slow him down.

Parent #4
They sell the school well but don't deliver on what they promised.

Parent #5
I searched from San Mateo to Gilroy to find the best school for my 3 children when I pulled them out of Palo Alto schools. For what I want, this is the best. Some could say it's lacking in amenities (for example, it has a computer lab, rather than computers in each classroom). I consider it all a plus - the children learn their basics from the teachers. When the teachers teach my child how to write letters and numbers, that means that I don't have to do it on the weekends!

Parent #6
Our success with this school depended on our ability to accurately assess our child's needs for a learning environment. Structure and discipline contribute to our child's ability to thrive. Our child has not thrived at other preschools that were less disciplined, less structured, or play-based.

Parent #7
The parent community in my eldest's class is very strong, we hold combined birthday parties for the kids every 2 months or so, and all share the costs, with no gifts being given. We also have an e-mail group so that we can share anything we need to among ourselves. The academic program is taught in such a way that the kids think they are merely playing, but yet learn an awful lot. The kids are not asked to change, they are to conform to the school. The school allows each child to retain their unique personality, and just adds to that. The unique drop-off (where the middle school kids help the younger ones into school, and literally walk the preschooler's to class) is amazing. By the end of the year, most kids are going into school by themselves - and running without turning back to say goodbye. The school offers French, P.E. and music to the preschoolers and each is part of the curriculum, and taught by a specialized teacher. The kids love the variation in teacher too. A hot lunch program is offered. An extended care program is offered, until 6pm. Extra-curricular activities are offered, such as afterschool sports, tumbling, karate and dance.

Parent #8
I think this school has enormous strengths. Last year, I was a bit concerned about the lack of diversity but this year, the diversity has changed for the better by leaps and bounds. We have not had any disciplinary issues so I can not comment on this. What I will say is that we have seen our son absolutely flourish at this school. There is so much competition in the world waiting for all of our kids - it was important to us that we not put our kids in an environment that was seeped in competition. At Carden, the expectations are very high but as I look at the kids who are there, and look at my own son, these kids are meeting the expectation that they will fall in love with learning. If our children can learn to love learning, they will be much better prepared to face the pressure of competition that awaits them.

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