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Scuola dell'infanzia Diana,
Reggio Emilia
Welcome!
In
the December 2, 1991 issue of
Newsweek magazine,
a report on
"The
10 Best Schools In The World"
hailed the Scuola dell'infanzia
Diana at the northern Italian
city of Reggio Emilia
(pronounced red'jO AmE'lya)
as the best preschool in
the early childhood education category.
That acclaim not only still holds
true today but has been firmly endorsed the world over by everyone who has come
to know this remarkable and exemplary approach to early childhood education.
The Reggio Emilia
philosophy has warmed the hearts of many and it will undoubtedly continue to deeply inspire
those who care for and care about children.
Over the decades, the
municipality of Reggio Emilia evolved this distinctive and innovative
approach to child development that above all else, respects the rights of children
and is based on the image of children as capable and having tremendous
potential.
The approach nurtures
children's intellectual
growth and creativity through the development of their expressive,
communicative, symbolic, cognitive, ethical, metaphorical, logical,
imaginative, and relational "languages", an emphasis on the visual arts, and
the conscious and deliberate utilisation of the environment as an essential
element in the process of learning.
"These schools
pulse with the energy of stories that trace the search for meaning by children
and adults, the joy of the journey, and an abundance of children's fresh ideas
in clay and paint, pen and words, numbers and theories.
When we are
surrounded with this energy, we understand that we are meant to live like this,
true to our nature and our birthright as creative thinkers within a close community,
not only as children but as human beings. Many of us may have caught glimmers
of this truth before, but to walk into the schools of Reggio Emilia is to witness
a great flash of insight.
Perhaps we weep
in these schools because we long for the meaning and beauty of life as it can
be lived, not only in school but everywhere. Perhaps we mourn because we see
what we have missed. Perhaps we feel a fervent hope that school as we know it,
life as we know it, might be transported toward the possible."
(Louise Cadwell, 2003 in
"Bringing
Learning To Life")
Distinguished Harvard University
psychologist and researcher,
Howard Gardner,
whose own
Theory
of Multiple Intelligences has jolted many to rethink conventional notions
of human intelligence, paid tribute to the Reggio Emilia preschools in his forward
for the book,
"The
Hundred Languages Of Children",
which documents the thinking and work of these remarkable schools:
"I have had the privilege
of visiting centers of early childhood education in many lands, and have learned
much from what I have observed in these diverse settings...To my mind, no place
in the contemporary world has succeeded so splendidly as the schools of Reggio
Emilia."
This website is dedicated to the
community of Reggio Emilia in appreciation of and in tribute to their invaluable lessons on
educating children and the true meaning of living
and learning. It is a humble gift in return for the gift of hope to humanity that they have
so beautifully given to the world.
Thank you for visiting. Explore
the site and
Be Inspired!
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Dear visitors
It is wonderful to have you
come by this website, which is our labour of love and our gift to the
world's children.
We
hope you will gain something of value; perhaps that one thing that
will lead you to see children and education in a new and different light.
This website was created
with the
Singapore audience in mind because of
our vested interest, but it is certainly of no less relevance to others in any
part of the world.
In our opinion and to the
best of our knowledge, Singapore is not where one can find a model
Reggio-inspired preschool, although
Child@Street 11 has done some good
work. It is precisely because of the lack of one that this website
exists, in the hope that over time, there will be increasing awareness
that the best preschool programme in Singapore pales in comparison with the Gold
Standard: the Reggio Emilia Approach.
We warmly welcome views and
opinions, thoughts and ideas, one-liners or lengthy discourses. So we
invite you to either contribute to
The Forum or
email
us..
For now, we leave you to
reflect on the below Charter on the rights of children, crafted by Loris Malaguzzi, which is
essentially the cornerstone of the Reggio Emilia
philosophy.
"Children have the rights to
be recognised as subjects of individual, legal, civil and social rights;
as both source and constructors of their own experience, and thus active
participants in the organisation of their identities, abilities, and
autonomy, through relationships and interaction with their peers, with
adults, with ideas, with objects, and with the real and imaginary events
of intercommunicating worlds.
All this, while
establishing the fundamental premises for creating better "citizens of
the world" and raising the quality of human interaction, also credits
children, and each individual child, with an extraordinary wealth of
inborn abilities and potential, strength and creativity. Irreversible
suffering and impoverishment of the child is caused when this fact is
not acknowledged.
Starting from this point
of reference, we recognise the right of children to realise and expand
their potential, placing great value on their ability to socialise,
receiving their affection and trust, and satisfying their needs and
desires to learn. And this is so much truer when children are reassured
by an effective alliance between the adults in their lives, adults who
are always ready to help, who place higher value on the search for
constructive strategies of thought and action than on the direct
transmission of knowledge and skills.
These constructive
strategies contribute to the formation of creative intelligence, free
thought, and individuality that is sensitive and aware, through an
ongoing process of differentiation and integration with other people and
other experiences.
The fact that the rights
of children are recognised as the rights of ALL children is the sign of
a more accomplished humanity."
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