Reggio Emilia Approach

A small town in northern Italy and its municipal, publicly funded schools for young children have inspired educators from around the world for several decades. Many of the most respected educators and researchers of our time including Jerome Bruner and Howard Gardener acknowledge that the Reggio Approach is the most exceptional example of high quality early education the world has ever seen. Since 1992, the educators at The College School have embraced and studied this approach as it both confirms many of the founding principles of our school and continues to stretch us to grow in our understanding and our practice.

The Reggio Approach has both supported and inspired us school wide in the following ways. We strive to create beautiful, home-like, organized spaces full of a rich variety of wonderful materials for our students to use.  We value collaboration among adults and children and know that intellectual curiosity, having wonderful ideas and acting on them is at the heart of life-long learning. We strive to make learning visible through the artful display and publication of children's ideas and adults' reflections. We know that children understand the interdependence and connectedness of the world around them and we support their developing knowledge, imagination and skills across disciplines. We realize that multiple perspectives are necessary to make sense of many subjects and issues and we cultivate the skills of listening and dialogue in our students from pre-eighth grade. We value parents as partners and work together with them to be the best stewards of the next generation that we can be.