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Reggio Emilia Approach

Reggio Emilia Approach is an educational philosophy that was developed by Loris Malaguzzi, a teacher,  and the parents of the villages around Reggio Emilia in Italy. They believed that the children have hundred or more languages and children should learn through experiences of touching, moving, listening, and observing in a supportive, enriching, and respectful environment based on the interest of the children through a self-guided curriculum. Through hands on activities and discussions, our students learn to communicate logically and creatively with other people and have opportunities to develop their critical thinking skills and liberal minds naturally without their unique views being interrupted.

The Hundred Languages of Childhood

 

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

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