The Reggio Emilia ApproachA 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.
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