Pasta and Preschool

Gina Telaroli November 30, 2007 | 4:15 pm EST

Often education headlines deal with high school kids and college students and how to better education for them and improve their test scores, but some feel we need to start paying attention much earlier. On the Upper East Side of New York City, many teachers (mostly of preschool students) are spending time at a conference on a new teaching philosophy from Italy meant for 4 to 5 year olds. The method called Reggio Emilia, focuses on projects that are devised by the kids themselves and are more long term in how they created.To learn more about the ideas behind Regglio Emilia, visit the NAREA site (North American Regglio Emilia Alliance) : http://www.reggioalliance.org/Learning from other countries instead of just comparing our test scores with theirs seems like a pretty awesome idea to me. On the short list of docs up for Oscar contention is a film called Please Vote for Me, that documented at what happened when a school in China looked elsewhere for education ideas and taught kids about Democracy through an election for class monitor. Watch below for an intro to the film and a trailer…