For a Democratic and Participatory Education
In a time of war and indifference we wished to reaffirm the undisputable principles of the Reggio Emilia Approach in a Charter: the dignity of each person, starting with young children, and schools that remain places of dialogue and of peace which no one can bend to other ends.
We offer the Charter to those who are walking this path together with us, in Italy and in the world, as a starting point for exchange and for shared commitment.
CHARTER FOR A DEMOCRATIC AND PARTICIPATORY EDUCATION
Istituzione Scuole e Nidi d’Infanzia, Reggio Children, and Fondazione Reggio Children draw inspiration from the values and principles of the Indications for the Preschools and Infant-toddler Centres of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, in pursuit of an idea of education as the right of everyone, beginning with the youngest children. Education as “a meeting ground where freedom, democracy, and solidarity are practised and the value of peace is promoted”1.
Today, the international social and geopolitical context demands choices aimed at raising awareness of the role of education as an antidote to violence and indifference. As Loris Malaguzzi wrote: “No child can be happy if other children are suffering, whether near or far from us”.
With this in mind, and in the spirit of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, we therefore ask all partners in the International Network, study groups, schools, and individuals who, in various ways, are walking part of the journey with us, to share the pillars and core principles of the Reggio Emilia Approach® for an education that is truly democratic.
With all this in mind
As preschools and infant-toddler centres, as educators and teachers, as people working in the field of education and promoting children’s rights, we ask you to:
- Defend human rights and the dignity of the individual in Italy and throughout the world.
- Support an open, democratic, and pluralistic society, founded on solidarity and the coexistence of differences; and recognise the equality of every human being, in every era and in every part of the world.
- Oppose all forms of discrimination, oppression, and exclusion based on skin colour, geographical origin, religious affiliation, gender, sexual identity or orientation, as well as social or physical condition, in accordance with Articles 2, 7, 26, and 30 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights2, as also recognised in Article 3 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic3.
- Build a culture of peace and undertake peace-building actions through the knowledge and relational practices embodied in everyday life.
- Reject ‘war as an instrument of aggression against the freedom of other peoples and as a means of settling international disputes’, as stated in Article 11 of the Constitution of the Italian Republic4; reject all forms of armed conflict and violence; and reaffirm the principles set out in Article 28 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights5.
- Condemn all forms of genocide, understood as a crime under international law which, in times of peace as in times of war, States undertake to prevent and to punish, in accordance with Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide6.
- Firmly condemn any form of militarisation of schools, of all types and levels and in every country; schools must remain places of dialogue, promotion of peace, and coexistence.
- Educate for non-violence, overcoming the ‘enemy’ mentality, in order to build – from the classroom to the wider world – experiences of peaceful coexistence amongst people of different backgrounds, and a vision of conflict as an opportunity for engagement and dialogue.
For this reason
- We are committed to making our schools places of freedom of expression, of encounter, and of listening to differences, as well as places of peace, recognising diversity and coexistence as a treasure to be cherished.
- We are committed to dissociating ourselves from any violation of children’s rights and human rights in every occupied territory in the world.
- We are committed to promoting the principles and practices of participatory democracy in schools.
- We are committed to fostering public debates with a global perspective that promote a culture of democracy and solidarity in countries around the world, in collaboration with all those who wish to engage with the Reggio Emilia Approach in the shared search for new educational paradigms capable of interpreting the complexity of the present, moving towards a ‘nostalgia for the future’7.
Notes
1Indications for the Preschools and Infant-toddler Centres of the Municipality of Reggio Emilia
2Universal Declaration of Human Rights
3 and 4 Constitution of the Italian Republic
5 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
6 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
7From the speech given by Loris Malaguzzi on the occasion of the presentation of the Kohl International Teaching Awards, Chicago (USA), 1993