May 28th, 2009
This poem by the founder of the Reggio-Emilia approach beautifully conveys the important roles imagination and discovery play in early childhood learning. Much of Reggio-Emilia philosophy is based on protecting children from becoming subjected too early to institutionalized doctrines which often make learning a chore rather than an extension of natural curiosity.
The child is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred. Always a hundred
ways of listening
of marveling, of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and at Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.
And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.
-Loris Malaguzzi, Founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach
In April of this year, I had the privilege of observing little children express themselves in these hundred languages, with the help of their teachers, the pedagogistas and the atelieristas in Reggio Emilia itself. You may want to visit the Reggio exhibitions when they pass by your city/country to get a peek into the work they do.
Tags: Child, Children, languages, Loris Malaguzzi, Reggio Emilia, Reggio-Emilia approach, Reggio-Emilia philosophy, The Hundred Languages of Children
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April 28th, 2009
Education is a right of the child and a responsibility of the community/society. Such a simple statement with profound implications echoed all along my stay in Reggio Emilia. If you consider education as means of fulfilling some needs, that implies that there is a lack of something that education will make complete. But if you consider it as a right, then you see its full potential and strength.
Education is a social activity and schools are public spaces which have nothing to do with ease of physical access to public at large but with social visibility and transparency. Children come from “society” into the school and after school go back into “society”. The schools needs to be a bridge, and not a disconnect between the two “societies” so as to facilitate the process of learning and self-actualisation. Jerome Bruner (Noted Educational Psychologist and author of “The Process of Education”; “Towards a Theory of Instruction” & “The Culture of Education”) put it well when he said, “…..knowing where you are, where you find yourself, helps you to develop your sense of personal identity, your uniqueness, as well as your place in the world.” Schools well rooted in their societal ground, can develop strong learning for all protagonists in the school – children, parents and teachers.
A school is a place of dialogue, a dialogue between children and adults, a dialogue among adults, a dialogue between diversity, a dialogue between verbal and visual, a dialogue between the society and school. Yet so easily is it reduced to a monologue…..from the adults, from the education boards.
Children make learning a social activity, communication and collaboration comes naturally to them. In words of Carla Rinaldi, President of Reggio Children, “Childhood is an interpretation, a cultural construction”. So why is there very little dialogue between the school and the society? Why does society treat the school as a service provider rather than an extension of the society itself? And why does schools curriculum fail to reflect its social/cultural ethos?
Tags: Carla Rinaldi, Children, dialogue, Education, Educational Psychologist and author, Jerome Bruner, learning, Reggio Children, Reggio Emilia, schools, self-actualisation
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