In our country the situation of nursery schools is dramatically late compared to the European average, yet it is a fundamental stage for the development of the child
It does not seem possible, yet this has happened in the last two years. Italian nursery schools instead of increasing as a number and frequency, finally bringing us alongside the other European countries that have always invested in the sector, have decreased and many have even had to close their doors, to the point that in the legendary Emilia Romagna the decreases were 17% and have created absolutely unpublished situations.
An educational disaster
Until a few years ago, in fact, Italian nursery schools were so few that waiting lists prevailed, so the parent hoped that his son could enter it, rightly seeing a necessary landing for his growth and future in this educational institution and also to guarantee the possibility of continuing to work. The economic crisis swept away this picture by offering us a further cross -section of an educational disaster that does pendant with the economic crisis.
The same fact that Italy is unable to come out like other European countries – England, Germany and Austria – from the recession appears strongly connected with the abandonment of quality school policies and primarily of policies in support of children’s frequency in childhood nests.
To date, according to Istat data, the Italian children who attend nursery schools or similar services are only 13.6% of the population, far from that 33% placed as an objective by the Lisbon agenda for the whole European area. Longitudinal research carried out in various parts of the world, but also in Europe, on the development potential that the nest represents on children in life leave no doubts about it. Children who frequent quality nests have more possibilities to establish themselves in life both from the point of view of cultural and therefore school learning and from the point of view of individual success.
The need for new government policies
Unfortunately, the crisis has cleared a self-level and counterproductive resentment against these important structures: in recent years several economists have unwittingly supported the economic value of entrusting children to grandparents and grandmothers rather than the educational institutions of the very first childhood.
Without a doubt the Italian nests are too expensive and a government policy is urgent that supports families in this economic effort, well beyond the negligible figure that can be deducted from the tax return today. However, it must be said that an economic orientation has very inclined to evaluate the investments as a whole, with the hope that by saving everything and all in the end there was a positive result. Parents who care about their children can if anything to evaluate the quality of the nest, but it is senseless to have doubts about the advantages of the latter compared to more domestic solutions, such as that of entrusting children to grandparents.
On various occasions I found myself having to manage in pedagogical advice situations where grandparents could not help but keep the presence of the grandchildren simply in front of some TVs or some videohops. Thus are forgiven those that are important childhood needs: the coetaneous coetaneous and the need for discovery through the sensory laboratory. But let’s see in detail the advantages of the nest.
The development of sensory
Until the third year of life, the child substantially learns through sensory development. They are very simple but very important experiences: touching, hearing sounds, looking, moving, discovering, putting in the mouth, all experiences that in a nest can be made with maximum freedom.
We think of one of the simplest but also more creative activities of Montessorian tradition, that of the Travasi. The child finds a container full of rather large pasta in size – for example the classic Italian penne -, must take it and trouble it in a series of smaller containers: making this simple gesture will have to experiment and control the passage of one material from one container to another.
What happens in this experience? First of all, the child observes this mass of pennette inside the transparent container, then with his hands he takes it and touches it and transports it to other smaller containers. In doing so, he also hears the sound of the pennettes who, when they are shocking, produce a sound that immediately acts on the auditory perception of the baby. In the end many children bring the pennette itself to the mouth without breaking or swallowing it but simply to feel its hardness, its size and in a certain sense also a certain flavor. After the operation, the child reports the pennette transported to the jar inside the biggest pot with an exceptionally musical noise that activates in him the feeling of having done something important, of dominating the matter rather than being dominated. In a laboratory activity of this type, which can generally last from 5 to 20 minutes, the human puppy puts together a whole series of individual skills that are the basis of increasingly developed capacity.
In the nursery all this is possible because it is equipped in this logicas can be to color a sheet, to paint with your feet, to play with boats in the water, to grow flowers, to prepare something in the kitchen. They are sensory activities that represent the premise of any form of learning, as well as being able to run, dance, jump in a protected and safe living room, where even falling does not represent a danger, where there are no home furniture. They are unique opportunities, all the more in the summer, when you can stay in an outdoor space where there are games based on childhood motor need, very important in an age in which movement is actually one of the most important experiences ever.
In the interaction with the other girls and boys, the baby also begins recognition with himself, the escape from the necessary phase of narcissism and omnipotence and begins to learn the forms of social self -regulation. It is not for nothing that it is precisely at the nest, between 18 and 36 months, that the child has greater ability to independently manage contrasts with his peers. From this point of view, one of the most explicit advantages is precisely the strengthening of linguistic skills, as the need to communicate with their peers allows children to get out of those excessively protective adult forms of adult communication, which prevent them from activating everything they have learned and which it is instead essential to use to communicate effectively and play with other children.
Many parents are concerned about the so -called bullies, who are also there: but it should not be forgotten that the nest bummaker is an almost inevitable presence. Quality educators know how to manage it by putting clear prohibitions but also tolerating those situations that are not dangerous (as someone thinks) but are simply a need for interaction that has only beneficial consequences. The children who have been able to attend nests of good pedagogical quality will be grateful when, as adults, they will face life to the best of their resources.
