Pwe start from the actual pedagogical methods: the historical and famous ones, like the Montessori method and the Steinerian method. But let’s also consider two other less well-known ones, such as the Reggio Emilia Approach, Italian excellence, and – the newest, in our country – the approach Happy Schools, inspired by Northern European pedagogy. We do it with Giovanna Giacominifounder of the latter, trainer (Educators Wow) and pedagogist.
Montessori, Steiner, Reggio Emilia Approach, Happy Schools: differences between the methods
Let’s first consider the Montessori and Steiner methods. Giacomini gives a summary of it, and also suggests two typical games, based on the different approaches, to offer to your children.
1. Montessori method, spontaneity and competence
Keeping in mind who founded these methods helps to have an immediate idea. Maria Montessori (1870-1952) had a degree in medicine, with specialization in psychiatry. There is a doctor behind his method. And in fact his approach was born for the child in difficulty, and was then extended to everyone.
In his method we find a child-friendly approach. Which makes use of instruments designed to develop the child’s potential in the various stages of his life.
We find a lot of attention to competencewhich is stimulated by flowing spontaneous of the child from one learning environment to another. To the point that he can acquire the ability to read and write at an early age.
The game to try? The Montessori table. It can also be built at home with a very large wooden panel to which various objects can be attached, for different activities. Padlocks, zips, buttons, wheels, switches to turn on and off.
2. Steinerian method (Waldorf school), imagination and spirituality
Founder of anthroposophy, a doctrine of theosophical derivation, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) he was a philosopheran esotericist.
So his method (to be attributed to the school Waldorfwho is the first to experience it) is much more spiritual. It refers to nature, the sacred, the imaginative. The life of the child reflects the life cycles of the cell, and thus the education process, which is in fact divided into three cycles of seven years each. From 0 to 7 yearsfrom 7 to 14 years, and from 14 to 21 years (the transition from Steiner cycles to the traditional school system may be difficult). There are no votes, but an evaluation accompanies the child on his journey.
If in Montessori we find towers, tables and treasure baskets, then tools, in Steiner the main instrument is nothingness: There are no pre-built games. The child plays with nothing in sparse environments and a lot outdoors. In an almost primordial way, he plays with his imagination and his environment. If the Montessori child is competent and has an instrument in his hand, the Steiner child is barefoot and free.
Growing up, a lot of space is given to manual work, and we’re not talking about glue and cardboard jobs. But about modeling clay and wood, knitting and crochet, horticulture and gardening.
The game to try? A piñata and a wooden spoon to play with in the middle of the earth.
3. Reggio Emilia Approach, art and relationships
Among other interesting methods Giacomini mentions the Reggio Emilia Approach, a pedagogical approach for nurseries and nursery schools, born and developed in Italy thanks to the teacher and pedagogist Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1994). In these schools attention, in addition to spontaneity and competence, focuses on child in relationship and on cooperation.
The environment is considered as the third educator, in the sense that “the space needs to to be designed And prepared for Gensure That everyone the children And The educators Yes they hear to They ease And develop The Pleasure of the Do Together”. It is a very refined and structured environment. The atelier is born, a place where all languages have the right and possibility to be welcomed and expressed. And the figure of the atelierista (teacher with artistic training) was also born.
The game to try? Transform a room into an artistic environment for a day, with sheets on the floor and maximum freedom to colour, experiment and get dirty.
4. Happy schools, risk pedagogy and Danish Hygge
The fourth approach that Giacomini invites us to know is the one she founded: Happy Schools, inspired by Danish and Northern European forest schools (the so-called Forest Schools). This is not a real method but a approach rooted in Nordic culture that was fielded before being studied. Central element is outdoor education, which means allowing the child to develop his or her autonomy in contact with a context that presents risks, such as the forest. To this one risk pedagogy is accompanied by a comfortable approach, which refers to Hygge, which we translate as the Danish “art of feeling good”. In schools, from early childhood to high school, desks and chairs are avoided for the sake of sofas, open spaces and deconstructed furnishings. An approach that works even among older students: no votes and instead the possibility of having moments of convivialitycomplete with tea, cakes and pastries.
In Italy there are 10 schools dedicated to happy schools for the 0-6 year age group, and others are on their way to becoming one (the book Happy schoolsand Erickson, recounts this experience). But the one founded by Giacomini in Italy is above all an approach that can be valid in every family and that can inspire every educator.
The game to try? A tree to climb together, parent and child.
A Forest Kindergarten in Denmark. Getty Images
How to choose a pedagogical method
In Italy there are schools, private or officially recognized, with a total focus on Montessori, Steiner, Reggio Emilia Approach and Happy Schools. Each family must evaluate based on their child’s inclinations but also based on their own orientation in life. With some caveats. On the one hand, the possibility that the distance between the “world” inside the school and the outside world creates disorientation in the child or young person when, alas, he or she must or will have to leave the former for the latter. On the other, the possibility of adopting some elements of the various methods, i.e. “the best”, based on one’s own sensitivity. This is what most Italian nursery and nursery school educators do: they put into practice what they have studied without entering a “specific” school. But the invitation to trainto read and be interested, It is also aimed at parents.
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