"Reggio" schools in the US tend to cater to an affluent crowd. The cachet of 
all things Italian--in toys, strollers and schooling--appeals to the yuppie parents.

Was it "Necessity being the Mother of Invention" or Italy's reverence for creativity 
that was resonsible for the "Reggio" System? In either case, "Reggio" may 
follow "Montessori" to establish Italy as the foremost source of "Creative 
Education".  
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Dr. Maria Montessori, Born in the Province of Ancona (Marche) in 1870, Maria 
Montessori was the first woman to practise medicine in Italy, having 
graduated 
from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Rome in 1896. As a 
physician, 
Dr. Montessori was in touch with young children and became profoundly 
interested in their development.There are currently thousands of schools 
worldwide that follow the Montessori Curriculum. 
 <A HREF="http://www.montessori-ami.org/">Montessori Education - Association 
Montessori Internationale (AMI)</A> 
http://www.montessori-ami.org/
=========================================================
In The Classroom

CREATIVITY PRIZED IN 'REGGIO'-STYLE PRESCHOOLS

In the Italian educational philosophy, there are no set lessons. 
Instead, children's interests and talents guide the day's work.

Los Angeles Times
January 16, 2002        
By Massie Ritsch, Staff Writer

At tiny tables, in tiny chairs, the pupils do the talking at Stephen S. Wise 
Temple Nursery School and the teachers take the notes.

There, in cheery classrooms high atop Mulholland Drive on Los Angeles' 
Westside, students' words are recorded, transcribed, laminated and 
displayed--evidence of activities at school but also indicators of how the 
children are developing and proof for them that what they say has worth. 

It is an approach that tests teachers' creativity and their sensitivity to 
their students. And it comes from Italy. Ever since a 1991 Newsweek article 
named Reggio Emilia's municipal nursery schools as the best preschools in the 
world, that affluent northern Italian town has been visited by thousands of 
educators looking to copy the "Reggio" approach.

The co-director of Wise preschool toured the Italian campus four years ago 
and then began incorporating "Reggio" at the $6,500-a-year preschool of 245 
students, who are ages 3 to 5 and mostly from Jewish families.

"This is the approach that touches not just my mind but my heart and my 
creative juices," said Dafna Presnell, Wise's co-director.

Several other Southern California schools also claim to have adopted, and 
adapted, the philosophy, where beautiful surroundings are prized, children's 
words are revered, groups do the work and the day is designed to be 
unpredictable.

Developed when Italy lay ravaged by World War II, the curriculum of Reggio 
Emilia's public preschools is described by educators as "negotiated" or 
"emergent." Children's interests and talents guide each day's work and often 
prompt projects that can last weeks or months.

For example, when students at Wise were studying Thanksgiving, they seemed 
very attentive in their drawings to the number of buttons on Pilgrims' 
clothing. That gave their teacher the idea to incorporate buttons--along with 
zippers, clasps, snaps and other fasteners--into a math lesson. In another 
class, two students' insistence at snack time on eating dessert first 
prompted a lesson on nutrition.

Children who attend the preschools in Italy "understand how groups work, and 
they come out of these schools with a disposition to learn and a curiosity 
about the world," said Ben Mardell, a researcher on a Harvard University team 
that has recently published a book examining Reggio Emilia's schools.

Reggio schools in the United States tend to cater to an affluent crowd. The 
cachet of all things Italian--in toys, strollers and schooling--appeals to 
some yuppie parents.

Some American schools are more faithful to the Italian philosophy than 
others, says Alise Shafer, director of Evergreen Community School in Santa 
Monica.

"It's really a philosophy, so it can't be learned in a day or a year or even 
five years," said Shafer, who has been using the Reggio approach at her 
preschool for 12 years.

American visitors often marvel at the uncluttered elegance of Reggio Emilia's 
classrooms, flooded with natural light and decorated with flowers. American 
teachers often return to their own schools, plunk a few daisies in a blue 
vase and boast they are a Reggio school. The Italians dismiss these as 
"blue-vase schools."

"The classrooms are gorgeous ... and on your first trip, it's really hard to 
see past that," said Shafer, who has visited Reggio Emilia four times and 
will close her school for a week in May to take her staff there. "People tend 
to just see the environment, so they go out and buy a few light tables, a 
couple of mirrors and plants and say, 'We're doing the Reggio approach.' "

Although flowers and vases can be found at both Wise and Evergreen, the 
preschools have advanced beyond Reggio's most superficial hallmarks. Both 
schools place unusually high value on students' observations and ideas. 
Evergreen teachers use digital video cameras to record children's 
conversations; after school they are used to evaluate reasoning and identify 
interests that might guide future activities. Wise's teachers also document 
their students' words, which are reviewed by the school's directors and 
posted with the children's artwork on the walls.

"I'm looking for essential ideas and creativity in thinking and the depth of 
the thinking," said Barbara Joffe, Wise's other director. "It's not about 
what is actually said but what it represents."

So if a group of students decides the Pilgrims landed in Los Angeles, that 
becomes the reality, at least for a while. And if a boy describes a "leeb," 
when he means a leaf, that's "writed" down too.

At Evergreen, several students' curiosity about gravity prompted the 
formation of "The Gravity Committee" to discuss why objects fall to the 
ground and stay there. And what was the dominant theory after three months of 
daily, transcribed discussion in Shafer's office? Pinpricks in the sky 
deliver this force to every household.

"Our goal is never to teach children the facts," Shafer said. "The goal is 
for them to engage in high-level thinking, so it doesn't really matter where 
it ends up."

To anyone who thinks that sounds ridiculously permissive, Wise's Presnell 
points out that the children aren't even in kindergarten yet. As they move on 
to elementary schools, they will learn the Pilgrims found Massachusetts, with 
all its leaves.

Parents are encouraged to visit the classrooms. For them, the documentation 
on display fills out a child's answer to the dinner-table question, "What did 
you do at school today?"

"We get such a sense of what is going on in the classroom," said Stephanie 
Sukert, who has had three daughters attend Wise's preschool. "You can see 
everything that they've been doing."