Juneau’s newest preschool is the Garnet School, which uses a different structure than most. This school employs the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education.
The Reggio Emilia method strives to create a learning environment where young children enhance their constructive capabilities and learn to enhance their own thinking abilities. Garnet School proprietor Shawn Hatt Cohen describes this as coming from a social constructionism theory.
The idea is for children to learn in their own ways while expressing their own ideas and making connections with their environments. Cohen said it lets each child explore what works for them individually rather than using a cookie cutter teaching method. She described it as each child constructing their own knowledge while the teachers act as guides.
“It explores what will work best in an idea, like trying to build something and see what works,” she said.
The approach makes each school that uses it unique by a basis of who the kids and teachers are rather than a set curriculum.
It utilizes a large amount of the arts, such as drawing, watercolors, clay and music.
“Drawing is something that happens daily,” she said.
The approach started in the city of Reggio Emilia in Italy after World War II.
More information is at www.garnetschool.com or at 321-5414.
Cohen said she isn’t aware of any other preschools in Juneau that use the Reggio Emilia approach.
Cohen has many years of experience working with Juneau’s children. She was a speech pathologist for the Juneau School District and Southeast Regional Resource Center.
She earned a master’s degree in early childhood special education from the University of Alaska Anchorage and her bachelor’s from Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D., where she studied speech and language pathology
• Contact reporter Jonathan Grass at 523-2276 or at jonathan.grass@juneauempire.com.
Comments (10)
Add commentHuh. Interesting. Sounds like
Huh. Interesting. Sounds like fun, but I hope it prepares children for kindergarten. K is not what it used to be and kids need both hard and soft skills to deal with a more rigorous environment.
From Shawn: Skills that
From Shawn: Skills that children will need in the 21st century are the 3 C's--Creativity, Critical thinking and Communication. Reggio inspired schools incorporate those skills while having fun learning. After working in public schools for the last 25 years I would be remiss in not preparing children for Kindergarten and life, that is not what I am or my school is about. Give a call if you'd to visit!
How is this different?
This sounds very similar to the Montessori method. How is Reggio different?
What a great asset for
What a great asset for Juneau. The early years of life should be filled with more of these types of experiences.
Sounds like same environment as Montessori for sure..
I agree with you Juneauakgrrl....it sounds interesting but.....you are right...school isn't what it used to be....need a little more structure...
Garnet School
Great news for Juneau - another quality preschool option for our children. I am grateful we have so many dedicated preschool teachers in our small community.
Regardless, the challenge remains for us to ensure that all children have access to such programs so that they will be prepared for school. Many of the families that need these types of programs often cannot afford for their children to attend and/or are unlikely to have their children in any sort of preschool program whatsoever. It's time for Alaska to step up to the plate and fund public preschools. If people want to have an educated workforce and/or citizenry, we need to start when it makes the most impact - from birth to five years.
Alaska is one of 10 or 11 states that do not have any sort of public preschool. Not to pile onto Parnell, but he doesn't support this type of program. It's time for the Legislature to take this issue on and force the executive branch to get on board. We need quality public preschool options (charter, homeschool, etc) for Alaska kids.
@Kimber45 - what do you mean by your comment that "we need a little more structure"? Are you referring specifically to Montessori education? Something more? Just curious.
the question always is......
Nothing against this preschool - they might be a fantastic program, and in some cases, would be better than nothing. The question remains - How do you "KNOW" it's a quality program?
I had the same problem with the "waiting for superman" video - it touted charter schools where no teacher accountability or even required training is in place, same goes for religious schools, and if kids are not pre/post tested in some way, or tested to see if they know the required standards for their grade, then how do you KNOW if a school is doing their job?
It's much more difficult in pre-school, of course, but there are indicators like the PALS letter recognition test, that will tell parents, if given as pre- and post- testing, whether or not their kids are learning anything.
Bottom line for parents is: Be involved, learn what the STANDARDS are - that is, what does the teacher expect to teach my kid this semester, and how will they know if they have succeeded, what kind of testing instruments or processes (i.e. portfolios) will be used?
Do people really believe that
Do people really believe that kids should be in pre-school ...? really?
hmmm...who is confused? The Empire or the school?
I find this article confusing. "Constructivism" and "Constructionism" are not the same thing... If the Garnet preschool truly has a Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education, that would be Constructivism, not Constructionism as the article states... I would hope the educators know the difference. Papert's learning theory is inspired by Piaget's and shares the idea of experiential learning, but they are entirely different theories. If the preschool does truly understand the Reggio approach, why not clarify their philosophy clearly with the Empire reporter? What an educator believes about how a child learns permeates everything - the environment, the interactions, the experiences. That's a hefty tuition parents are paying, I hope it's worth it.
From Shawn: Thank you for the
From Shawn: Thank you for the kind wishes and support. I recognize the needs of many of Juneau's children and that those who need preschool the most are often not likely to be able to afford it. Public preschool programs would be great and I hope the legislature takes it up, I would support it. For now, I will do my best to help those that I can.
Differences between Montessori and Reggio: they are similar, I'm not a Montessori teacher and have not studied that approach extensively. The Reggio approach is an approach, it does not promote a specific curriculum or set of materials as I believe they have in Montessori.
NAEYC and AEYC-SEA have excellent information to help parents know if the preschool program they are interested in is "Good". The state of AK also has a resource for early childhood education standards.
I do believe most children should go to preschool because school IS different from when I attended and Kindergarten expectations have changed.
And...the empire misquoted me on the constructivism/constructionism issue. I do know the difference. I was contacted yesterday and interviewed over the phone. I was as clear as I could be.
After working with children for some 20 years and listening to parents, daycare providers and preschool educators complain about the lack of options for childcare/preschool, it is surprising for me to hear the negative assumptions in some of these comments.