THE REGGIO EMILIA WAY
The recent visit of Princess Catherine (better known as Kate and wife of Prince William, direct heir to the British throne), to the town of Reggio Emilia (Emilia Romagna) has sparked off renewed interest in the methods introduced to nursery and preschool teaching by Italian pedagog Loris Malaguzzi.
Until now, the so called Reggio Emilia Approach was lesser known than the Montessori method, introduced by Maria Montessori in the early 20th century and now adopted in schools all over the world.
While the Montessori method consists in the controlled introduction of educational instruments to young children to guide them through tasks and encourage independence and creativity, Malaguzzi believed that the child already possesses the innate ability to discover and learn skills if given access to the correct stimulation and atmosphere.
The first school was set up inside a public park in 1945, with funds collected through the sale of weapons and tanks abandoned by the German army in retreat.
Malagazzi died in 1994, but his method had already been adopted in 30 municipal nursery schools in the Reggio Emilia region and had begun to spread abroad. Today the method has been adopted in 145 countries. and there are 1,200 Reggio-inspired schools in the USA alone.
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