The Hundred Languages of Children
The Hundred Languages of Children
Have you ever heard the term “The Hundred Languages of Children”? It is one of the foundational tenets that underpin my teaching pedagogy. It is essential to any teaching practice that follows the children's lead.
The phrase “The Hundred Languages of Children” comes from a poem written by Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of the Reggio Emilia philosophy. The Hundred Languages honors all of the ways that children learn, think, and express themselves. Seeing the value in each aspect of the child’s learning, never separating the child’s brain from their body.
The Hundred Languages reminds me that I am co-learning with the children in my care and the adults I work with. It reminds me that learning happens everywhere and at all times. It reminds me that the children are the curriculum, and everything else is a tool to help me understand the child. It reminds me that what young children say is important. It reminds me to take the work I do seriously, but to also pause to enjoy moments of joy.
NO WAY. THE HUNDRED IS THERE
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 head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and 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 is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.
Loris Malaguzzi (translated by Lella Gandini)
