careful. montessori and waldorf pupils tend to come from wealthy families. success in later life might have no basis on their schooling at all.

Are you recommending Montessori beyond k-1? Are it even available for that stage? One thing that made me wonder was if these "famous" people only went to Motesorri pre-school or all the way through in higher grades. The reason I'm asking is because if it's only preschool then benefit seems to be too high and questionable.

The Montessori my kids attended in NC went through middle school. I believe the Montessori my first child started at in CA went through high school.

I went through a Montessori school until year 7, and I think it was very good for me, although I'm not sure how well it would have suited high school for me (the school I was at offered until year 12 but there were very few students who were there last year 7).

I am not recommending it, I'm merely pointing at it.

I do not have any knowledge about it (neither myself nor my own children), other than what I've read. I do subscribe to the idea, though.

>It seems to be effective, if you measure by "people famous for the right reasons"[1], such as Bezos, Brin, Page and Wales.

Mostly because parents who fork for such schools are already rich and well educated.

I am sure you will find plenty of famous people educated traditional way. And where is the list of not famous people who were educated using Montessori method?

I don't have the statistics so I'm not going to argue.

But the question is a question of probability and information divergence. If 0.0001% of the population was Montessori educated, but 1% of famous people were (whatever your definition of "famous" is), then it is greatly informative. If 0.0001% of famous people are, then it is not informative.

And note that even if informative, it might not be a causal relationship - it could be that the "causal" relationship is "parents who are open to alternative education systems", or "parents who can afford alternative education systems and are willing to", and the Montessori link is incidental. I do not know and I don't think anyone really does.

Regardless, I find those educational principles much more logical than the traditional ones, and would thus prefer them if given the chance.