The Exhibition Was Only the Start
Spurred by the founder’s experience encountering The Hundred Languages of Children Exhibition in 1991, a group of Georgia educators began meeting informally to study, understand, and share perspectives on the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. Reggio was new to the U.S., and it was exciting to discover an approach in stark contrast to prevalent boxed curriculum approaches. Our group decided Reggio’s promise needed to be explored, so in addition to speaking at conferences and sharing their perspectives with individual educators, they endeavored in 1999 to host The Hundred Languages of Children exhibition – an experiential look at Reggio Emilia’s philosophy and experiences.
It was immediately apparent that there was a hunger for something different, meaningful and inspired within the early childhood education community.
As a result, we incorporated as Inspired Practices in Early Education, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to using the learnings uncovered via Reggio Emilia’s exploratory, child-valued approach and ensure those insights speak louder and reach more persons.
We believe:
- In children as fully complete and complex from birth, with an inherent eagerness and competence to both learn and teach
- In teachers as intelligent professionals and advocates of honestly good education
- In families as interested trustees of their children and their rights
- In schools as ever-evolving contexts that aim to provoke and support human learning
- In communities as able to competently determine actions that offer all citizens high quality of life.
