Lake Country School

If you're looking for a place where they don't care about your child's personal safety, then this is the school for you. My son was stabbed with a pencil and it broke the skin, but they didn't think it was an issue that needed to be addressed. on top of this was two months of 4 boys picking on my son at recess. A lot of talk about a "peaceful, welcoming community", but in reality my son didn't feel safe at school. Hard to believe given their reputation, but this was our experience.
—Submitted by a parent

i enjoyed going to this school, as i am sure my father had the same experence. great people, great community.

Lake Country is the most engaging, respectful learning environment I have ever experienced. Their commitment to diversity is with parallel, and they live that commitment in real ways, every day of the year. Each child is encouraged for their gifts, and supported with their challenges. Lake Country teaches peace through philosophy and example. They educate, celebrate and honor children and families in all their wonderfully, various manifestations. Supporting Lake Country School means supporting the best all of us can give back to our world.

Lake Country School is an outstanding community of teachers and parents that provides a wonderful Montessori education that attends to the total development of its children.
—Submitted by a parent

Because both of our children have shared with me the importance of Lake Country education in shaping who they are today.
—Submitted by a parent

I love that I can come to school every day with joy and excitement to meet students who are alive to all that is waiting for them to learn and do. I love that we spend time together working in and on community and that we can face challenges together. It is a unique and wonderful place there is no other like it and I am thankful that I have been and continue to be a part of this school.
—Submitted by a parent

Lake Country School taught my daughter how to organize her work, how to work with and respect others and how to respect her environment. She transitioned academically and socially to Minnetonka High School easily because of her LCS foundation. Sara's teachers rave about her study habits and abilities as a facilitator of group work. I tell them that the foundation for those abilities was laid at LCS.
—Submitted by a parent

Lake Country School is peace education at its finest. The staff respect,love, trust and challenge each other. Everyone does their best because everyone does their best. We see and believe in the goodness of others and work to help the children see it in themselves and others. Pat and Larry Schaefer's founding vision included the vision for peaceful people living in a healthy community. It's not that we never disagree. It's that when we do we also know we only have the best interest of the children in mind. I feel very fortunate to live and work in such a place and raise my child in this community. Thanks to all my former students for being my teacher and to their parents for the necessary trust to do this important work.Thank you to all who have shaped LCS!
—Submitted by a teacher

I look back on my experience at LCS with immense gratitude. It is a community based on a pure love and appreciation for learning. I had no idea how lucky I was at the time, but I certainly do now.
—Submitted by a parent

My teachers from LCS were some of the best I've ever had; they helped me engage with what I was learning and to remain calm about trying new things. Even if you don't understand someone right away, the teachers at LCS will stand by you patiently and grapple with it alongside you.
—Submitted by a parent

Lake Country has soul. The staff, board, parents, and children are supportive and respectful of each other. It is a wonderful learning environment.
—Submitted by a parent

The Montessori Method is the infallible way to begin childhood education. Lake Country helps nurture the students by utilizing this method.
—Submitted by a parent

Lake Country School, as the only Montessori K-9 i know of, was a no-brainer, wonderful teachers, fourth, fifth and sixth graders in each class creates a wonderful mentor/mentee system. If my school were to win this award, it would help many students with paying tuition as it has helped me.
—Submitted by a student

Lake Country interprets and executes the Montessori method impeccably! The children who come from this school and community emerge with a joyful self-confidence and love of learning I have never seen coming from any other school. Lake Country is so much more than just a school that teaches the 3 Rs, it's a community that guides the whole child... You can't ask for more!
—Submitted by a parent

Lake Country School provided my children with an insatiable apetite to learn and grow. The persue understand without fear. They dream of why to satisfy their curious minds. They see barriers and challanges to be overcome not excuses to stop. The value of the individual child is stressed at Lake Country School. The staff makes sure that respect and responsibility and character are well developed aspects of life. I cannot say thank you enough to the wonderful staff and the caring community that made such a difference in the life of our children. If you are searching for a wonderful place to see your child come alive as a learner try Lake Country School.
—Submitted by a parent

I have never been around more motivated, caring teachers than at Lake Country. From school trips to Colorado for archaelogical digs to feeding the llama on the school farm in Wisconsin to writing a 40 page 'cosmic autobiography' in sixth grade, this school shows kids how much there is to life!
—Submitted by a student

LCS is a model of what schools, and even larger communities, should aim to be: a caring community where a love of learning and the capacities of individual students flourish, where children and young teens gain skills and awareness of issues and values that prepare them for independence and responsibility, and where a successful balance is actually achieved in furthering the interests of individual, community, and the wider environment.
—Submitted by a parent

It is a community for both parents and kids and it is a child centered school.
—Submitted by a parent

The world would be a much better place if every child were entrusted to the staff of Lake Country School. Their boundless enthusiasm and commitment to children is astounding. I was lucky enough to spend 8 years in this wonderful place and it is my greatest hope that my own children will get to do the same.

Young people attending Lake Country learn how to be a part of a community and are given a life long love for learning. It produces amazing people and my friends from my time there are still among my closest.
—Submitted by a parent