Imagining Better Images

The early childhood educators in Reggio Emilia have a concept they call the Image of the Child. When I first returned from visiting their schools, I was very surprised by how many teachers and students said, "That's fine for Italy, but we could never do that here. Our children could never do that. Our parents would never do that. We could never do that." When I thought about this, I ended up calling it, the 'Power of No'. I am convinced that as long as we believe that our children, our families, our teachers could never create the experience of exceptional quality preschools, that we will find it very difficult, if not impossible, to do it. I believe that it starts with the image: the image of the child, the image of families, the image of ourselves as teachers. In my Leadership course, we explore the idea of reinforcing loops, as defined by Peter Senge. We start with a negative image (or mental model as Senge calls it), then extrapolate how this impacts our expectations, which in turn impacts our behaviors, resulting in children, families, and teachers living up (or down) to our negative images. Next, we re-write the negative images into positive, and create another reinforcing loop, but this time with positive outcomes. This is a powerful exercise that helps students and teachers reconsider their Images. Students often ask me if they can take the positive loops back to their centers for the rest of the staff to see. In my next entry, I will include some sample loops. Consider creating these loops with your colleagues. Try to imagine better images.

Debra Murphy

If you want to learn more about reinforcing loops and mental models, read Schools That Learn, by Peter Senge, et al. Doubleday. 2000.