Reggio Emilia Philosophy

The city Reggio Emilia in Italy is recognized worldwide for its innovative approach to education.  About 88 Reggio Emilia schools operate in the US.  The Reggio Emilia philosophy is based on the following principles:

• Children are the center of the learning process and have latitude over the direction of their learning;
• Children learn through experiences such as touching, moving, listening, seeing, and hearing;
• Children have essential relationships with the broader community and
• Children have endless ways and opportunities to express themselves
• Teachers are coaches and collaborators.

At the heart of Reggio Emilia’s gentle and intuitive approach is the natural development of children who are an integral part of a cooperative community of learners. Each child is seen as beautiful, powerful, competent, creative, curious, and full of potential and ambition.  As opposed to empty vessels which must be filled, children are seen as active constructors of knowledge and treated more like apprentices and researchers.  Reggio Emilia schools are primarily play-based where children do not sit in desks but rather explore, observe, hypothesize, question, and discuss to gain understanding..

This observation from education thought leader Howard Gardner comparing American schools with the Reggio Emilia approach:

As an American educator, I cannot help be struck by certain paradoxes.

In America, we pride ourselves on being focused on children, yet we do not pay sufficient attention to what they are actually expressing.

We call for cooperative learning among children, yet we have rarely sustained cooperation at the level of teacher and administrator.

We call for artistic works, but we rarely fashion environments that can truly support or inspire them.

We call for parental involvement but are loathe to share ownership, responsibility, and credit with parents.

We recognize the need for community, but we so often crystallize immediately into interest groups.

We hail the discovery method, but we do not have the confidence to allow children to follow their own noses and hunches.

We call for debate but often spurn it; we call for listening but prefer to talk; we are affluent but do not safeguard those resources that can allow us to remain so and to foster the affluence of others.

Reggio is so instructive in these respects.

While we often invoke slogans, the educators in Reggio work tirelessly to solve many of these fundamental-and fundamentally difficult-issues.”