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.
I enjoyed reading this, I wish that public schools would incorporate some of these ideas of play and dress up ...and resting in school! I also found it fascinating that some of the schools involved the children in the meal prep-amazing.
ReplyDelete