Landmark Stories

For parents Tracy Gianotti and Toseef Khan P’28, P’29, this scenario was their reality when living in Paris, France, with their two young daughters. After making the move in 2016 in hopes of exposing their kids to French and English, Tracy and Toseef first attributed their older daughter’s struggles in first grade to spending half her time being taught in French. She continued to struggle with comprehension, and Tracy and Toseef saw that she was falling further behind her classmates. They pursued testing, and their oldest daughter was diagnosed with dyslexia. 

“We spent four years in France, but the gap in her learning was only getting bigger, not smaller,” Toseef recalled. “The school she was in was not the best fit for her.” 

Though her learning disability presented quite differently than her sister’s, their younger daughter was diagnosed shortly after. 

Tracy and Toseef, who spent summers in the U.S., opted to send the girls to the Summer Program at Landmark. After two years of this arrangement and with educational material growing more complex, they came to a decision: it was time to move back to the states and enroll both children into Landmark full time. 

Tracy and the girls arrived in the U.S. on March 11, 2020, just days before the nationwide COVID stay-at-home advisories were implemented and with international lockdown restrictions tightening by the day. Their planned visits to Landmark were canceled, and Tracy developed COVID. Luckily, Toseef was able to leave France before more serious travel restrictions were put in place to be here with his family. 

The girls officially started at Landmark the following September of 2020 in fifth and fourth grades. Almost immediately, their parents noticed a difference.

“It was unbelievable, to be honest. Being able to have a diagnosis, our youngest really liked the fact that there was an issue she was facing that had a solution. Our oldest thrived when teachers were instructing her in a way that she could easily understand,” Toseef said. 

For both students, the teaching model at Landmark made a significant impact on their day-to-day lives. Overseas, the girls were often tutored well into the evening after they had spent all day at school. At Landmark, both children were receiving the one-to-one support they needed to thrive during their school day, leaving them free time to focus on their other hobbies and interests.

“Before, it felt like the teachers at their French school were focused only on the negative,” Tracy said. “At Landmark, the faculty are teaching the girls at their level. They accept them for who they are and teach them how to be independent.” 

“The teachers at Landmark are so amazing and really love our kids. It has been truly enjoyable to watch our daughters grow, and I think it says a lot about Landmark that they have come so far,” Toseef said. 

Article originally published in The Lantern Spring/Summer 2022.

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