Elena is a passionate and enthusiastic student at the University of Florence, faculty of Science of Early Childhood. As LoLi-Fe-TaTo follows the Reggio Emilia Approach, an italian educational philosophy, Elena is best suited to help in setting up the curriculum in these first months of the school. We have met Elena, and asked her couple of question…

Namaste Elena! So, to kick-start tell us a bit of you….

Ciao! I’m Elena, I’m 25 and I come from a small town close to Florence, in the beautiful region of Tuscany in Italy. I’m at the fourth year of my studies at the faculty of Science of Early Childhood at the University of Florence. I’m an enthusiastic and curious person by nature, I love travelling and spending time with children!

How did you come to know about LoLi-Fe-TaTo and what pushed you to come in India?

It was through an announcement I saw in my faculty. When I read the word “India” in the offer I didn’t think twice to apply. At university unfortunately we don’t have so many opportunities to go abroad, this was a unique occasion for me. Plus, I always dreamed to visit India, a country with so much history and culture.

What was your first impression of India and Bangalore?

[laugh] India is very different from Italy and Europe in general. Traffic is crazy here in Bangalore! Smells are different, people are different, food is different. India is… warm, crowded, noisy, messy, kind, colourful, chatty, spicy, tasty…and really beautiful! Whenever I have some free time from the school I enjoy visiting the surroundings.

What is your role at LoLi-Fe-TaTo and how you intend to implement the Reggio Approach?

At LoLi-Fe-TaTo I am kind of multitask [laugh]. Primarily I am a teacher, but I’m also engaged in promotions activities for the school, as LoLi-Fe-TaTo is new and we need to make people know about it. Whenever I interact with people, I always try to raise their awareness about what is the Reggio Emilia Approach, which is still not very popular in India. As Reggio Approach is radically different from the current indian education system, we need to have a soft implementation to not shock the people. Hopefuly, we will soon manage to set up a 100% Reggio Emilia Approach curriculum.

Can the Reggio Approach add value to the indian education system?

Absolutely! Reggio Approach targets all our intelligences, while indian education system (like also in Europe) focuses only on verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical. It’s a big challenge but I’m ready to take it!

What are your plans for the future? Would you suggest any of your italian collegue to come at LoLi-Fe-TaTo for an experience similar to yours?

Now I’m totally focused on LoLi-Fe-TaTo… later we will see! Next year I will complete my studies in Italy and then time will tell! Regarding other italian colleagues… of course! Apart from the invaluable experience I’m getting here at LoLi-Fe-TaTo, India is an amazing country to discover… one life is not enough!