The Malaguzzi Center is a charming and one-of-a-kind physical space that represents a beautiful tribute honoring children, families, professionals, and neighborhoods. The Loris Malaguzzi Center in Reggio Emilia, Italy is a place devoted to learning and discussing the ideas surrounding the early childhood education approach. People who go to Reggio Emilia for early childhood education delegations often spend at least one day at the Center. There are many things to do. For example, workshops on the Reggio Emilia model are offered by th Loris Malaguzzi Center.
The Reggio Emilia approach is named after the town of about 150,000 Italians living in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy. It is a child-centered and community-oriented model that uses fine arts as the foundation. The atelier is central to a Reggio Emilia classroom environment.
After World War II, the people of Reggio Emilia were outraged by what the war did to their community. They wanted to create beauty and hope for their future. They wanted good things for their children.
Loris Malaguzzi and parents created the Reggio Emilia approach. He was moved by the families and their hopes and dreams for their children. The picture below shows Loris Malaguzzi in the atelier, and his poem is included below showing his philosophies on child development and learning. “What is the fatal charm of Italy? What do we find there that can be found nowhere else? I believe it is a certain permission to be human,” ~Erica Jong. This approach allows children and professionals permission to be human.
Loris Malaguzzi
NO WAY. THE HUNDRED IS THERE by Loris Malaguzzi (translated by Lella Gandini)
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 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.
