In my last post, I talked about Sir Ken Robinson's book, The Element: How Finding your Passion Changes Everything (2009). Today I would like to share with you a poem published in that book at pp. 242-243. It was written by Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of an innovative educational model for preschoolers known as the Reggio approach (named for the town in Italy where it was initiated in the 1960s).
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 more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head form 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.
The artwork posted above is from three of our nine grandchildren, Henry (8), Alex(6), and Oliver(4). Each created a birthday card for me in his own creative way. Henry's shows me (the gray-haired one wearing purple) at the bottom of the stairs of our split-foyer home, welcoming him with open arms and ready to give him a hug. He also drew a humorous tree "bark-ing" at a dog. Alex colored wonderfully colorful trees and talking yellow flowers, and the abstract color study shown above that looks like an Amish bar quilt with non-traditional colors. Oliver, who will enter Kindergarten in the Fall, is all about learning to write his name. But he added lots of purple on the inside of the card, because he knows that is Grandma's favorite color.
May we all retain a childlike sense of joy and wonder. May we give ourselves permission to color outside the lines and to use nontraditional color choices if it suits us.
TTFN
LeAnn aka pasqueflower
http://www.etsy.com/shop/pasqueflower
http://pasqueflowerponderings.blogspot.com
How precious those pictures are!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog and for you kind words. If you would like one of the Shelfari book shelves just click on the bottom of mine and it tell you how to get one for free.
Very neat poem - I believe that we artists are fortunate, we never loose that childlike sense of joy and wonder in creating:):)
ReplyDeleteGreat blog!
ReplyDeleteLovely post. Children are so much fun.
ReplyDeleteGreat poem! I love the kids pictures especially the top one. I remember those days.
ReplyDeleteI visited a doctor's office and all of the artwork on the walls were from his children. His wife had them custom framed and included the child's name and age. It was so personal and very well done. Seeing this art work brought those to mind instantly. I've admired them for some time now.
ReplyDelete