This project was born from the need to reconstruct and keep track of an experience that has a very precise "where" and "when".
Questo progetto vuole raccontare una storia che non ha eroi o protagonisti, ma è un bel racconto di come una sensibilità collettiva, nata e cresciuta da esperienze come quella della Resistenza e della lotta per i diritti civili, hanno potuto trasformare, nel tempo, un pensiero, un principio – il valore dell’educazione dell’infanzia – in qualcosa di reale, tangibile e democratico.
This project aims to remind, by providing a positive example, that a right is never acquired forever, and that everyone's responsibility and active participation is needed to preserve it and make it grow. This project would also like to make us reflect on how much the contribution of each of us can change things.
The Reggio Emilia area is known throughout the world for its early childhood educational approach. Every year, from all over Europe and the world, many teachers come to visit the nurseries and nursery schools in the Reggio area to deepen their pedagogy.
The history of this experience, still an excellence today, is not well known. The origin of public, inclusive and democratic early childhood education services, and of the educational quality that distinguishes them, is in female participation in the anti-fascist and anti-Nazi partisan movement, and in the subsequent female organization and democratic participation in social and political life that World War II followed. The participatory movement, which involved a very large female representation in the post-war period, made it possible to guide political choices and contribute, from the bottom, to the establishment of an early childhood education system which is still an excellence in the world. The values of the Resistance, of the female role in society, of active and democratic participation in politics to guide choices and rights, are a cornerstone of history as well as educational values for children.
Remembering this history is a fundamental step to transmit its values and the awareness that active citizenship can guide politics, promote rights, equality, inclusion and democratic growth.