every parent's worst nightmare
 

Yes, engaging the gorilla in the first palce was stupid, stupid, stupid!

Still want her on my team.

every parent's worst nightmare
 

Say what you will about bridge of love; that is one well-cultured mofo.

Every time someone in my office refers to the Morrison & Foerster firm as "MoFo," I silently complete it in my head, "The Ah-mayzing Psy-kick Gorilla."

every parent's worst nightmare
 

See link below for the 18 year old's own account of the incident.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/mas...ck_by_gorilla/

I haven't picked her for my team yet

I said, Hey Joe, take a walk on the wild side.
 

Easy for the two-year-old to talk trash like that when the gorilla is back in its cage. Bet she wasn't so tough at the zoo.

every parent's worst nightmare
 

Yup, that wasn't how it was reported on the evening news. OK, not yet on the team.

every parent's worst nightmare
 

In her taped interview (shortly after), she was quite hysterical, telling us that "I'm over 300 pounds, and he just picked me up and threw me like I was nothing."

Then, as she calmed down, she started talking about how she's "emotionally traumatized", and will probably be scarred for life by the horrible fear of death that this has caused. "I don't even wanna see a banana right now, I'm so scared", she said.

Plaintiffs' lawyers are lining up outside, I'm sure.

every parent's worst nightmare
 

don't take it contingency, Mass. is a workman's comp. state.

every parent's worst nightmare
 

I don't think this is course of employment stuff, but the interesting issue will be charitable immunity. Mass. caps the liabilities of charities for most things at $20,000, and the way around is usually to sue the directors for reckless oversight.

The fact this happened the day after the Globe ran an article on the last gorilla escape (very brief, a few weeks ago) the day before this one becomes an interesting fact.

every parent's worst nightmare
 

Have to say, I'm with the Zoo on this one. They took what seem to be reasonable measures after his first escape; the fact is, this is an enormous, agile, and very smart animal who was highly motivated by hormones and adolescence to leave the family home, if only for a short while. Should they have equipped their regular staff with tranquilizer darts after his first escape? maybe, but I'm not sure that gets you to reckless oversight.

The 18 year old was a zoo employee, but I don't think she was on duty on Sunday.

Author-of-cool-children's-books Peter Sis won a MacArthur genius grant this weekend. I think his stuff is pretty neat, and, more importantly, so does the Little Slothrop.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/03...1.LZZZZZZZ.jpg


Remember to buy his books through Lawtalkers.

This is a very depressing picture to put up here in full view of the Minnesotans, who have already been scraping their windshields.

Sorry. If it makes you feel any better, turn on the news tonight for the stories about the recall.

Montessori
 

Anybody have any thoughts/experiences re Montessori education? I think a lot of the philosophy makes sense, especially in the 3-6 year old range. I am also impressed by the teachers I've met; very into what they do, and with regard to the younger kids, way beyond a typical preschool teacher. On the other hand, I'm not sure my 3-year old needs to be in school every day (with mom currently in stay-at-home mode). And the whole thing can seem a bit new-agey and cult-like (e.g., "the cosmic child" and the constant and reverential references to Dr. Montesorri).

Any thoughts? I think we're leaning toward giving it a try.

Montessori
 

If the Montessori you're looking at is in your neighborhood, I think I might have some friends who go there and love it. For us, well, Magnus is really into letters and numbers and I figured if he went to a Montessori school he would just focus on what he really loves and ignore everything else. We have him in a co-op pre-school at a local synagogue (2 mornings/week) and are thrilled that he is learning to love the craft room. Reading and arithmetic we can cover at home--I really want him to branch out, be more creative, be more social. Now if he would just be interested in going peepee in the potty . . . .

tm

Montessori
 

Montessori is great for really young kids who are too young for directed or group play and learning --- in other words, too young for anything else. Like a three year old, for instance.

The benefit turns to a detriment at about five or six, IMHO. I'm pretty close to a couple of elementary and middle school teachers, and they say kids who are kept in a "pure" Montessori learning environment too long are unable to sit still and focus on what a group is supposed to be doing. They're accustomed to wandering off and finding something that interests them, and the transition to a traditional classroom is sometimes rough and long. Maybe it's partly a video game culture to blame, but lots of kids in unstructured learning environments start to feel that learning is always about fascination and self-entertainment. FWIW, Montessori educated kids also tend to have parents who think that learning is not about objectively measurable success, so cause and effect might be mixed up here.

A daily school enviroment is great for lots of three-year-olds --- they look forward to it, and can learn to love school.