A quiet place.

You can recognize a place by the air.
--Matteo, age 5.


"Nothing without joy" is the educational philosophy of Loris Malaguzzi, who co-created the innovative Reggio Emilia schools in Italy. On the advice of friend Laurie, a developmental pschologist, I went to see an exhibit on this style of artful, playful experience for children--a curriculum built around children, their questions, their observations, their sensual interactions with objects, environments, and each other. The exhibit includes videos. In one, children choreograph and perform dances that develop from their experience of a room with columns. In another, professional dancers and children move together inventively. No photography allowed. Why, I wonder?

It was pouring rain when I went to the museum, but the rain let up a bit as I was leaving, and I went to the nearby Vietnam Memorial Garden. It's built in a spiral, for people to walk quietly past the names of soldiers lost in that horrible war that destroyed so many of the Vietnamese and Americans of my generation. As I walked the spiral, I thought about Matteo's observation that you can recognize a place by the air. There is something distinctive about the air in this garden, where in all weathers I see people walking the spiral, remembering. I think if I were blindfolded, I would know I was in this garden by the quiet air. And will there be new memorial gardens for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars?

More on Reggio Emilia here and wiki here .