Aesthetic codes and how they shape environment

Just reading this fascinating article by Patricia Tarr, Associate Professor in the faculty of Education, University of Calgary, Alberta Canada. It is a comparison of aesthetic codes in typical Canadian/ American preschools and Reggio Emilia preschools.  (We can add to the comparison the schools we went to as children in England, then and today.) 

Where did this cartoonified (to borrow the author's apt term) aesthetic come from? When was it born? How did it grow? How did it cross oceans? How does it compare to Victorian classrooms? And how can we help eradicate it?!

Strongly recommend reading the whole article, but an excerpt: 'Reggio educators include aspects of a home into the school: vases of flowers, real dishes, tablecloths, and plants. There is attention to design and placement of objects to provide a visual and meaningful context. The objects within the space are not simplified, cartoon like images that are assumed to appeal to children, but are "beautiful" objects in their own right. For example, dried flowers hang from the ceiling beams and attractive jars of beans and seeds are displayed on shelves in the dinning area of Arcobaleno Infant-Toddler Center.'

I think the words 'that are assumed to appeal to children' lead us to the root of the problem. Who assumed this? Like the rebranding of Saint Nicolas from historic green to Coca-Cola red, have we let people trying to sell us something (Walt Disney?) tell us what children like?

Who to trust? It seems the good ladies and men (we did find a male) of Reggio Emilia are trusting their 'inner child' and if so, so can we.

But Patricia has another suggestion:

'Art educators need to find ways to collaborate with early childhood teachers to critically examine the aesthetic codes which permeate their classrooms and then together find ways to create environments which support children's aesthetic and artistic development... Reggio has shown how partnerships between artist-teachers and early childhood educators can have a powerful impact on all the learning that occurs. Art educators can be challenged to take on the role of atelierista within a school, working as partners with teachers to support children to communicate their ideas visually, help to create provocative learning experiences, and design environments that enhance children's perceptual awareness and provide places for wonder, curiosity and the expression of ideas.'

Patricia recognises that the teacher might not have had their own aesthetic sensibilities nurtured as children. We wonder if every adult would have an aesthetic sensibility had they gone to school in Reggio Emilia or do genes play a decisive role? How can we test this on the community of adults in Reggio Emilia?

When should children be able to read and write?

Reggio Emilia International Study Group 2016

In our lecture today we heard from the pedagogista that many parents in Italy believe the transition to primary school is when children should be able to read and write.

Naturally, this belief and fear results in some opposition to the Reggio Emilia approach. However even the Italian Curriculum does not place this expectation on children, instead proposing that children learn to read and write in the first 2 years of primary school or, as our pedagogista puts it (drawing emphasis to the conceptualisation of language as a code) to "construct their understanding of reading and writing codes". 

At the Loris Malaguzzi primary school they pay very careful attention to the wording of the Italian standards and expectations before applying them to their approach. In this case they believe this 2 years gives full licence to allowing children to freely explore all their other 100+ languages. In the words of today's speaker "Why would we push the pace?"

Mark making

One of the many advantages of outdoor living is Indigo's love of making marks in the earth with sticks. She experiments with the length of her 'brushstrokes', long and short, and is interested in the resistance of the earth. Sometimes her marks are fluid and carefree; sometimes they are angular and intentional.

We were amazed to see how creative the local kids in Palawan, Philippines were with sand - particularly how intuitively they used sticks in the sand to clarify meaning - with drawings and letters - as we tried to communicate with each other.

Indigo also really enjoyed laying out her collected finds on the letters of her name today. She has letters she particularly enjoys identifying and drawing: I, p, o, x and e at the moment. 'I' and 'o' from her interest in the letters of her name. But she has no interest in 'n', 'd' or little 'i'which is interesting.