Inevitably and rapidly this interest spread to educators at schools and universities in the United States and gradually to other countries all over the world.
How did it come to the U.S. and why hasn't our public school system been influenced enough by it to be less teacher-directed and more developmentally appropriate? Again, the only Reggio-inspired schools in NYC either private and prohibitively expensive or are in neighborhoods that are prohibitively expensive.
free education for all children from 3 years
NYC just implemented free preschool for 3-year-olds relatively recently and it was after our mayor visited The Reggio-inspired Wonder of Learning exhibit :)
another initiative undertaken by Malaguzzi was to seek public support for educational reform.
It's interesting that Malaguzzi used art to demonstrate the importance of preschool. Art is one of the "subjects" that's being removed from schools in the U.S. because they believe math and ELA to be more important.
It is a path that takes time - time that children have and adults often do not, or do not wanl to have. This is where the school comes in; it should first and foremost be a "context of multiple listening," involving the teachers and children, individually and as a group, who should listen to each other and themselves. This concept of a context of multiple listening overturns the traditional teaching-learning relationship. The focus shifts to learning - children's self-learning, and the learning achieved by the group of children and adults together.
Yes - children's days are full of transitions, particularly in larger groups. This year I have a max of 8 kids with 3 teachers, which provides me with the opportunity to allow the children to move at their speed. The other day on the way back from the playground, a child who spent the entire pandemic indoors was in awe of car tail lights. He wanted to look closely at the tail lights of the parked cars and I had the ability to stay back with him and allow him time to examine them closely while the rest of the class went back inside. Unfortunately, many classrooms don't have that luxury and many children are frustrated by the hurried pace and multiple transitions of their school day.
From the beginning, children demonstrate that they have a voice, know how to listen and want to be listened to by others. Sociability is not taught to children: they are social beings.
I think the pandemic has changed this a bit. My class this year is much less social than in years past.
They listen to life in all its shapes and colors.
I love this quote. It's why I wanted to go back to school for early childhood education. My 2-year-olds being out of their mind excited when they find pinecones and gravel on a walkway. They view so much treasure in the world that adults take for granted.
Listening should recognize the many languages, symbols and codes that people use in order toexpress themselves and communicate
This resonates so much with me, particularly this year as I'm with 2-year-olds, many of whom are pre-verbal.
We should listen to the children so that their wisdom gives us comfort, so that their "whys" orient our searchfor the reasons and give us the strength to find non-violent, honest and responsible answer .
This passage reminds us that not only can children teach us so much within the context of tragedy, but that classrooms can be microcosms of the world we want to see .
When asked about this, she says she tries to provide the help and advice that is needed for children to accomplish their own artistic and representational goals and not be defeated by the materials. For example, she knows that if children roll out the clay too thin, then it breaks during firing and children are upset.
This is what I mean about teachers sharing their gift of life experience with children so they don't feel defeated and turned off by certain materials.
In my opinion, he would prefer to be back on his feet.
I was happy to see a teacher in Reggio Emilia had the same intervention as I would have had :D
I believe in intervention, yet personally I tend to wait because I have noticed that children often resolve the problem on their own
This is something I'm always having to remind myself of. The other day I bit my tongue when I was about to intervene and the child impressed himself by being able to do something he didn't think he could without any suggestions or help.
The teachers’ task is to notice those knots and help bring them to center stage for further attention—launching points for next activities
Not only for further attention but particularly when the children feel frustrated enough by the knots to give up and go around them.
consumer of certainty and tradition.
This so accurately describes the school in which I taught before joining a Reggio-inspired school. They used the same curriculum they had used for 30 years, regardless of whether or not the children already had the knowledge they were trying to impart.
They ask the children what they need to conduct experiments—even when they realize that a particular approach or hypothesis is not “correct.”
This reminds me of a time children wanted to fix a child's action figure and when I asked what they needed to fix it, a child said water! Instead of telling him that wouldn't work, I encouraged him to try, when they realized that didn't work, I asked what else they could try, etc. That helps me see the difference between facilitate and stimulate.
“facilitate” learning in the sense of “making smooth or easy” but rather to “stimulate” it by making problems more complex, involving, and arous-ing.
I never thought of facilitate as another word for making learning easy or smooth. I would call designing the environment to provoke/"arouse" thought or adding a tool or photograph, etc a way of facilitating learning and those things can be complex, as well. I do like "stimulate" too, although I still think facilitation can be stimulating depending on how it's done :D
Examining the question, hypothesis, or argument of one child thus becomes part of an ongoing process of raising and answering ques-tions for all.
This is why a teacher can be valuable in presenting something others didn't observe. If one or more children are trying to solve a problem or pose a question out of hearing range of others but the teacher hears it, the teacher can then pose that problem or question to the larger group, on behalf of the smaller one, in order to open a larger dialogue.
She believes that citizens have a moral obligation to invest public resources in children’s welfare
In America there's very much an individualistic position and many people don't believe they should contribute to the education of other people's children, meanwhile even if they don't care about the children's wellbeing, those children are potentially future policy makers, doctors, scientists, etc who could help the people who don't believe in supporting their education. It seems so much more logical for a country to understand that children's wellbeing is the wellbeing of all.
they express themselves using dialogue and interaction in the group and call on adults nearby to serve as partners, resources, and guides
This confirms my initial reaction to the RE approach changing providing guidance to supporting the child. This highlighted passage speaks of children looking to adults as guides, which I believe is true. We can support them as capable while also gifting them with some of our life experience when they're feeling frustrated. The key is knowing the right amount in order to not give them the answer, but to provide just enough - maybe a question or an additional material or a photograph or tool or...to reignite their curiosity when they're ready to give up.
curriculum planner changes to the role of the teacher as a co-constructor of knowledge
This shifts from teacher-directed to a collaboration between the teacher and students. In most public schools in NYC, not even the teachers get to plan the curriculum; it's given to them to implement through workbooks and worksheets and then they're evaluated based on the children's grades in those workbooks/sheets and on tests.
Educating parents
The term "educating" parents made me cringe and yet I can see how that is what is ascribed to North American public schools. I can't think of any time my son's teachers have asked me about or collaborated with me in my son's education. In my experience my son's teachers have instead dismissed my insight into how my son learns best and speak to me with annoyance in their tone when he doesn't pay attention. Even in the teaching forums I'm part of, parents seem to be a negative in many teachers' view.
The pref-erence for such isolating assessment techniques may help explain why "tests of children show far fewer capabilities than children exhibit in the course of the day, in conversation" (
It's amazing to me that BJS challenges Vygotsky's theories and this piece about testing seems like such common sense and knowledge so why are schools still doing it?!
The chil-dren did not want the teacher to lift them up to reach it, resulting in a long-term in-vestigation exploring how children could mail a letter independently. Ultimately, they agreed on the use of a stepstool
Reading this actually inspired me to reach out to the post office near our school and propose that a child-sized mailbox be installed next to the adult one on the corner by our school. A group of our students also wanted to mail their own letters and not even a stepstool would be high enough to allow them to do that. It's a reminder of how much of the community is geared toward adults - what does that communicate to the children?
Teachers brought two 3-year-old children into the infant classroom to play, observe, and reflect on infants' rights.
Children in our school have visited other classrooms, before, but never with the invitation to reflect on the other children's rights. What a meaningful way to get another child's perspective! We can't do that now with covid, but I wonder what insights the children might have after looking through the window of another classroom...
As the teacher and child re-viewed this photograph, the teacher began to advise the child on how to hold the camera more effectively, while the child erupted in elation over the results. ·1rs my finger!" he exclaimed. His classmates shared his excitement. 'Take a picture of my finger next
Another great reminder to step back and observe the children's experience instead of trying to teach them how to do something the "right" way. One of the children in my class now is a natural observer so I offered him a camera and I, too, showed him a particular way to take pictures and he discovered a way that was more comfortable for him so we have to allow children the space to investigate and discover.
For the next scheduled trip to the theater, teachers in this classroom offered children the opportunity to travel on their own, either by crawling or walking along the low ballet bars in the hallway. In order to maximize the chances of children completing their journey, teachers departed 30 minutes before their scheduled visit to the theater.
This is incredible! One of my professors talked about America's obsession with danger compared to other places she's been in the world and when I shared the part about allowing infants to crawl to their seats with one of my colleagues she immediately expressed concern for the danger. I'm sharing this reading with my school.
"How can we give voice to all the children at the school, including chil-dren who are preverbal?"
This question really resonated with me as I'm working with 2-year-olds for the first time in a long time after having worked with 4's and 5's. I also think about this question for my children who speak only Mandarin or Cantonese. The day I read this, it was the first full day, including rest, for one of my kids and after her sheet and blanket were placed on her mat and she was invited to come lie down with a book, she lay on the couch instead. She declined our invitation, just not with words and allowing her to lie on the couch with a book was one way we could respect her non-verbal voice.
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That's why our admin is always reminding us to write the children's learning narratives through a strengths-based lens. It also reminds me of a quote shared by one of my colleagues: when her young daughter was telling someone about her little brother, she was trying to say "he was born with disabilities," but instead said "he was born with possibilities." Viewing disabilities as possibilities shifts thinking from what a child can't do to what a child is capable of if the adults in their lives pause and reflect on them as individuals.
you will learn to have more diffidence andmore distrust of rapid assessments, tests, judgments.The child wants to be observed, but she doesn’t wantto be judged.
This entire article is why I chose not to work in the public school system. Children are spoken at and then tested based on how well they can do what was told or shown to them. Observation and documentation of children in a stimulating environment that encourages investigation, using as many senses as they choose (no matter their age), is authentic differentiation and promotes real learning, not memorization of facts.
The child wants to know that she is observed, care-fully, with full attention. The child wants to beobserved in action. She wants the teacher to see theprocess of her work, rather than the product.
This is why children are always saying "watch!" and why documentation of the process, including sequential pictures, is so important. It's important not only to communicate to families' their child's learning, but to place in view of the children so they can reflect on their learning and also know that their teachers were really paying attention to the work they put into it.
Reggio Emilia educators have continued to keep abreastof the latest research in child development and education in other countries.
Keeping abreast of education in other countries is something I feel is lacking in American education. Future teachers are often prepared for working in the system as it exists, not as advocates for innovation and change.
What families have obtained was not easy toachieve; it came from a great deal of effort and political involvement. Workers,educators, and especially women were active and effective advocates of thelegislation that established public preschools in 1968 and infant-toddler centers in1971.
When I first learned about these schools that were built by hand, I was taught that they made a commitment to creating a better, kinder world through their children. The schools would foster Democracy through a deep respect for the students as current, not future, valuable, contributors to society.
they suggest that teachers and parents in eachschool, any school, anywhere, could in their own context reflect on these ideas,keeping in focus always the relationships and learning that are in process locally toexamine needs and strengths, thus finding possible ways to construct change
It's been challenging, in my experience, for many teachers and parents to embrace the idea of an inquiry-based, emergent curriculum as opposed to explicitly teaching academic subjects through worksheets and workbooks. The American context of testing to assess proficiency in math and Language Arts, especially, without acknowledging the many ways that children demonstrate understanding, causes many to feel the need to "prepare" children at a young age. Convincing others to change such an institutionalized archaic view of education is a daunting, but profoundly imperative undertaking.