Teachers Swamp a Parley on Preschool
At least 10 Upper East Side nursery schools are closing their doors today to make time for a conference on an Italian teaching philosophy that is challenging American methods.
Nearly 900 people will crowd the 92nd Street Y to learn about Reggio Emilia — named after the small Italian town, population 140,000, where the approach was developed and that is known for its fine wines and parmigianas — and hundreds more are scheduled to tune in to the 92nd Street Y's first major Internet broadcast of a conference.
Unlike many foreign countries, Italy does not outscore America on standardized tests (its children score about the same), but its approach to teaching 4- and 5-year-olds has captivated educators across this country. They say the philosophy elicits more from the young children than ever seemed possible.
Reggio eschews traditional lesson plans and instead encourages 4- and 5-year-olds to develop their own projects.
About 500 Americans visit Reggio schools in Italy every year to marvel at these projects, and a traveling exhibit of the projects has been making its way across the country. The U.S. liaison to the nonprofit Reggio Children group that organizes the exhibit, Lella Gandini, said interest appears to have grown "immensely" in the past several years, especially in New York.
The director of All Souls School on the Upper East Side, Jean Mandelbaum, one of the school directors who allowed children to skip a day so staff could attend the conference, said that when she first visited Reggio she was astonished to see the quality of work produced by the schools' method. "It looks like they're geniuses, but they're not geniuses. These Italian kids who are wonderful are no more wonderful than our American kids," she said.
By giving children more time to do longer projects and allowing them to dictate their own curriculum, the Reggio method brings out the best in them, she said. At her school, she said, children have created a life-size penguin; several robots, and a model of the 79th Street cross-town bus — all through their own ingenuity. Through the process, teachers make sure to pass on certain skills. They also push students to revisit projects, making them months-long endeavors rather than the fancy of just a few hours.
"The idea is not to just splash something off and bring it home to mommy. Rather, most of the work is considered work in progress," she said.
One of the more recent robot projects is an instructive example, she said. After many months spent building a robot — it was more like an elaborate clubhouse, with a door students could enter to get inside and pictures of themselves posted on its walls — the Christmas break arrived. To prevent a janitor from disturbing the project, the children taped up a hand-made sign: "DO NOT DISMANTLE OUR ROBOT." When teachers came in the next morning to find the robot destroyed into a pile of cardboard and wire, Ms. Mandelbaum said the children had a different reaction.
"The children in practically one voice said, 'We'll build it again!'" she said. Then — demonstrating all that they'd learned, Ms. Mandelbaum said — they proceeded to build it again in just two days.
Officials at the Italian Cultural Institute suggested to the 92nd Street Y, a haven for youth programming in the city, the idea of holding a conference, and the institute is co-hosting the event. A director of youth and family programs there, Fretta Reitzes, said the Y has been infusing Reggio techniques into its programming.
Several public schools also follow the Reggio approach, a Department of Education spokeswoman, Maibe Gonzalez-Fuentes, said, and representatives from some schools are attending the conference. P.S. 321 in Brooklyn uses the technique, as does the American Sign Language School, where teachers have come from across the country to observe the way the school uses Reggio.
