The Hundred Languages of Children (and grown-ups too) - Episode #9
Show Notes
This is our last episode of the year, and it’s a special one. 2020 was a year like no other, to all of us. In the unfolding of an unprecedented pandemic, I watched so many tragedies and also so many breakthroughs. I felt a huge urge to discover what was meaningful for me. And I wasn’t alone on that. I watched my friends reinventing themselves, becoming more conscious and generous; fighting in peace against injustice, looking for ways to live more healthily and joyfully. In the middle of so much struggle and fear, we saw - and see - thousands of people risking their lives to take care of others, and millions standing up against injustice and racism. For me, 2020’s struggles taught me that I am way more resourceful, creative and connected than I ever imagined. And so, in this episode, I would like to celebrate our creativity, our potential for re-invention and connection with this beautiful poem from Loris Malaguzzi, one of the thought-leaders of the Reggio Emilia Approach.
That’s my translation of the poem.
The hundred languages of children
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 reasoning
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and at 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 languages do not exist.
But the child says, again and again:
No way. The hundred is here.
LINKS MENTIONED
Curious: Guide to a Creative & Balanced Education at Home www.imaginationathome.com/curious
My Instagram
@quelbellastella
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