Oh Nurse Ratched...

I look into the room. I see people seated at small tables for two. At one table, two people are stringing beads onto pipe cleaners. Then there's the person who is using a very primitive looking utensil to cut apples, lots of them. He's not eating the apples, just cutting more and more. Seated at another table is someone who is methodically taking a sponge putting it into a cup of pink liquid, soaking up the water, then putting the sponge over another cup and squeezing the liquid out - basically transferring the pink liquid from one cup to another using a sponge. Oh and the two people who are meticulously placing beads on small different-shaped peg boards. And let's not forget the blindfolded guy, picking up and putting down different things in front of him.

These could easily be scenes from a mental hospital, but they're from Montessori preschools.

Lucas' school is a pretty regimented Montessori school - it's good for him, he likes the structure. For instance, when they walk in groups, they walk single-file with their hands behind their backs (I hear this may just be a school thing, to discourage pushing and shoving in line). My friend's daughter goes to a different Montessori school where they ride the tricycles only in pre-determined circles in the school yard. If they do their work on the floor, they roll out these little mats to do their work on. When they're done, they roll up their mats and put them away.

Here's Lucas picking up small objects with small tongs and putting them in one side of the container then taking them out and putting them back in the other side

Then there are the comments from the teachers to the parents. They're there for everyone to see on the sheet where you sign your child out when you pick him up. They could be from a daily report from an insane asylum, but I guess they could also be from any type of preschool.

- I saw Joey poke someone in the eye. When I went over to ask him to say sorry, he said he didn't do it, it was someone else.

- Amanda had a BM (bowel movement) in her pants during circle time. She didn't want to come out of the circle to get cleaned up. (I assume they cleaned her up anyway.)

- Sally was crying over a broken cracker. She calmed down after 5-10 minutes.

Just another day at school I guess.