-~- THE HUNDRED LANGUAGES -~-

The child is made of one hundred

The child has a hundred languages

a hundred hands

a hundred thoughts

a hundred ways of thinkin, 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 seperate the head from the body

They tell the child to think without hands

to do without head to listen

and not speak to understand

without joy to love

and marvel only at Easter and Christmas

They tell the child to discover the world already there

and of the hundred they steal ninety-nive

They tell the child that work and play, reality and imagination,sky and earth

reason and dreams 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