Forging Alliances with Families
We must forge strong alliances with the families of our children. Imagine the school as an enormous hot air balloon. The hot air balloon is on the ground when the parents bring their children in the morning. Some parents think the balloon is going to rise up and fly around during the day. Others would really prefer that the balloon remain on the ground because that way they are sure their children are safe and protected. But the children want to go up and fly and travel everywhere in a hot air balloon, to see in this different way, to look at things from above. Our problem is that to make the hot air balloon fly we have to make sure that parents understand the importance of what the teachers and children are doing in the hot air balloon. Flying through the air, seeing the world in a different way, adds to the wealth of all of us, particularly the children.
We need to make a big impression on parents, amaze them, convince them that what we are doing is some- thing extremely important for their children and for them, that we are producing and working with chil- dren to understand their intelligence and their intelli- gences. This means that we have to become skilled in flying and managing this hot air balloon. Perhaps it was our previous lack of skill that made us fall. We all need to learn to be better hot air balloon pilots.
Exchange 3/94
Building Strong Images
What we have to do now is draw out the image of the child, draw the child out of the desperate situations that many children find themselves in. If we redeem the child from these difficult situations, we redeem ourselves.
Children have a right to a good school — a good building, good teachers, right time, good activities. This is the right of ALL children.
It is necessary to give an immediate response to a child. Children need to know that we are their friends, that they can depend on us for the things they desire, that we can support them in the things that they have, but also in the things that they dream about, that they desire.
Children have the right to imagine. We need to give them full rights of citizenship in life and in society.
It’s necessary that we believe that the child is very intelligent, that the child is strong and beautiful and has very ambitious desires and requests. This is the image of the child that we need to hold.
Those who have the image of the child as fragile, incomplete, weak, made of glass gain something from this belief only for themselves. We don’t need that as an image of children.
Instead of always giving children protection, we need to give them the recognition of their rights and of their strengths.
Translated by Baji Rankin, Leslie Morrow, and Lella Gandini.
Loris Malaguzzi February 23, 1920 — January 30, 1994
Loris Malaguzzi, founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach, began teaching in schools started by parents just after the end of WWII. Through the
years, he transformed that courageous initiative into the internationally acclaimed program for young
children that we know today.
Those who worked with Malaguzzi or heard him speak have vivid memories of an intense learning
experience — his philosophical reflections, surprising observations, challenges of conventional thoughts in education, unexpected turns of thought, complexity of ideas, and delightful metaphors. One way to pay tribute to Loris Malaguzzi is to listen to his words:
“Our goal is to build an amiable school, where children, teachers and families feel at home. Such a school requires careful thinking and planning con- cerning procedures, motivations and interests. It must embody ways of getting along together, of
intensifying relationships.” Edwards, Gandini, and Forman (editors),
The Hundred Languages of Children (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1993).