Vea Vecchi: Beauty and Ethics are Foundational for our Future
I just listened to an impassioned TEDx Talk given in Reggio Emilia, Italy a few months ago by Vea Vecchi. I found the TEDx because I was reading Jennifer Azzariti's blog, In Dialogue. Jennifer is a friend and colleague who I greatly admire and with whom I have been lucky enough to work. We were together in Reggio Emilia and Ligonchio last July. There, we both had the privilege of spending a week with Italian educators and other educators from all over the world in the stunning natural environment of the Apennine mountains. Among those we spent the week with was Vea Vecchi, an atelierista who worked closely with Loris Malaguzzi, the founder and philosopher behind the Reggio Approach.
Vea recently authored Art and Creativity in Reggio Emilia which I recommend to everyone who is interested in how children learn and the role of creativity in learning. It is a beautiful book written in a direct, narrative voice. Vea tells lots of learning stories, some about her grandchildren that are enchanting and amazing. The kind of stories we might all tell if we were keen observers and listeners, and life long researchers of creativity and the imagination.
The TEDx Talk is in Italian. It is worth watching even if you don't understand the Italian to feel Vea's passion, courage and vision.
A few excerpts:
We are convinced that it only through education that we can confront the difficulties of our time that have the attention of everyone, that humiliate us as citizens of the world. What is a school and an education of quality?
For one, we give so much importance to the environment. Beyond the right of having a school is the right to have a school that is beautiful and taken care of with an attitude of care so that parents, children, and teachers want to come to school every day. We have in some ways confused luxury with care.
The atelier has brought many materials and techniques, but also has illuminated a need, not only for children, but for human beings to communicate in a way that rationality and imagination travel together. We believe in a multiplicity of languages that are integrated and not separated. We believe that this makes learning and understanding more rich and more complete.
Poetic thought does not separate the imaginative from the cognitive, emotion from the rational, empathy from deep investigation. It lights up all the senses and perceptions and cultivates an intense relationship with what is all around us. It constructs thoughts that are not conformist. And this creates two important elements: solidarity and participation, both of which are the foundation of democracy.
To conclude, we believe that identifying and researching beauty and ethics is the indispensible foundation for a livable, sustainable future that everyone speaks about but that seems so difficult to bring about. It is only with an intelligent heart, with courage and with vision that we can proceed.
Happy Thanksgiving
Right now, I am thankful for many people and places mostly, and feeling abundantly blessed. Among the amazing miracles that I am also thankful for is our lemon tree. That's right, in St. Louis, MO, on a gray, wet, dark day, we have, in our porch room, a blooming lemon tree with about 30 lemons on it in various stages of ripening!
People are amazed when they see it, like a perfect manifestation of the goodness of the planet, offering lemons in a cold climate all winter long. We give lemons to friends when they visit. They exclaim, cup the lemon in their hands, close their eyes and bring the lemon to their noses and sigh as they take in a long whiff.
Today, as I often encourage others to do, I sat down to draw a lemon. To notice the beautiful curve and the tiny, bumpy texture, and the shiny, dark, dark green leaves of all sizes brings me happiness. Taking the time to draw as adults, and especially with children, with soft colored pencils of many hues and satisfying pens, is such an important and lovely way to be present, to be awake, to be thankful and to make something that you will remember.
So, this Thanksgiving season, pull up your chair, get out some pens, and draw with the children you are with. Draw the pies, the apples, the flowers, the people, the joy and the gratefulness that we share this time of year. Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Louise and Ashley
Designing a New School for the 21st. Century
Designing a New School for the 21st Century
To an educator is there anything more exciting (or daunting) than starting a new school? I don’t think so. I’ve done it twice (if you count the complete renovation of The St. Michael School, both the building and the curricula). And now, I’m privileged to be a consultant to another new school in the making, Bennett Day School in Chicago.
After six months of working with the creators of Bennett, I realize that, in their process they are using the very 21st Century skills that they plan to engender at Bennett. In brief, here are a few.
The excitement is palpable in the innovators who are designing Bennett, Shuchi Sharma and Kate Cicchelli. They are a great team, working in a collaborative way from the start, modeling a practice essential to their objective: to create an innovative school for the 21st Century.
Shuchi and Kate are also a bit of an odd couple, in a really good way, sort of yin and yang. Shuchi, the Director of Operations, comes from the business world and she picked up the gauntlet on this project thrown down by Cameron Smith, a Chicago financier. Kate, the Head of School, is a veteran educator, presently a fourth grade teacher. They model another key to 21st Century education, understanding multiple perspectives. They are open to each other and to many new ideas.
In their research phase, Shuchi and Kate have discovered several innovative sources for inspiration, including: the Reggio Emilia Approach, Peter Senge, Grant Wiggins, Ron Berger, and Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound. In addition to adapting the big ideas from these sources, Kate is completing the puzzle of fundamental skills curricula. This is problem solving and systems thinking in action.
They have also begun to grapple with the more intangible aspects of school design, for example, creating school culture. Kate spent a couple of days with me in St. Louis, visiting four schools where Louise and I consult: The College School; Maplewood Richmond Heights School District; The St. Michael School; and Clayton School District. She reflected later, Understanding school climate, and more, the development of school climate, is difficult work. It's like trying to grasp air. Having the chance to observe four different examples of creative and collaborative school cultures was powerful. Creating a vibrant school culture can be like trying to grasp air and yet, there are many fundamental ways to ground and build successful school cultures. And, creating school as a community is an essential ingredient for the 21st Century school...like the air we breathe.
What's Baseball Got to Do with It?
What’s Baseball Got to Do with It? How about those Cardinals! (Remember, this is coming to you from St. Louis, MO.)
On August 24th the Cardinals were 10 1/2 games behind in the Wild Card race to make the playoffs for the World Series. From that date to the last day of the season, over the month of September, they won 20 games and lost only 7. They won the last game of the season to win the Wild Card berth.
Then, in the playoffs, in a best of five games series with the Philadelphia Phillies (the team with the best record in baseball over the season) down two games to one, the Cards beat the Phillies first in St. Louis, then in the clincher, game five, back in Philly. That fifth game was a 1-0 squeaker pitching duel, with Chris Carpenter throwing an almost perfect game for the Cards.
Then, in the League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, again the Cards prevailed against a team that finished six games ahead of them in the regular season.
And, finally, in the World Series, against the Texas Rangers, a team like the Brewers that had won six more games than the Cards in the regular season, with a power packed offensive line up, the Cards won the decisive sixth and seventh games. It was Game 6 that defined the Series and the Cardinals. TWO times they were down to their LAST STRIKE...when TWO runs behind. Each time a player (Lance Berkman and David Freese) came through with a run scoring hit.
These players just never gave up. They were truly inspiring to watch. The players and the team were models of individual perseverance, positive teamwork, and just plain fun. If you followed the team over the two months you were treated to a daily dose of each of these traits; traits essential to the success of any individual or organization.
I had a recurring thought watching these Cardinal Boys of Summer, if every faculty could manifest these behaviors, what success they would find!!!
I know, a school is not a sports team. However, a school is an organization, a team gathered around a common pursuit: to educate children. A school isn’t in an organized competition to beat other schools. However, a school can be a place which strives to manifest excellence. The faculty and students are not highly paid athletes. However, both faculty and students can work hard, encourage each other to persevere, and celebrate achievements.
And, yes, school is not a game; it is serious business with outcomes critical to our society. However, at the center of that mission is one thing parallel with the fun of baseball: the joy of learning. Every educator knows the thrill of witnessing a child’s pure delight in learning something new. And, to see that joy day in and day out, culminating in the graduation of skilled and motivated 21st C. Learners, is like a annual baseball season, culminating in a World Series. Go Educators!