Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/calling-all-inventors/5012339/
INVENT - to come upon, find, discover; to devise by thinking; to produce for the first time through the use of the imagination or of ingenious thinking and experiment.- Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
This past spring I had the opportunity to join a study tour to the schools of Reggio Emilia in Italy. Ever since, I've been adjusting my vision and understanding about the early childhood field in the United States. I see we've become obsessed with rules and regulations when what we really need is to become visionary inventors.
First, a confession. Though I had studied most of the literature and my work has been influenced by ideas from Reggio, I went to Italy with some reservations and skepticism. The tendency of U.S. folks to idealize and pursue fads has always bothered me, not to mention the way we appropriate anything we fancy for our own purposes. I know these cultural persuasions are deep inside me and I try to monitor my urges in that direction. Years ago, I smiled when I first read Sue Bredekamp's reflections on Reggio in Young Children and Bonnie Neugebauer's here in Exchange. I have high respect for these women and don't think of them as groupies ...