A hundred worlds to discover. A hundred worlds to invent.
Children use many languages to express their inner worlds. In my playroom, a sand tray invites children to explore and symbolize their experiences, books celebrate diversity and embrace big emotions, and a dollhouse inspires imaginative play, problem solving and social understanding
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
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 Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child to dsicover 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)