For us at Educational Experience, Reggio is about the experience of humanity.
We believe that in the early childhood education sector that Reggio is not an alternative approach. Instead, we see it as a fundamental feature of centres, homes and schools that can enrich, enhance and encourage learning.
Your child’s centre has just started introducing some of the core features of the Reggio Emilia Approach; do not worry. Start the conversation with your centre director and educator.
Revered educational psychologist Howard Gardner[1] has said that Reggio successfully challenged much of what many parents would consider pillars of education. Gardner describes these false dichotomies as ‘arts v science, individual v community, child v adult, enjoyment v study, nuclear family v extended family’.[2] For many parents and educators, these are often rival elements of learning. Reggio’s core belief is that these do not compete, instead thrive and build from each other.
Also, Gardner describes Reggio teachers know how to listen to children, how to allow children to take the initiative and guide them in productive ways. For Gardner, Reggio ‘epitomizes education that is effective and humane; its students undergo a sustained apprenticeship in humanity, one that may last a lifetime.’
Educational Experience is a proud sponsor of the bi-annual REAIE- Reggio Emilia Australia Information Exchange, to be held in Melbourne, July 2-5. Join us for a series of features about the Reggio Emilia approach and a unique insight into this conference.
The title of the conference is Landscapes of Imagination: a conference for enlivening our own imagination and exploring more deeply the curiosity and imagination of children as they connect and interconnect within and between the arts and sciences, reality, fantasy, identity and towards transformation.
[1] Howard Gardner is an American developmental psychologist and the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.
[2] Gardner, Howard. ‘Forward’ in The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation edited by Carolyn Edwards, Lella Gandini, George Forman, Reggio Children S.r.l. 1998.