Crowden feedback?

I have two Crowden kids (one graduated and one current.) My experience has been that Crowden is excellent for neurodivergent kids because its ratio of student to teacher is so low.

The environment is not overly competitive musically or academically. There is an emphasis on social emotional health and community at the school. The classes are small and so the kids get to know each other really well. For some kids, this isn’t a plus because they’d like a bigger social pool to draw from. It’s been my experience that neurodivergent kids benefit from being well known in their community, and knowing the other kids and their families well. Crowden has been able to support my students and their academic accommodations very well.

Crowden also does a great job of fostering a diverse and inclusive community despite its small size. My only caveat would be that the prospective student must really like music because it’s a foundational aspect to the education and community. 

This is my daughter's second year at Crowden. She came in at the beginning of her 4th grade year. She had been in a public school in Union City and had received absolutely no attention in her classes, and by the end of 3rd grade, bullying had started to occur. When we started at Crowden, it became apparent immediately that the small class size allowed for very direct attention and her teachers caught some issues that went unnoticed, like vision issues that we had been unaware of, as well as some academic and learning needs that needed to be addressed.

My daughter loves the school, she looks forward to every day and HATES to miss any classes. She has gotten frustrated when I had to pull her out early for appointments. The kids in her class are very supportive and kind to each other, especially being sensitive to others' personal issues and needs. As a matter of fact, the kids in her class are all her besties now, and they all hang out outside of school all the time. (The parents are also great, every family is heavily involved with the school and we even have parent meetups too!) It is not an overly competitive environment, and the teachers are outstanding. The kids are not overburdened with homework and they love their assignments and projects. My understanding is that behavior issues are very minimal in this environment; my opinion is that the addition of actively playing in a music ensemble environment daily adds to the community and camaraderie. (Classical music is the main musical genre is the main focus of study.) Finally, I love the idea that the 3-5 graders and 6-8 graders have to interact daily, it seems to keep the middle school- aged issues a little tamed down and the transition to middle school seems easier.

I wish I had gone to this school when I was a kid. Feel free to reach out to me if you have questions.

My daughter was struggling with crippling anxiety. We were really worried about her— she wasn’t sleeping, wasn’t eating, and was wondering about the point of living. As a first step we switched schools, and within 2 weeks, she was a different person— happy, confident, developing good friends. The teachers and faculty are excellent not only in terms of academics but also social and emotional issues. 

I’d say chorus is where they most focus on other types of music. 

I don’t think it’s competitive at all. People have different levels of skill and talent, but the vibe is celebratory more than competitive… also, playing music together just naturally fosters collaboration. It’s a really great school. 

Hi there,

I know you asked about Crowden specifically, but you might also want to check out Pacific Boychoir Academy (if you have a son!?) It has been terrific for my moderate (medicated) ADHD son. They have 2.5 hours of music every day and there have been lots of wonderful opportunities for him; they just sang Rachmaninov "Vespers," and will be singing Lord of the Rings and Mahler with the SF Symphony later this year. This year they are also singing spirituals and folk music (this year lots of stuff from the Baltics.) Academics are beyond common-core, but not too competitive. My kid's not going to Harvard anyway, but we are confident he'll be a solid high-school candidiate and we opted for him to have this elite music/performance life experience instead. I am glad we did. All of the students very close, but the school is small right now because of COVID-fallout, so that could change as enrollment is increasing, Bullying isn't tolerated -- but really doesn't happen anyway. They don't have phones, they're not big swearers ... they are good boys. It seems like several kids have some kind of ND or mental-health stuff, and I feel the teachers have been effective and compassionate dealing with several cases I've heard about.

We also really love the parent community, which I think is pretty exceptional and very close. We all watch our boys sing the anthem at sporting events, bring black socks for the kid who forgot his, and have frequent of potlucks! Anyway, we love PBA and are so pleased we found it for our son.

Anyway, just disregard if you don't have a boy --ha! 

Good luck!

My child has no diagnoses, so I'm answering your later questions.  

What I love:

I love seeing my child playing music on stage.  In my youth I would have been willing to chew off a leg to escape standing in front of people and being noticed, but this experience of regularly performing in front of others has made it normal.  The children also compose music as part of their education, and play each other's compositions.  How often does a kid get that opportunity?  I love the small class sizes.  I think the biggest class in the school right now has 13 kids.  The teachers really know my kid and are available to talk about them.  I love the gentle, patient authority I see when I'm around the 3rd/4th grade teacher with her students.  I feel confidence in the writing process my kid is learning, going through outlines and rough drafts and editing.  I love many more things, but it's time to move on.

I am hoping that the turnover slows down.  Part of it was the kerfluffle of 2022, but part is just the fact that so many teachers were there for so long already.

How competitive is it?

Musically, I don't think it's competitive.  At the beginning of the year everyone plays something and all the music faculty listens.  From there they make up the groups and assign the pieces to be played in the first concert.  If you have 2 great violinist in 7th grade say, they may head up different ensembles, they may play violin 1 and 2 in the same ensemble but the parts are probably equally difficult, they may play violin and viola together or separately because 7th and 8th grade violinists must also play viola sometimes.  There is no single ladder that only one person can climb.  There are multiple concerts every year, and groupings change frequently. My child started with no string experience, and was given the opportunity to grow into it at his personal pace. 

There is a lot of collaboration in the academic classes, I believe, and focus on support and kindness.

Do kids hang out/make friends easily

From what I've seen, yes, the kids become friends.  It varies by how much they have on their schedules, and how far they have to travel, I expect.  My kid is not terribly outgoing, but receives invitations to spend time with others.  I saw new students and old talking and smiling together as they walked out at the end of the first week of this school year.  

Social emotional issues

I'm not sure if there's a specific curriculum that they use.  I've been satisfied with their handling of behaviors, but it was academic issues that drove me from public school so that was my main focus.

Different genres of music

I think there were lessons after concerts with jazz and improvisation.  The pieces at concerts probably fall under the umbrella of classical, but sound different to me.  You should look up Capybaraology on the Crowden youtube channel, and Juba by Florence Price.  But definitely mostly classical is played.