On Display: No way. The hundred is there.

This poem written by Loris Malaguzzi from Reggio Emilia, Italy, continues to inspire me each and every time that I read it.  I have it posted in my classroom and in my office to help remind me of all the possibilities that our students are so capable and deserving of:

No way. The hundred is there.

The child

is made of one hundred.

The child has

a hundred languages

a hundred hands

a hundred thoughts

a hundred ways of thinking

of playing, of speaking.

A hundred always a hundred

ways of listening

of marveling, of loving

a hundred joys

for singing and understanding

a hundred worlds

to discover

a hundred worlds

to invent

a hundred worlds

to dream.

The child has

a hundred languages

(and a hundred hundred hundred more)

but they steal ninety-nine.

The school and the culture

separate the head from the body.

They tell the child:

to think without hands

to do without head

to listen and not to speak

to understand without joy

to love and to marvel

only at Easter and at Christmas.

They tell the child:

to discover the world already there

and of the hundred

they steal ninety-nine.

They tell the child:

that work and play

reality and fantasy

science and imagination

sky and earth

reason and dream

are things

that do not belong together.

And thus they tell the child

that the hundred is not there.

The child says:

No way. The hundred is there.

-Loris Malaguzzi (translated by Lella Gandini)

Founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach

Hope that you enjoyed this!  I will be back on my social media Monday, March 18th, 2013.  

Thank goodness for modern technology's ability to automatically schedule posts prepared ahead of time...  Happy Friday! :)

Looking forward to reading all of your comments when I return!