Though I planned to
immediately write about my experiences when I returned from the Winter
Institute in Reggio Emila, Italy, a national conference, Spring break, and a
new grandbaby got in the way. Following are a few of my thoughts on returning
from this experience, shared with others from almost 50 different countries.
The Reggio Emilia approach is an
educational philosophy, focused on infant/toddler, preschool, and primary education
in Italy, though its methods can be adapted and are now being recommended for
any level of schooling. It was started by teacher Loris Malaguzzi in Reggio Emilia
after World War ll. Because he and the parents believed that children form who
they are as individuals in the early years of development, they created a
program based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community
through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment
based on the interests of the children.
The Reggio Emilia
approach is child-centered and play-based. Importance is placed on the physical
environment of the school, the active participation of the parents and
community, and the interests of the child. Listening
to what a child has to say, valuing
their interests and documenting it
through writings and photography (often taken by the children themselves) is also
very important.
During the week we
were able to visit four different schools to see the program in action and similarities
between the schools were clearly evident. A common feature in Reggio Emilia
schools is the presence of an atelier,
which seemed to me to be a combination of an art studio and a science
laboratory, usually guided by an art teacher called an atelierista. The number of students in each class is very small and
each class may have three teachers who share overlapping responsibilities. How do
they manage to have so few students and so many teachers (a utopia as described
by one teacher)? The schools are not free.
Surfaces around the
schools are covered with all kinds of objects to explore: (1) every form of
natural object one could imagine, and (2) an incredible amount of recycled
materials to manipulate and place. There is an intriguing emphasis placed on
the concepts of light and transparency, evidenced by light tables for each
class; large interior and exterior windows; play with web cams, camera
microscopes, projectors, and screens; and collaborative mural-sized artworks. These
artworks are often painted or drawn with colored marker on sheets of heavy
clear plastic that are hung in front of windows or serve to divide or decorate
spaces. Strings of colored lights may wind around a staircase, while huge
collaborative creatures made with recycled objects and materials may hang from
the ceiling.
Many group projects
are on display in the schools such as murals made with individual clay figures
but process is clearly a greater priority than product. The schools are
decorated with the students’ work and designed with students in mind. I think
having so much of their work on constant display shows children just how much
their work is valued.
Most of the schools
are very colorful with walls in colors you are not likely to see in the United
States: lavender, bright orange, yellow green, and all the colors of the color
wheel. I didn’t see any individual desks, just interestingly shaped tables and
colorful soft furniture that could easily be moved around by the children. Each
infant/toddler and preschool class had an area with fanciful clothing, hats,
and accessories to play dress-up. In many of the newer schools, each classroom
opens to the outside and delightful places to play such as gazebos and underground
tunnels cut into hillsides.
In some infant/toddler
schools and preschools the kitchen was at the center of the school and students
were involved in preparing and serving the meals.The children’s bathrooms were
unisex and often contained toys. At one school I visited, there was a foosball
table in the bathroom. At another, there were anatomically correct dolls with
different colors of skin. Each child in the infant/toddler schools and
preschools had a mattress upon which to sleep after lunch, a practice I wish
American schools still followed.
Who would not want
to go to a school like this, no matter what the age? To learn more about the
Reggio Emila approach, go to the website of the North American Reggio Emilia
Alliance and to the website of Reggio Children.
You might also read The Hundred Languages
of Children: The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation, edited by
Lella Gandini, Carolyn Edwards, and George Forman,
Insights and Inspirations from Reggio
Emilia: Stories of Teachers and Children from North America
and In the Spirit of the Studio: Learning from the Atelier of Reggio Emilia. Davis Publications' (the publisher of SchoolArts Magazine) kindergarten art program is based on the Reggio Emilia approach.
Founder Loris
Malaguzzi expressed the Reggio Emilia approach in his poem, The Hundred
Languages of Children:
The Hundred Languages
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.
