How do you put into words something that transcends your whole body, it affects your senses and your mind is overwhelmed.
It’s been a year and half since I first discovered these words: the Reggio Emilia approach, and since then, all I’ve heard is: you have to be there, to really grasp it. And so, since December 2017, I’ve been dreaming about my Mecca, 
my promised land – Reggio Emilia.
And guess what: for the past 4 days, I am walking on the streets of Reggio Emilia, breathing the air of Reggio Emilia and talking to teachers and pedagogistas and atelieristas from Reggio Emilia.
Are you jealous yet? You should be!! It is all they have promised and much more!!!
We started the week with a beautiful havdala ceremony because we had to wake up all our senses – our eyes, our brains, our ears and our hearts to this experience.
I could talk to you about the 100 languages of the child – and how it all started, how people saw a need to educate kids for a reality that had to be totally emersed in the educational process, or I could talk to you about a city that values education and displays the works of the children, I could go on and on about confident and creative and independent children that create magic with their hands, working in groups, helping each other and going deeper than I ever gave them credit for, but at the end of the day I think I have to look at this experience through my Jewish lances and tell you: HINENI!
It is our responsibility to change first, to be the best we can be, and be there for the child – because when we are REALLY there, the child never forgets. We really and truly have to be there for the child, learn to listen to children in order to understand them, to see how they think and what they are saying, how they look at the world and how they interpret it, what are their dreams and struggles.
We have to be true to our beliefs and commit to providing our kids with the best we can be, and then we will give them the best education – and it is possible, I am looking at it, and I am seeing the results and it is the right of our kids to get it! ~ Dalia Golda, Early Childhood Director, Gradinita Gan Eden, Bucharest, Romania
