Article Link: http://stage.exchangepress.com/article/giving-value-to-the-rights-of-children-questions-for-consideration-by-a-school-community/5018753/
Boulder Journey School is a school for young children, ages six weeks to six years, and their families. Since 1995, as a school community, we have been engaged in a study of the world-renowned schools for young children in Reggio Emilia, Italy. As a result of our study and collaboration with educators in Reggio Emilia and with educators around the world who are inspired and encouraged by the schools in Reggio Emilia, many aspects of our life at Boulder Journey School have evolved, including our recognition of children as citizens �" not future citizens but rather citizens of the present �" with inherent and irrefutable rights, which include the right to participation in communities that afford them visibility and voice.Loris Malaguzzi, architect of the Reggio Emilia experience wrote:
“Children have the right to be recognized as subjects of individual, legal, civil, and social rights; as both source and constructors of their own experience, and thus active participants in the organization of their identities, abilities, and autonomy, through relationships and interaction with their peers, with adults, with ideas, with objects, and with the real and imaginary events of intercommunicating worlds” (Malaguzzi, 1995, p. 67).
At Boulder Journey School, we maintain that ...