I am a very proud product of a Montessori classroom, attending from kindergarten through my "fifth year." To my peers with children, I suggest it is as the ONLY option for elementary education (but lean towards AMI-accredited schools). If you want your child to understand how to problem-solve, instead of memorize facts and tables, I urge you all to seek the same.
I wrote about the perfect world that a Montessori-based education system would yield here:
My daughter starts at this school next week - it's hard to believe this is a public school. Apparently, if the experiment continues to go well, San Francisco will convert additional schools to the Montessori method. This could actually help stem the tide of families leaving the City once their children reach school age - quite a development.
There was a Montessori school down the road from my primary school. We thought the students there were pretty weird (they were easily identifiable by their lack of uniforms) but of course their weirdness was more likely due to their parents than due to the school.
I have particularly vivid memories of the fat boy who wore skirts.
In later life I never actually met anyone who went to that school, though, so I couldn't tell you how they turned out. Whatever they did, they did it in very different social circles to mine.
I wrote about the perfect world that a Montessori-based education system would yield here:
http://patrick.snajder.net/blog/index.php?/archives/44-Save-...
By the way: I never had to wear a uniform and, how did I turn out? I like to think people enjoy my presence and I like to solve problems.