"To Think without hands..."

As a forward-thinking, childcare advocate, I often find myself re-visiting The Hundred Languages of Children poem by our Late Reggio-rockstar/mentor, Loris Malaguzzi.
 "The Hundred Languages of Children" warns that "they steal ninety-nine" by separating the head from the body and science from imagination.

Malaguzzi argues that children are born with "a hundred" ways of thinking, expressing, and understanding the world. The warning that "they steal ninety-nine" refers to how conventional education and culture systematically strip away these diverse "languages" by enforcing a narrow, standardized way of learning.

*The "Perpetrators". The poem identifies "the school and the culture" as the entities that restrict a child's discovery and expression.

*The Loss of Potential: By prioritizing only a few forms of communication, typically verbal and logical, society silences others like dance, sculpture, painting, and play.

Key Philosophical Separations

The poem highlights several ways traditional systems fragment a child's holistic experience in the world:

*Head from the body: Traditional schooling often tells children to "think without hands" and "do without head, seperating physical action from intellectual inquiry.

*Science from Imagination: Malaguzzi critiques the idea that "science and imagination" or "reason and dream" are separate things. In the Reggio approach, these are viewed as deeply interconnected; a child is a "researcher" who uses both logic and fantasy to construct knowledge.

*Work from Play: The poem warns against the cultural insistence that work and play are separate, asserting instead that for a child, they are one and the same.

Supporting Evidence and Impact

*Multiple Intelligences: Modern research, including Howard Gardner's theory of multiple Intelligences, supports Malaguzzi's view that children possess diverse cognitive and expressive strengths.

 *The Whole Child: The philosophy emphasizes seeing the "whole Child" as strong, capable, and full of potential, rather than an "empty vessel" to be filled with information. 

*Pedagogical Documentation: To protect these "hundred languages, reggio educators use documentation, photos, transcripts, dirty notes, and artifacts -to make children's diverse processes visible and valued. By recording this information, the children are "leaving their mark" for future projects, connections, communication, and generational knowledge.

In a nature-based childcare centre like ours, the "100 Languages of children" philosophy transforms the outdoors from a simple playground into a vast, living laboratory for expression and inquiry.
By removing the 4-walls of a traditional classroom, educators allow children to use the natural world as a primary tool for communication and theory-building.

1. The Environment as the "Third Teacher."

In the forest, nature is not just a backdrop but an active participant in the learning process.

* Provocations: A simple "nurse-log" hosting ants and wood bugs or a slippery, shining path that follows a slug serves as a provocation that sparks immediate curiosity and leads to deep, child-led investigations. Our educators thoughtfully curate beautiful provocations indoors and outdoors to invite each child to explore with all 5 of their senses. Natural materials, loose parts, and beautiful treasures are used throughout the process, inviting communication, wonder, and curiosity.

*Dynamic Context: Unlike static indoor toys, the forest changes with the weather and seasons, providing a constantly evolving "curriculum" that responds to the child's daily observations.

2. Nature as a Symbolic Language

Children translate their outdoor experiences into various "languages" to process complex ideas:

*The Language of Biology: Exploring plant life cycles or the "circle of life" in a pinecone or a cedar branch.

*The Language of Physics: Testing gravity and speed by rolling logs down a hill.

*The Language of Art: using loose parts such as sticks, stones, mud, acorns, pinecones, arbutus branches, and moss to create ephemeral sculptures or temporary "homes" for forest creatures.

*The Language of Mathematics: Sorting and classifying natural objects by size, texture, or quantity (e.g., "Small stones" vs "large stones")

3. Fostering Empathy and Connection

The forest setting encourages "empathetic relating" to the natural world. For example, children may develop a sense of stewardship by carefully clearing snails from the path to prevent them from being stepped on, or by safely removing worms from the pavement and placing them on the grass. This demonstrates a "language" of care and reciprocity.

4. Documentation in the Wild

Educators in forest settings act as "researchers" and "translators."

*Visible Learning: They capture photos, record dialogue (Ex, "I wonder why....")
and keep physical Learning journals and documentation to make the child's invisible thinking processes visible to parents and the community.

*Revisiting ideas: By documenting a child's theory about why a puddle forms, the educator can later offer certain materials such as funnels, buckets, and water to help the child "test" and refine their theories.

Looking towards the future of childcare in BC, I have so many thoughts and questions around a promising  "Universal Educational System".
Will the Hundred languages of children be honoured through a "One-size-fits-all model?"

I guess we will have to wait and see....

Thank you for reading.
​With gratitude,

Lexie

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