The School-Within- School at Peabody

Summary of the Reggio Emilia philosophy

According to Wikipedia The Reggio Emilia Approach is an educational philosophy focused on preschool and primary education.” It was started by the parents of the villages around Reggio Emilia in Italy after World War II to eliminate fascism. The destruction from the war, parents believed, necessitated a new, quick approach to teaching their children. They felt that it is in the early years of development that children are forming who they are as an individual. This led to creation of a program based on the principles of respect, responsibility, and community through exploration and discovery in a supportive and enriching environment.”

Many American preschool programs have adopted the Reggio Emilia philosophy based upon the following set of principles:

• Children must have some control over the direction of their learning.
• Children must be able to learn through experiences of touching, moving,
  listening, seeing, and hearing.
• Children have a relationship with other children and with material items
  in the world that children must be allowed to explore.
• Children must have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves.

There is a significant point in the article from The Scandinavian School of San Francisco about Reggio Emilia Method. “The world and its people are always changing and that’s why they are against set programs and methods. You can work Reggio Emilia-inspired. You cannot copy the way they worked in Italy because you have to consider the people, the environment and culture. In Reggio Emilia they have a coined expression: “A child has a hundred languages”. They try to unite and develop all these languages; innovation, construction, fantasy, art, music, dance, building, writing, talking, signing, science, body and soul… The multiple languages are used to help children build knowledge and understand the world around them. The natural environment is incorporated as much as possible“.


After visiting and observing the implementation of the Reggio Emilia method at the Peabody School, I am able to see the possibilities and limitations of the program. I can conclude that it is an interesting learning methodology with clear goals and positive results. However, I think it has also clear limitations in terms of the requirement regarding environment and commitment from the parents. I don’t think that this method could work in large group of students due to the close interaction teacher- student. In addition, the socio-economical background is a very important factor to take under consideration because kids coming from abusive or violent environments will have a hard time fitting into the group. Further more, in order to fulfill the kids development it is imperative the parents commitment to keep the same philosophy at home.


Interesting links with more information:
http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Reggio_Emilia/
http://zerosei.comune.re.it/inter/index.htm
http://www.reggioalliance.org/