A Conversation with Amelia Gambetti by Bonnie Neugebauer
following the international conference held in Reggio Emilia, Italy, February 25-28, 2004

It was fantastic to be in Reggio Emilia for this important international conference to celebrate the beginning of Reggio Children and the life and work of Loris Malaguzzi. So many countries were represented!

Amelia: I think the message of the program, Crossing Boundaries, was also visible in the presence of people from 54 countries around the world along with people from Italy and Reggio Emilia. These 1,400 attendees feel that we are together in a common effort within our very different contexts — we are all invested in changing things in the field of education. All of us are advocates for children.

Why do you think so many people want to learn about your work?

Every time people come to Reggio, they want to understand our approach to working with children and families within our communities. They understand that our experience cannot be replicated, but maybe they have found value within our work for what they are thinking about in their own communities.

They also have the possibility to encounter Reggio Emilia through reading our books. How we explain how we as adults, as educators, have been listening to children and to ourselves and how we build experiences and connections between the processes of learning and the processes of building knowledge impacts them, because I think all this shows the power of thinking.
This seems to be such an important way of understanding your message — the focus on the power of thinking.

Our approach to our work as educators and the way in which we become partners in our work with young children is grounded in this deep respect for thinking. The books tell the story in process and analyze projects done with the children.

What other ways is your work shared around the world?

The exhibit was and is another channel of communication and information about our experience, and it is also a tool for professional development. The exhibit and books talk about our work as educators through our work with the children and parents. We also try to give visibility to learning strategies.

Then people have and build the desire to come to Reggio Emilia, and when they go back they talk about what they see. This word of mouth has, of course, increased interest and curiosities. People read and encounter the experience and what becomes visible to them is also the aspect of giving value to our work and our life. All of these people, these educators, begin to understand that our philosophy is based on values, for example the value of giving strength to the image of a competent child, the value of participating in the life of the school, the value of listening to each other and the context where we live, the value of giving identities to our environment, the value of collaborating together and organizing our work . . . . I think that these values build a new respect for human beings, and consequently for young children.

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