[sunsetonsaturn]

I had a similar experience as a child. I cried every day morning before school. This continued until I was switched to another school.

Both schools were regular ones, and in both cases - there wasn't any bullying. I don't remember what the problem was, but the fact is that going to a different place had a great effect.

In your particular case, it could be the change itself that had an impact, rather than the "Montessorinness" of the new school. Also, consider the Hawthorne effect - it could also explain the situation.

Looking back at those times, 30 years ago, I really cannot tell why I didn't feel well in the environment managed by with my first primary school teacher. She was a decent lady, she treated her pupils with respect and never shouted at us, or anything of that sort.

[otippat]

Hm, if you don't remember the problem causing the switch, how do you know it was the switch itself that improved the situation?

[tomaskafka]

I wish no one would doubt children intuition about people and environment they are in ever again.

Naming the 'why' behind the emotions is a job for 12+ year old, not for the kindergartener.

[margalabargala]

The developing brain of a child may be experiencing the emotions associated with having a negative intuition, without having any of the negative stimulus that normally causes negative intuition about something.

An important part of the human developmental process is learning to calibrate these sorts of things, and one way to calibrate one's reactions is to have adults check whether the child's intuition about something was correct or not.

There can be some cases e.g. hidden abuse where the adult thinks the child may be being unreasonable where they are not, but in situations where the child and adult have equal information it's a valuable learning tool.

[couchand]

Most adults can't even do it reliably. The things we expect from kids that we don't even ask of ourselves....

[rr808]

Right, it might not even be the switch. My daughter used to scream her head off when being left in childcare. After 3 months she learned it was actually fun and looked forward to it.