Together We Bloom

May 1, 2024 Marisa Macy

Warning. You might feel like you are in a Monet painting when you visit. Reggio Emilia is bursting at the seams with poppies everywhere in springtime.

If you wonder what Reggio Emilia is like, experience it. Spoiler alert. It’s pretty magical. Seize the day and come to Italy with us where every route is the scenic route. Our group of ten Americans took several routes to learning and professional development while we were in this northern region of Italy called Emilia-Romagna.

After World War II, people in the Italian town were disgusted by what the war did to their community. They wanted to rebuild. They turned to early childhood education in hope for their future. The Reggio Emilia approach was founded by Loris Malaguzzi and parents from Emilia-Romagna. The “100 Languages” poem (at end) was written by Malaguzzi and conveys some of the philosophy.

An Italian company located in the heart of Reggio Emilia, created a 2-week itinerary for us to experience early childhood education in Italy. Reggio Lingua provided us with a translator during school visits. Being in a place where the primary language spoken everywhere is Italian, gave us English-speaking Americans a feeling of what it might be like for our children and families in U.S.A. whose home language is different from English.

The people of Reggio Emilia measure the hours in a day by the church bells ringing in their village and rewarding social connections. We met many early childhood professionals from Italy, and around the world, who shared their love for teaching and learning. We explored Reggio Emilia programs for babies, preschoolers, and early elementary school children.

Teachers gave us a warm “benvenuti” when they welcomed us in their schools, and they shared with us like we were their long-lost cousins with endless things to talk about. Early childhood professionals in Reggio Emilia took care in discussing what it’s like to teach in Italy, as well as special routines and rituals. One of my favorites was spending mealtime with them.

We got to experience meals with Reggio Emilia educators and children. Mealtimes are a revered ritual in Italian culture. All day long, but especially during meals, their class family gathered where stories were the focal point (oh and delicious food too). They showed how food can bring people together.

Benvenuti was how the children welcomed us too. The bambini, little ones, talked with us about their interests during mealtime conversations around the table. Children showed us the things they were proud of in their classrooms.

Here are ideas I took away from early childhood professionals and children in Reggio Emilia, Italy:

1. Play is a universal language. Children speak the language of play fluently.

2. Attuned caregiving starts with listening. If you listen carefully to what their behavior is saying, children communicate their wants and needs.

3. Observation during children’s familiar routines and activities can be the basis for accurate assessment.

4. Inclusion means we are creating a sense of belonging for everyone together.

5. All members of the community are responsible for creating a healthy and happy environment where everybody can grow.

6. Professional well-being and care strengthens the overall community.

7. Kindness is spoken in hearts of early childhood professionals when families are respected in little and big ways.

Sometimes it’s necessary to explore afar in order to journey within. Our American delegation went to Italy together, and we collaborated with one another before, during, and after our time in Italy. In addition to expanding ideas about teaching, the trip to Italy with other professionals gave us time to reinforce the bonds we have with one another. I feel like our community of practice at home got stronger from going on location in Italy together. This shared experience was both personally and professionally rewarding for me. I now have nine American friends that I can say, “remember when we were in Italy and we (fill in the blank).” For example, “Remember when we were in Italy and we ate Erbazzone Reggiano out of a paper bag while watching Reggiani ride their bikes that were decorated in flowers like a parade float in front of the Reggio Emilia Opera House?”

Speaking of music. One of my favorite songs to sing with children (and anyone who will sing along) is, “The More We Get Together.” The lyrics of the song highlight the importance of togetherness. Together we learn. Together we teach. Together we make a difference for children and families. All together. Together we bloom into the best version of ourselves. “The more we get together, the happier we will be.”

**“The Beauty of the World Lies in the Diversity of Its People” (bulletin board at Northlake Park Elementary in Orlando, Florida)**

Note: I wrote this for the Buffett Early Childhood Institute blog. Click on this link if you want to read it on the Buffett Institute website. Thank you Erin Duffy and Buffett team for inviting me to share this experience with your readers.

Me stepping into a Monet painting in Reggio Emilia in the spring.

Let's go to school in the museum!

January 1, 2024 Marisa Macy

Professor Alessandra Landini from University of Modena-Reggio Emilia helps us discover meaningful connections when a public space like a museum collaborates with their neighborhood school. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Landini and her school community relocated to the town public Museum’s Palace, in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Musei Civici became their school during the pandemic.

Her community partnership sustained the education program. Everything like food and resources followed her and children. The pandemic is over, but partnership between museum and school remains. In the tradition of the atelier, artistic and cultural expression in childhood is enhanced when professionals have resources. Entities outside of Reggio Emilia schools support early childhood education in this region of Italy. Many community-based programs exist in Emilia-Romagna that have meaningful contributions for professionals working with young children.

It is nearly impossible to separate education from the community context in Reggio Emilia when wondering if you can bottle up this magic. When you come to Reggio Emilia it is possible to wonder how you can take some of this magic home with you. If you want to hear more about this community-based partnership between the Reggio Emilia school and the municipal museum, head over to the BUTTERCUP podcast (click on bold) and listen to Dr. Landini tell the amazing story.

Follow me to the Musei Civici in Reggio Emilia, Italia.

Circle time and then small group activities were done here the day we visited the Musei Civici in Reggio Emilia, Italia.

Light tables and ateliers. Musei Civici in Reggio Emilia, Italia.

Studies in sealife. Musei Civici in Reggio Emilia, Italia.

One child chose to draw this giraffe and then write about it in their journal. Musei Civici in Reggio Emilia, Italia.

Preschooler drew this giraffe in notebook. Musei Civici in Reggio Emilia, Italia.

Source: Landini, A. & Macy, M. (September, 2023). Case Study of Social Inclusion and Community-based Partnership in Reggio Emilia, Italia. Sixteenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum, “Museum Transformations: Pathways to Community Engagement,” Vancouver, Canada.

Reggio Emilia Preschool

December 1, 2023 Marisa Macy

Preschools in Reggio Emilia are places for children and their families where everyone belongs and inclusion is a priority. In Montecavolo, at the foothills of the Appenines (baby Alps), we got to spend time with educator Greta and atelierista Pier. They shared so many beautiful things with us about their school.

In every nook and cranny there were roses swimming in water in colorful glass vases. Pier told me that the Nonne (Grandmothers) of the children knew we were coming, and so they cut fresh flowers from their gardens to decorate the school so it would look nice for American visitors.

Nonne (grandmothers) decorated the school with roses from their gardens to welcome visitors from America in Reggio Emilia.

My visit of the Reggio Emilia preschool. I love this place.

Children’s artwork in the Reggio Emilia school. It is amazing what children create.

Italy celebrates Mother’s Day too. Educators, pedagogistas, and atelieristas welcomed us with open arms the day we visited right before Italian Mother’s Day. Children showed us the beautiful gifts they were making. They grew rosemary that is used in a recipe for bath salts that will go into artistic glass jars each child made for their Mama with a handmade salt dough heart ornament on the lid. It smells and sounds heavenly in this classroom as children celebrate their families.

The children grew this rosemary at school in their garden that they are using in the bath salt jars they are making in Reggio Emilia.

Handmade salt dough ornaments the children made for their mothers in Reggio Emilia.

Children are prepared for outdoor play with these rainboots organized nicely outside their classroom door in Reggio Emilia.

Lounge area for children to read books in Reggio Emilia.

Child-sized sinks make it easy to clean up after creating neat things in the atelier in Reggio Emilia.

Inclusion of children with disabilities is a priority in Reggio Emilia schools.

This school’s name is Butterfly Tree in Reggio Emilia. Materials from the REmida recycling center were used to create butterflies.

Outdoor classroom in Reggio Emilia. Some materials from the REmida recycling center.

The Nido (nest)

November 1, 2023 Marisa Macy

Pitter patter of little feet greeted us when we entered the glass doors to the Nido. The word “Nido” refers to bird nest in Italian. Nido is the infant/toddler program for children 3 months to 3 years and their families in Reggio Emilia, Italy.

It was a short train ride to a Nido in Guastalla from our home base in Reggio Emilia. Guastalla is also in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy in a rural area of about 15,000 people. Guastalla is a charming rural village where strangers greeted us as we walked about 15 minutes from the train to the school. We saw more people riding bicycles than cars.

We were in Guastalla to visit a Reggio school called Iride which stands for Iris (from eye). Tanya, the pedagogista at Iride shared with us how her children chose the name of the school.

The original school was destroyed in 2015 by an earthquake. When they rebuilt Iride, the team chose poplar trees grown on the land as their inspiration for the shapes seen throughout the building. All the wood in the natural environment came from Italy.

Atelier for light, another atelier for colors, and a third atelier devoted to nature are in the Iride Nido. Fine arts are an important component in the curriculum…even for babies in Reggio Emilia.

Feeling so grateful for this experience Reggio Lingua created for us while snacking on erbazzone (delicacy from Reggio with Spinach) on train ride back to town, and so happy for the poppies (papaveri) blooming in springtime in Emilia-Romagna.

Here are some pictures of the Nido in Guastalla.

Nido in Emilia-Romagna, Italia. Check out my Reggio Lingua bag full of goodies for Nido staff in Guastalla. Bringing treats for teachers! It is my love language.

Nido in Emilia-Romagna, Italia. Infant classrooms are on the right. You can see through the window the high chairs around the half moon-shaped table. Toddler classrooms are on the opposite side of the building.

Benvenuti! Nido in Emilia-Romagna, Italia.

Check out this exploration area for children in the Nido in Emilia-Romagna, Italia.

Even the hallways are beautiful in the Iride Nido in Emilia-Romagna, Italia.

Prepared for any kind of weather at the Nido in Emilia-Romagna, Italia.

Atelier for color in the Nido in Emilia-Romagna, Italia

Toddlers were creating this when I visited them. The three children were engaged in their painting and they barely looked up from their art. In the flow and they were smiling and talking with each other and their atelierista.

Toddler classrooms in the Nido in Emilia-Romagna, Italia.

Skylights throughout the school bring natural light in.

Control of light and dark in the Toddler nap room in the Iride Nido in Emilia-Romagna, Italia.

Child size sinks and toilets in bathroom in the Nido in Emilia-Romagna, Italia.

Atelier in the Nido in Emilia-Romagna, Italia.

Yay, a laundry room on location! Look how excited I am for the laundry room!

If you thought the laundry room is awesome…wait until you see the cucina! Magic happens here everyday when people lovingly prepare meals for the children and educators.

Breakfast and lunch are made from scratch with fresh local ingredients. When I was there, children had delicious vegetable lasagna and two fresh, cooked veggie side dishes for lunch (pranzo). Children eat on real ceramic Italian plates with flatware on linen tablecloths just like in their homes.

Kindest and most generous people caring for children. She wanted me to have some of the dolce she made the babies. Mangia bene!

Flanerie

October 1, 2023 Marisa Macy

French poet, Boudelaire, described flanerie as a state of being where one goes around and discovers. To wander with no purpose may seem like a waste of time, but hold the phone! Wait just a minute! Just think of what could be missed with being in a hurry. Slowing down. Flanerie! Sign me up for the flanerie tour in Emilia-Romagna in two cities: Reggio Emilia and Bologna.

Reggio Emilia

Professor Alessandra Landini from University of Modena-Reggio Emilia shared meaningful connections she has made in her Italian community of Reggio Emilia on a recent episode of the BUTTERCUP podcast (link to podcast episode #56). Dr. Alessandra Landini shared the exciting things she is doing as an educator and leader of a school in Reggio Emilia. She and her team are doing incredible things for children and their families. As I spent time in her beautiful school, I learned what she meant about taking time to discover and explore.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Landini and her school community relocated to the town museum (Landini & Macy, 2023). She brought me and others from our American delegation to see the Musei Civici in Reggio Emilia. Her community partnerships sustained the education program during the pandemic. Everything like food, transportation for children, and resources followed her and the children. The pandemic is over, but the day we visited the museum with her, Dr. Landini’s schoolchildren and teachers were doing a week-long deep dive study at the museum.

Dr. Alessandra Landini, me, and our American delegation walking from the Reggio Emilia civic museum to her school across town.

I have a question. “Teacher! Teacher! Pick me!” I’m in the classroom at Dr. Landini’s school.

Atelier at the Reggio Emilia Civic Museum.

Bologna

In addition to Dr. Landini’s school, our delegation spent time learning about Montessori in Bologna. With crenelated towers rising from alleyways, I was thrilled to spend time in the majestic Bologna about an hour train ride from Reggio Emilia. The University of Bologna is the oldest university in the western world and has exquisite architecture and the buildings spread out all over the city (no main campus). Here is how the University of Bologna history compares to other universities:

Year founded:

1088 University of Bologna

1096 Oxford

1636 Harvard

1861 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1887 University of Wyoming

University of Bologna is the second largest university in Italy with approximately 90,000 students. When it was founded in 1088 it was a group of students who organized and advocated for the school. On the day our delegation was in town, it was graduation day for law school students. Law students found out if they passed the mark while family and friends waited outside the walls of school with confetti to congratulate the graduate. Each graduate came out wearing a laurel crown on their head with their thesis in hand. The student I saw graduate from law school passed and held his thesis for pictures with his family. The thesis had a title related to law and bankruptcy.

An Italian saying captures the reason I am experiencing flanerie in Bologna: “La vita e un lungo cammino, dove sei maestro e studente. Qualche volta insegni, ma ogni giorni impari.” (Life is a long journey where you are teacher and student. Sometimes you teach, but everyday you learn.) This student and all of us are learning everyday. The main reason for being in Bologna, other than the flanerie, was to spend time at the Bologna public municipal Montessori school for preschoolers. To learn about learning! To be a student of our early childhood profession. To see how Italian Montessori preschool compares to American Montessori preschool.

Teacher made materials at the Bologna Montessori preschool.

Susana, the academic coordinator for preschools, welcomed us and set us up for our visit. Our delegation was divided into groups of three people where we visited each Montessori classroom.

A picture of Maria Montessori in every classroom graces the walls beside a picture of the baby Jesus and his mother Mary. Religious imagery is one difference between USA and Italian Montessori preschools. Another was how Montessori school in Bologna is free to parents with a small fee for food. In America, Montessori schools are usually private, where tuition and other fees are costs absorbed by the parents of young children.

Mealtime routines was another way this preschool is different in Italy. The Italian culture and rich food heritage were celebrated by children and teachers during lunch. Parmesan cheese, tortellini, prosciutto, balsamic vinegar, fettuccine, and lasagna come from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. Food pride can be found throughout the regions of Italia. Buona forchetta (good fork) is what Italians call a foodie. Not that children are foodies, but the cultural norm of showing love through food was evident in how teachers facilitated learning as children used math and other skills to participate in the daily routine of lovingly setting their table for pranzo (lunch).

There were more similarities than differences that I took away from my day at the Bologna Montessori preschool. We have similar materials. Much of the teaching tools we have in common. Another similarity is how inclusion of children with diverse abilities is fostered. There were some children with disabilities who were fully included in the classroom. Finally, teachers collaborate with their team to serve children.

Montessori math materials and curriculum in Bologna.

In Italian, the word brillare means to sparkle. Maria Montessori sparkles in different and similar ways in Italy as she does in America. Good things occur when given the opportunity to practice the art of flanerie in an ancient city with so much history, cultural relevancy where food is concerned, and enlightenment.

On this day in Bologna, I am slowing down to listen to children like Stella who was sharing her excitement that today is her birthday. Slowing down to hear teacher Laura share her story about how she went to university and studied archaeology and then became a Montessorian because she fell in love with the teaching method. Slowing down to feel the heartbeat of this magnifico place with endless brillare past, present, and bright future in their children.

Pathways for community engagement are formed in Reggio Emilia, Bologna, and whereever we are when we slow down for flanerie and create meaningful connections.

Source:

Landini, A. & Macy, M. (September, 2023). Case Study of Social Inclusion and Community-based Partnership in Reggio Emilia, Italia. Sixteenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum, “Museum Transformations: Pathways to Community Engagement,” Vancouver, Canada.

Loris Malaguzzi Center in Reggio Emilia

September 1, 2023 Marisa Macy

The Malaguzzi Center is a charming and one-of-a-kind physical space that represents a beautiful tribute honoring children, families, professionals, and neighborhoods. The Loris Malaguzzi Center in Reggio Emilia, Italy is a place devoted to learning and discussing the ideas surrounding the early childhood education approach. People who go to Reggio Emilia for early childhood education delegations often spend at least one day at the Center. There are many things to do. For example, workshops on the Reggio Emilia model are offered by th Loris Malaguzzi Center.

The Reggio Emilia approach is named after the town of about 150,000 Italians living in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy. It is a child-centered and community-oriented model that uses fine arts as the foundation. The atelier is central to a Reggio Emilia classroom environment.

After World War II, the people of Reggio Emilia were outraged by what the war did to their community. They wanted to create beauty and hope for their future. They wanted good things for their children.

Loris Malaguzzi and parents created the Reggio Emilia approach. He was moved by the families and their hopes and dreams for their children. The picture below shows Loris Malaguzzi in the atelier, and his poem is included below showing his philosophies on child development and learning. “What is the fatal charm of Italy? What do we find there that can be found nowhere else? I believe it is a certain permission to be human,” ~Erica Jong. This approach allows children and professionals permission to be human.

NO WAY. THE HUNDRED IS THERE by Loris Malaguzzi (translated by Lella Gandini)

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 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.

REmida

August 1, 2023 Marisa Macy

When you think of a recycling center in America, what image comes to mind? Recycling centers where I live remind me of smelly and disgusting places located next to trash.

A recycling center and program in Reggio Emilia, Italy is called REmida. It is totally different than what I have experienced with recycling centers in America. REmida is a beautiful place full of opportunity.

Entities outside of Reggio Emilia schools support early childhood education in this region of Italy. Many community-based programs exist in Emilia-Romagna that have meaningful contributions for professionals working with young children. One of them is REmida. It is a center devoted to providing materials for early childhood educators. In the tradition of the atelier, artistic expression in childhood is enhanced when early childhood professionals have resources.

REmida is a place where businesses donate their surplus materials and resources for teachers. For example, fashion houses like nearby Max Mara donate textiles that would otherwise be thrown away. RE (means king in Italian and also it represents the initials of Reggio Emilia) + Mida is based on the idea of turning trash to treasure. King Midas had a special gift of turning things into gold - the “Midas touch.” Giving new life to things is the point of REmida for teachers. A membership to REmida costs Italian educators about 40 euros (which would be less than $50 USD for conversion rate in 2023 when I write this) for the year. Teachers have unlimited use with their annual membership meaning they can take anything they want from REmida. The day we visited there were several teachers who got off work at 4pm on Thursday and were shopping the REmida Center for their classes. They packed their shopping carts full of endless possibilities to use in their classrooms and services for children and their families.

Recycling centers might be unpleasant places connected with landfills in some communities. Not REmida. REmida is a beautiful environment in a nice area that is welcoming. The physical space invites creativity with the way materials are displayed throughout the large building in Reggio Emilia.

Not far from REmida is a big supermarket, residential neighborhood, and sports facility dedicated to the memory of basketball player Kobe Bryant who lived here in his youth when his father was a professional athlete and moved the family to Reggio Emilia. Bryant is gone but not forgotten in Reggio Emilia, and the town adores him as evidenced by monuments and streets named after him.

REmida is supported by Reggio Emilia Foundation, municipality, private investors, and infant/toddler centers. There are 12 of these in the world. “Stare insieme” means how to be together. Maybe communities can learn from this approach and come together with resources for educators.

REmida. I am in love with this red wall of fibers! I want to touch every stitch!

Me playing with some of the fun materials at the REmida.

My mentor, Dr. Judy Levin, at the REmida.

Taking materials and making origami cranes for the wall. My friends Alisha and June learning how to make cranes from Italian teacher for the REmida wall that is lit with pink lighting.

Table-scape at REmida with ideas for using recycled materials.

D is for Deutsch

July 1, 2023 Marisa Macy

She said hers is “scoppiare” (popcorn)! She rapidly responded when I asked her favorite word. It was as though she too has spent several hours thinking about fabulous words. My Italian friend is a linguist in Emilia-Romagna, Italia. She loves words too she told me. Munching on the goodness from farms in middle America and popcorn is one of our favorite snacks when my daughter and I watch movies. We love popcorn or scoppiare. Maybe Italians do too?! Who knew. Nebraskans do too. So much so that corn is a mascot for many schools and sports teams in my beautiful state of Nebraska where we have lived since 2021.

My Italian friend spent a year in Maine, but she has never been to Nebraska. I’m pretty sure she had no idea that I come from the land of popcorn in the Midwest. We played the favorite word game during train rides in Italy. Sounds like the kind of game I would initiate, but it was another friend from Florida who started us playing this game. When you travel for 2 weeks with several early childhood educators in Italy, you are likely to learn new games to play with friends. And play we did! I got to learn my friends’ faves and shared my favorite word (of the moment) as I stared out the train windows and thought about how the gorgeous Italian countryside reminds me of my home in Nebraska.

I see many similarities between Nebraska and the Emilia-Romagna (E-R) region of Italy. The eastern part of the E-R region, Emilia, is flat. Eastern E-R looks to me a lot like eastern Nebraska. The Nebraska poet Ted Kooser described eastern Nebraska as a flat table that has a wobbly leg. Not quite flat, but not quite hilly or mountainous either. Just a little tilted. The east is also where a bulk of the population of people live in E-R which is similar to Nebraska.

As you travel west to the Romagnan part of the E-R region it gets less populated and the countryside is painted with jagged hills. Western E-R is similar to western NE where places like Scottsbluff and Chimney Rock in the west have different landscapes compared to eastern NE. In Nebraska, we don’t have a sea at our border like the Adriatic. But wow do we have an amazeballs river. Oh the river! Po River runs through E-R and we have the Platte River in Nebraska.

Still thinking about our word game while I traveled home and spent 33 hours in shuttles, cars, and on planes. It was a gate agent from Lufthansa in Munich airport who gave me my new favorite word.

He asked for my passport. I gave my passport to him in a little booklet I picked up in the Bologna airport that says, “Wanderlust.” The only reason I bought the booklet with the wanderlust word on it was because I wanted privacy with my identity and not flash the precious blue passport revealing to other passengers my country of origin. Safety!

“Sprechen sie Deutsch,” he asked loudly. When he questioned me, I experienced flashbacks to 9th grade when I took Frau Ruth Strange’s class to learn to speak German.

Umm. Does a year and a grade of “D” count as speaking Deutsch? I kept that pesky thought to myself. “No. English. I speak English,” I said.

A spunky smile accompanied his reply in English as he pointed to the word on the booklet that covers my passport. “Okay. I ask because wanderlust is German.” This is how he started telling me about the word. His enthusiasm for Deutsch got me excited for learning more about the language that I sadly gave up on when I was 14. German. How cool!

When it comes to words, I am like the bread Italians use to soak up sauce on the plate. There’s a phrase for it in Italian, fare la scarpetta (little shoe for bread). Licking the dish clean and leaving no sauce behind. I have a fondness and hunger to soak up words. Nothing pleases me more than to hear people talk and pay attention to the words they use. Love to read their writing too.

Malcom Gladwell wrote an essay about mustard and ketchup in David Remnick’s book, “Secret Ingredients.” In his essay, Gladwell described someone’s enthusiasm for a topic. I loved the words he used that went something like… the person is so charismatic they make you want to become a statistician after taking their required stats class. I know people like this. Do you? The Munich gate agent could be one of them.

Grinning gate agent is not a statistician (that I am aware of) but his contagious zest for Deutsch interested me. I developed a curiosity for “wanderlust.” What is wanderlust? Where does wanderlust come from? How is wanderlust used in sentences?

I’ll explore this more later when I have time, but for now while I write this on the treadmill at my gym and construct my own meaning I’m going to settle on this personal definition that I create for myself. My definition of wanderlust is…

Wander + lust = being seduced by the possibilities of travel.

I think of wanderlust as a secret ingredient when going someplace and comparing new worlds to home. Can’t help but make comparisons. “Take me home, country roads,” sang John Denver. Wanderlust with winding roads can take us places and also lead us back home. In classrooms we sometimes say “popcorn” when we toss a question or idea to our friend. What is your favorite word? Popcorn! Yes, you! Scoppiare to you. Mine could change by the time I push the submit button. I’ll tell you mine, if you tell me yours. Over to you.

All roads lead home. Wanderlust brought me here. Being myselfie and getting lost on a winding country road in Reggio Emilia, Italia.

Gladwell, M. (2008). The ketchup conundrum. In D. Remnick, Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink (Ed.). Random House.

Is Reggio Emilia the Trip of a Lifetime?

June 1, 2023 Marisa Macy

People said to me… “how wonderful that you are about to go on the trip of a lifetime.” Hmm? Really? Of a “lifetime?” I was curious hearing these words. What the heck is a “trip of a lifetime” anyway? Have I ever had one? Have you? What is it like to have a travel experience that exceeds all others in one’s entire life? I wonder….

I have been to Italy many times. I am American with roots in Italy. My Dad's family is from northern Italy near Milan, and my mother grew up in southern Italy on a tobacco farm that is still in the family and has been for hundreds of years. I grew up speaking Italian at home. We have family all over Italy that I have traveled from America to visit. But this will be my first time to Reggio Emilia, Italy.

Would Reggio Emilia be my “trip of a lifetime (TOAL)?” Will it blow my socks off? Sure, it is bound to be special. I will be traveling to Reggio Emilia with a dozen of my friends who are early childhood colleagues from America experiencing an Italian early childhood approach to education for my first time. I am ready for professional fulfilment and learning more about children, families, and the teaching profession in another country. Having new ways of thinking about child development is another outcome I expect to experience from my trip to Reggio Emilia, Italy. Marcel Proust wrote, “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” I’m all in and ready to see early childhood education with new eyes. Maybe this can be TOAL for me?! So how does one plan for TOAL?

Planning for the “Trip of a Lifetime” (TOAL)

“People don’t take trips, trips take people.”~John Steinbeck

Our American team had several meetings leading up to the Reggio Emilia delegation. A pre-travel survey that we created (Levin, Brasel, & Macy, 2023) was completed to get a baseline on where we were all at with understanding the Reggio Emilia approach to education. After the pre-travel survey, we read three things (Edwards, Gandini, & Forman, 2011; Rinaldi, 2006; Vecchi, 2010) prior to leaving for Reggio Emilia (full citations at the end of this blog post). Reading these articles gave our group a collective understanding of the history of the Reggio Emilia approach, as well as a framework to view the schools, the REmida Center, and the International Loris Malaguzzi Center.

When I zipped my suitcase and was ready to leave for the Omaha airport, I still wondered about TOAL.

TOAL? Really? One of my favorite travel writers and foodies is the late Anthony Bourdain. I reflected on TOAL and Bourdain’s words: “Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.” TOAL, here we come!

TOAL vs. OIAL

Maybe the part that has me questioning TOAL is that I associate the platitude with, “once in a lifetime” (OIAL). I plan to return to Reggio Emilia many more times. This trip I’m taking will not be “once” in my lifetime. My plan is that it will be an annual event in my life. My aim is to return every spring as though I am a sandhill crane spending springtime in central Nebraska again and again for my annual migration. Yes, this trip means more to me than OIAL.

This year I am traveling to Reggio Emilia to create pathways for future delegations to experience Reggio firsthand. This year our delegation consists of me and my friends from Florida who I worked and played with before moving to Nebraska in 2021. Dr. Judy Levin started the Reggio Emilia trip in 2012 when she first took students, or pre-service professionals in our teacher preparation program, from University of Central Florida to experience the study abroad in Italy. Then the brilliant Dr. Levin came up with a professional development approach to create the opportunity for the people who were supervising our students in fieldwork. The cooperating professionals. Let’s bring in-service professionals too. Brilliant! She added in-service professionals who were already in the early childhood workforce and no longer students. I’ve been wanting to go with her for many years, but I was hesitant because I didn’t want to leave my young child for two weeks.

TOAL? Maybe TOAL.

OIAL? Not a chance. This is not a once in a lifetime trip for me. More like it will be Once Every Year or OEY for me.

Update

“I am not the same, having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.” ~Mary Anne Radmacher

It happened! I had a TOAL in May 2023 when I traveled with my early childhood education team from America to Reggio Emilia, Italy. So many wonderful memories I am taking back to Nebraska with me. I’ll be reflecting on this first time in Reggio Emilia while unpacking so many lovely memories. “Take only memories, leave only footprints,” ~Chief Seattle.

These were the three readings we had on the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education before we went.

Time for a selfie with this incredible scholar on the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. Dr. Carlina Rinaldi and me at the International Loris Malaguzzi Center.

#1- This book about the Reggio Emilia approach was written by Dr. Carolyn Edwards who was a professor from the University of Nebraska Lincoln with her co-authors Drs. Lella Gandini and George Forman. The new College of Education building at the University of Nebraska Lincoln is named after this Reggio Emilia scholar — Dr. Carolyn Pope Edwards.

Edwards, C., Gandini, L., & Forman, G. (2011). The hundred languages of children: The Reggio Emilia experience in transformation (3rd ed.). Santa Barbara: Praeger.

#2- Dr. Carlina Rinaldi takes us on a journey and we are transported to Reggio Emilia, Italy and early childhood education. I got to meet her in person at the Loris Malaguzzi Center. What a thrill. She is lovely.

Rinaldi, C. (2006). Listening, researching, and learning. In G. Dahlberg and P. Moss (Eds.) The Space of Childhood: Contesting Early Childhood Series. New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

#3- Dr. Vea Vecchi’s writing is part Italian memoir and part Reggio Emilia handbook about her exploration of creativeness in the early years.

Vecchi, V. (2010). Art and creativity in Reggio Emilia. Exploring the role of ateliers in early childhood education. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203854679