creating a strong image of the child elsewhere

Culture of differences rather than similarities

Reaching back into it for adults

Seeing children as automatons

How behind we are

There is strength in teachers who do not have formal backgrounds in education - speaks to the humanistic side of teaching

More philosophers than pedagogues?

Children do not need to be taught how to learn

Developing upon internal knowledge, synthesizing theories and meaning and subjectivism

They have to be, so they adapt extremely well

Is this what we struggle with? Interpretation as opposed to argument

There are no answers, that's what we need to internalize

Very important philosophical underpinning

This is an important word, because a theory is something that can only be built upon and become stronger, while not necessarily providing hard facts or a definitive answer. Such as it is with meaning.

Unfortunately, I think many of us do, or rather without meaning beyond the hedonic

This is half of the whole endeavor and should not be passed over - everything is reciprocal, and we will only aid children in their growth if we seek growth ourselves

Reggio as philosophy

Scaffolding of longer term projects

This is so cool

allowing time for growth

Dialogue and problem solving w/o intervention

Is this not a learning moment?

What a strong idea

Echoes of Rinaldi's comments about dialogue

Something to learn to deal with

An idea that is constantly being strengthened in my mind

Learning branching out in all new directions

Where do we draw the line in determining what to pursue?

This is a good word for something that occurs often

Developing a stronger image of the child in the eyes of parents, to bring them into the process

This is a really clear and useful description of what teacher facilitation might look like

Sounds so simple but very effective

cyclical models of learning

This key difference is the one thing that casts doubts for me about Reggio influence in the US

This echoes something my last teaching director used to tell us, which was that one of our primary goals as teachers should be to bring children's play to the next level

More play

Play undergirding everything

provocation spaces and providing an experiential learning environment

The wider philosophy of Reggio that is meant to be applied circumstantially - the roles of the teacher adapting to what is needed in a specific community/circumstance.

This is how I feel in the classroom, that what might be asked of me in any discrete moment could be entirely different than any before or after it.

Nor should people in general

School as an element of a larger set of systems

One can not exist without the other, and vice versa.

Going beyond the traditional role

The deeper goal of all of this, beyond learning

This notion is the one that has been most eye-opening and expansive to me thus far, and has really freed me from a lot of anxieties and preconceptions within the classroom. I feel like I can value what I'm doing on so many new levels, and actually begin to grow.

Inherent understanding

Onus is on us to reframe questions about children to better match where/who they are

Hyper-present

Re-working of adult-dictated schedules - children can still decide for themselves, together

Naturally social

What is the meaningful synthesis between the two?

This requires a complete re-working of the school schedule, something much needed

Which is why one of our many roles is a good playmate

A matter-of-fact observation that is deeply profound when it comes to children's worldview

Our inability to process seemingly "negative" emotions as parts of a whole positive process

It's also a huge source of misunderstanding between adults...

If only it were so easy

Facilitator of community

This brings added importance to the idea of not caging children too much or keeping them rigid in their environments. Too many rules or structure without purpose are stifling.

I am reminded again of Seen and Heard, and of the new perspectives of the shared inner world of children that have been given to me. I have gained such an appreciation in just a few short weeks of how complex children's interactions are with one another and the world.

Huge importance in the distinction between the two

This is a new perspective that I appreciate, as I have felt slightly intrusive in my observations at times.

Children as active learners, adults as active observers

Space provocations

Epistemology as a scaffold for how we look at the world and children as citizens of it

Children are competent and capable!

This speaks of the more philosophical side of Reggio, the idea that life is not rigid and therefore our institutions should not be either.

Flexible and open-ended learning that takes into account the curiosities of children

An argument against solipsism with regard to children

Bridging the gap between the two worlds

I am struggling with how to approach this with my own students, many of whom have already had established for them the dichotomy of boy-girl.

A call to recognize our biases, both positive and negative

This is a diagnosis for much of our culture at large, and certainly something we should be aware of facilitating for children at such a young age

The wringing out of colloquial language to render it absent of meaning, dangerous when children are deriving meaning from everything around them at all times

Rights of the child

This is actually the historical root of the public school system.

Success is the greatest lie ever told - all the public education system works to do is prepare students to be subordinate workers (this is not a knock on the public sector, but a call to action)

Is this not in some sense contradictory to the spirit of providing standards?

Yuck

Not a single-use model but an entire theory of how to look at education and society

This is something I've seen mentioned a few times, and I'm curious as to if/how it's curated on a larger scale

Exactly!

This is invaluable, as traditional, linear models of education see learning as an achievement or something that is attained, rather than a constant, lifelong process.

I like the emphasis on collaboration at the heart of the model

Parents exist on a spectrum, and range from extremely involved to completely disinterested. I wish more parents took on this role.

The social integration of education is deeply important to me - what sort of citizens do we want to foster?

To me a very novel idea, one which I am looking forward to unfolding in this course

Reggio, as a theory of collective knowledge being ever expanded and enriched, is itself drawn from a deep and diverse well of pedagogy

Something which is quite lacking in our country

A deeply symbolic origin, and frankly quite badass

The importance of the program's municipality can not be stressed enough, in my opinion.

No wonder there is a more social aspect to education here, considering how early so many children are socialized.

I also agree that this is something sorely lacking in US education, as privatization has denuded the public sector of resources and removed the onus of responsibility for a strong society from those with wealth.

Yes! Education is political!