School choice

Classical or Reggio Emilia?

The difference between Classical and Reggio Emilia is mostly one axis: where the curriculum comes from. Classical sits firmly toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance; Reggio Emilia sits firmly toward it emerges from the children. They agree, more than most people expect, on money and distance. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Classical

A specified body of knowledge, taught in a deliberate order, on the argument that you cannot think critically about something you do not know. The trivium stages it: facts and memorisation while memory is easy, then logic, then rhetoric. Often Latin, usually history in chronological sequence, and always explicit instruction from the front.

What it asks of you

  • Comfort with memorisation and recitation, which are unfashionable and central here
  • Accepting a canon, and that choosing one is a value judgement however old it is
  • Homework, and a household that supports it
  • Checking which tradition a given school belongs to — the name covers a wide political range

Reggio Emilia

There is no curriculum set in advance. Teachers watch what a group of children is drawn to, document it obsessively, and build long projects out of it — which may run for months. The environment is treated as a third teacher, expression takes a hundred forms, and the documentation on the walls is the record of the thinking rather than display work.

What it asks of you

  • Tolerating genuine uncertainty about what your child will study this term
  • A school with the staffing to do it, since the method is expensive in adult attention
  • Reading the documentation, which is where the learning is visible and is easy to walk past
  • Accepting it is an early-years approach; few Reggio schools run past six
Side by side

Where they differ

Classical is the filled marker, Reggio Emilia the hollow one. Widest difference first.

L4Where the curriculum comes from
it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

Classical sits firmly toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance; Reggio Emilia sits firmly toward it emerges from the children.

L3Measuring it
no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

Classical sits toward graded and tested regularly; Reggio Emilia sits firmly toward no grades, no tests.

L1Who directs the day
the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

Classical sits firmly toward timetabled, and directed by adults; Reggio Emilia sits toward the child chooses what to do.

L5What a teacher is
a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

Classical sits firmly toward an authority who instructs; Reggio Emilia sits toward a guide who steps back.

E2Outdoors and the body
learning happens at a tableoutdoors and hands-on is the point

Classical sits toward learning happens at a table; Reggio Emilia sits toward outdoors and hands-on is the point.

L2When formal academics start
when the child is ready, and late is fineearly, and ambitiously

Classical sits toward early, and ambitiously; Reggio Emilia sits toward when the child is ready, and late is fine.

V3What it is for
childhood is the pointit should set up university and a career

Classical sits toward it should set up university and a career; Reggio Emilia sits toward childhood is the point.

V1A view of the world
school should stay neutralschool should teach a view of the world

Classical sits toward school should teach a view of the world; Reggio Emilia sits a little toward school should stay neutral.

E3Technology at school
kept out until latebuilt in from the start

Classical sits firmly toward kept out until late; Reggio Emilia sits between the two.

C1What the family can put inwhat your life allows
school has to run without the parentsbeing in it, daily

Classical sits between the two; Reggio Emilia sits toward being in it, daily.

E1Mixed ages
classes of the same agemixed-age groups

Classical sits toward classes of the same age; Reggio Emilia sits between the two.

V2Who else is there
a broad, mixed intake matters mosta community that shares our values matters most

Classical sits a little toward a community that shares our values matters most; Reggio Emilia sits between the two.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

  • Money and distance. Both sit a little toward we can pay, and we can travel.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing