At Kensington preschool, children will choose own lessons

The preschool, inspired by the Reggio Emilia style, will debut at Temple Emanuel on Tuesday. Named for the town in Italy in which it originated, Reggio Emilia is an educational philosophy that strives to empower children by allowing them to influence their own curriculum, especially emphasizing opportunity for expression through art, the use of the learning environment as "a third teacher," and collaboration between students, parents and teachers about the direction of course content.

The style was born in 1945 when the community of Reggio Emilia was rebuilding from the destruction of World War II, and locals collaborated to devise a philosophy that could educate children through a community effort as well.

Proponents of the Reggio Emilia say letting children direct their own learning by indicating what interests them shows respect for their capabilities, and utilizes their own natural curiosity as an avenue for educational development.

Madeline Lowitz Gold, the early childhood director at Temple Emanuel's Early Childhood Center, said children are more competent than adults give them credit for, and Reggio Emilia is all about recognizing that.

"We don't say what children can't do," Gold said. "We believe children are really capable and we respect them and they respect the materials."

One of the focal points of Reggio Emilia is the development of long-term projects that are allowed to evolve as the children make new discoveries. Children provide ideas for subjects that intrigue them, and teachers provide "provocation" to incorporate the subjects into the curriculum.

Gold, a former art and preschool teacher, gave an example of a project she observed while working at the Washington D.C. Jewish Community Center, one of many other Metro area preschools that borrows from Reggio Emilia.

During the daily morning meeting a young boy had shown the class a nickel he found, which led to a discussion of where money comes from. The next day, students brought in an assortment of change from their houses, which led to a math-intensive analysis of the relationship between quantities.

"Suddenly they were graphing coins on the board, and one child could see, ‘Hey, five nickels is the same as a quarter,'" Gold said.

That segued to an observation of the presidents on the coins, studying Abraham Lincoln, and a trip to the Lincoln Memorial, Gold said. Children brought along sketch pads and sketched what they saw there. Sketching, Gold said, serves an important role in Reggio Emilia.

"When you're sketching something, you're really focusing," Gold said. "You can't read if you don't know how to really focus."

Eventually, students collected coins and money, researched local charities, and made a donation to the D.C. Food Bank, all because a little boy had brought a nickel to class.

Critics of Reggio contend that the fluid style overlooks fundamentals and leaves children unprepared for the transition to traditional elementary schools, but Gold said everything done in Reggio is done with purpose and gives children a broader perspective than traditional "drill and skill" settings.

"When you're memorizing, it has no meaning. When you're learning to solve problems and learning to ask questions and explore things and investigate things, you're really learning how to think," Gold said. "I've had (elementary) admissions directors come back and say they knew if the children were coming from (Reggio Emilia), they knew they were well prepared."

In the Reggio Emilia style, heavy emphasis is placed on art, and the idea that there are "100 languages" with which children express themselves, including art, drama and writing. The art produced by children is treated with reverence and used to decorate the classroom, sometimes even in frames or semi-permanent places of honor.

Jessica Hughes, a member of Temple Emanuel that has enrolled her 4-year-old son Jack in the school, said she was happy to have a childcare option that offers full-day care and the chance for children to "get an education as well."

She said Jack is an artistic child, and she thinks the Reggio Emilia style will foster that.

"The whole Reggio philosophy is very exciting to me because it kind of helps them develop those thinking and creative skills."

Meanwhile, she's both unconvinced and unconcerned about charges that Jack might miss out on fundamentals in Reggio.

"I think that there's a lot of emphasis, especially in this area, about higher education and higher learning and you know, advanced math and knowing how to read before you hit preschool," Hughes said. "I think it's OK to let children be children as long as they can, and this just seems like a warm, nurturing environment for him to be in."

Fifty-eight children ranging from 2 to 5 years old are already enrolled in the five classes offered at Temple Emanuel. Each class will have two teachers so that small groups of children can always be taken aside to work on projects. Gold said Reggio differs from another Italian educational philosophy, Montessori, in that Reggio is group and community-focused, and Montessori employs a lot more emphasis on the individual.

Dr. Fran Savretto, director of the Center for Young Children at the University of Maryland, said Reggio Emilia is also employed there, and she thinks the philosophy is a good one because it "starts with the child."

"What I think it does is it helps the child have a sense of self confidence, because their ideas are respected and the curriculum is coming from the children with the teachers as facilitators," Savretto said. "I think if you understand early childhood you learn you can learn to read and write without drilling the alphabet. You can learn through exploration and questioning and thinking and I think that's what Reggio is really good at."