Nothing Without Joy

Niente senza gioia.
This is the credo (which means, I believe, in Italian) of the preschools in Reggio Emilia, Italy. The teachers in Reggio Emilia take this very seriously: every school, every classroom, every teacher, every family, every child. Having seen this myself, it makes me very sad to realize how few teachers in this country think about their work in this way. Where has all the joy gone? How might we get it back?

I teach a course called Leadership in Early Childhood Programs. One of the assignments is to interview two teachers: one long-term and one new, and ask them what drew them to this work and what makes them stay, or makes them think they will stay. Without exception, every semester, virtually every teachers says, "The children." I think we are so bogged down in paperwork, regulations, and doubt, that we sometimes forget the reason we started doing this in the first place. Take a moment to reconnect with the joy in your work. A smile, a tiny hand in yours, a child's laughter; these are the reasons we are here. Their joy can spread to us, and ours to them.

Credo.

Debra G Murphy
www.classroomtoclassroom.com

Want to learn more about joyful environments? Read Designs for Living and Learning, by D. Curtis and M. Carter. Redleaf Press. 2003.