The Hundred Languages
Author: utbt14 Feb 2014
I am training the second child. Given a word, she needs to write one sentence with the word in it.
She was struggling. When I asked her what is wrong she explained patiently, ‘Amma, when you say ABOVE, the photo that comes to my mind has a red house with bird circling above it, children playing in front, tall trees from the backyard with branches spreading on the top floor. How do I put all this in ONE sentence?’
I felt like some one slapped me and I remembered this speech by Loris Malaguzzi, the founder of Reggio Emilia Approach.
The Hundred Languages
No way. The hundred is there.
The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred always a hundred
ways of listening
of marveling, of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and at Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.
And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.
-Loris Malaguzzi (translated by Lella Gandini)
Founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach
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3 Responses for "The Hundred Languages"
Oh, how well I know this feeling. What I wonder is how we managed to fit into the system in our time. I remember feeling frustrated but I also remember fitting in. Rahul is a complete misfit and today’s one of those days when I have no idea how to help him find his place.
Thanks for the poem.
UTBT SAYS: Don’t you think the parent-child combo also plays a big part. Our parents were very 1-dimensional about school and what one learns from school and we some how fit in. But we as parents are very oo-la-la and then it trickles down some how?!
I had almost given up on you updating this blog :)Lovely poem.
But also do you think our generation is more into this parenting thing than our parents? Was listening to Jerry Seinfeld on the Fallon show (not really the best place for parenting info ;p) but i felt he was right on this. If we didn’t worry so much about their future, do you think their creativity wouldn’t be stifled?
UTBT SAYS: Kumari, I feel somethings cannot be changed. As nice as benign neglect sounds, I don’t think it is going to naturally to our generation. We are the generation that is aware of benign neglect, think if we want to helicopter or not and consciously make that choice. Not over thinking is simply not a choice. Lovely-no?!
PS: Sorry for the delayed response. For some reason, the comment never showed up in my email noticifcations.
My fellow, on the other hand, when asked to frame a question starting with ‘Who’ writes “Who died?”
Should I start saving up for therapy for both of us now itself?
UTBT SAYS: Ha ha ha. ‘Who died?’ is just as perfect as it gets 🙂
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