GGGG Ep 8 – The Reggio Emilia Approach with Cristian Fabbi
Today we bring together Prof Dr Ger Graus OBE and Cristian Fabbi, Director of the Fondazione Reggio Children, for a deeply human and intellectually rich conversation about the future of early years education.
Ger and Cristian share personal stories and the work of their friend and colleague Carla Rinaldi — one of the world’s most influential educational thinkers. They explore what it truly means to place children at the heart of learning. From the rubble of post-war Italy to classrooms in Soweto, Nairobi, and Napoli, the Reggio Emilia approach has quietly transformed how educators around the world understand childhood, creativity, community, and the very purpose of school.
This is a conversation full of warmth, courage, and genuine hope — a reminder that when we believe in children’s potential, extraordinary things happen.
Key Takeaways
1. Start at the very beginning — literally
The Reggio Emilia approach insists that quality education must begin from birth, not age 3, 5, or 7. Neuroscience has since confirmed what Carla Rinaldi and Loris Malaguzzi argued decades ago: the 0–3 years are the most critical window for brain development and should be treated as education, not just childcare.
2. Children have 100 languages
Every child is born with the capacity to express themselves through music, movement, clay, drawing, storytelling, and more. The role of early education is to keep all of these “languages” alive, rather than narrowing children down to reading, writing, and arithmetic alone.
3. The environment is the third teacher
Alongside the child and the educator, the physical environment plays a crucial pedagogical role. Spaces should be intentionally designed to provoke curiosity, creativity, and collaboration — a principle as relevant to theme parks and museums as it is to nurseries.
4. Document processes, not just products
One of Reggio Emilia’s most powerful innovations is pedagogical documentation — capturing the how of children’s learning through observation, photographs, and reflection. This shifts the focus from testing what children remember to understanding how they think, discover, and grow.
5. Children are citizens from birth
Carla Rinaldi’s conviction was clear: children are not future citizens — they are citizens now, with rights and responsibilities from the moment they are born.
6. Quality education is an antidote to social harm
The Fondazione Reggio Children works in communities facing criminality, poverty, and conflict — from Naples to Palermo to Soweto.
7. We must shift from “I” to “We”
A powerful reflection from Cristian: modern education has rightly championed individual development, but we’ve lost something vital at the community level. The next step is helping children develop their life projects together with others — rebuilding the communal bonds that hold society together.
8. Invest in foundations, not just outcomes
Ger offers a striking metaphor: we build houses by investing heavily in their foundations. Yet in education, the earliest years — the true foundation — receive the least funding and attention.
9. Research should be participatory and generous
The Fondazione’s PhD programme is deliberately multidisciplinary — bringing together architects, biologists, poets, and musicians — with the goal of generating processes other educators can actually use, not just papers that gather dust on library shelves.
10. The Reggio Emilia approach is a philosophy, not a formula
It cannot simply be copied. A school inspired by Reggio Emilia in Indonesia will look entirely different from one in Nairobi — and that’s by design. The approach adapts to local context, culture, and community, making it genuinely universal without being prescriptive.
Chapters:
- 00:06 – Exploring New Themes in Education
- 01:09 – Introduction to the Reggio Emilia Approach
- 16:18 – The Legacy of Carla: A Reflection on Education and Humanity
- 19:02 – Introduction to the Reggio Emilia Approach
- 30:03 – The Importance of Community in Education
- 34:58 – The Importance of Documentation in Education
- 44:17 – Exploring the Role of Play in Education
- 55:28 – Investing in Quality Education
- 57:41 – Community Perspectives on Education and Citizenship
https://www.frchildren.org/en
https://www.reggiochildren.it/reggio-emilia-approach/
https://www.gergraus.com
Get the book – Through a Different Lens: Lessons from a Life in Education
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Their Primary First Journal: https://www.educationonfire.com/nape
Summer Camps USA: What Kids Learn at Camp That Schools Can’t Teach
Today I’m delighted to chat with Matthew Kaufman from I Love Camp. He has spent more than three decades creating environments where children and staff thrive and he has done this as a camper, counselor, and now summer camp director.
People learn, grow, and connect best in community settings where problem-solving, creativity, and play come first.
Most workplaces, schools, and families stumble into community by accident, but camp builds it on purpose. It’s a practice that can be learned and applied anywhere.
Using these insights Matt has written a book called The Campfire Effect which explores the neuroscience behind what makes camp work. It examines five neurochemicals that drive human connection and shows how camp naturally creates the conditions for each one to flourish. Then it offers practical frameworks for applying these lessons to workplaces, classrooms, and homes.
This isn’t a book about summer camp. It’s a book about belonging, using camp as the lens.
5 Key Takeaways:
- Camp is school for relationships — The activities matter less than who you’re doing them with. The real curriculum is learning how to be a good friend, teammate, and citizen.
- Stress + Support = Growth — Matt’s core framework. Remove all struggle and kids become fragile; struggle without support leads to bullying. The sweet spot is challenge within a safe, supported environment.
- Camp levels the playing field — Unlike school, which has few “paths to dignity,” camp offers dozens of ways to shine — chess, drama, sportsmanship, leadership — helping the invisible or left-out child find their place.
- The skills camp teaches are exactly what AI can’t replace — Problem solving, interpersonal communication, genuine relationship-building — camp has been teaching these for decades, and they’re now the most valuable skills in an AI world.
- Oxytocin is the secret ingredient — The Campfire Effect (Matt’s book) explains the neuroscience: when kids feel emotionally and physically safe, oxytocin flows, trust builds, and real growth becomes possible. This isn’t magic — it’s science.
Chapters:
- 00:00 – The Importance of Relationships at Camp
- 04:16 – Understanding the Role of Camp in Child Development
- 13:06 – The Importance of Camp in Personal Development
- 20:29 – The Campfire Effect: Understanding the Transformative Power of Camp
- 25:22 – Understanding Camp Experiences
- 28:42 – The Impact of Technology on Youth Development
- 34:25 – The Impact of Social Media on Youth
https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewjkaufman
https://www.instagram.com/mattlovescamp
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Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)
Their Primary First Journal: https://www.educationonfire.com/nape
From Instinct to Action: How Pulse Is Closing the Gap in Student Support
Joe Reed, founder of Pulse, discusses how his student support platform is transforming the way schools identify and respond to struggling students. Rather than relying solely on traditional metrics like grades and attendance, Pulse brings together teachers, parents, counsellors, and therapists around a shared, real-time picture of each student’s wellbeing. Joe shares the story behind the platform — rooted in over 15 years of community resilience work across South Africa and the United States — and explains how Pulse is designed to reduce teacher burden while delivering faster, more targeted support to the students who need it most.
Five Takeaways
- Late data leads to late intervention. Grades and attendance are important, but they’re lagging indicators. By the time they dip, a student may already be in crisis. Pulse aims to surface earlier, softer signals before problems escalate.
- Every student gets an individualised plan. Rather than one-size-fits-all reporting, Pulse builds a personalised plan for each student, with specific goals tracked by everyone involved in that child’s support network.
- Voice reporting is a game-changer for teachers. Instead of filling out forms after a long school day, teachers can speak into their phone for 30 seconds — capturing richer context in a fraction of the time. This makes compliance feel less like a burden and more like a natural part of the day.
- Pulse connects with existing school systems. Rather than asking schools to start from scratch, Pulse is designed to integrate alongside the tools already in use — lowering the barrier to adoption and making the transition as smooth as possible.
- The “why” runs deeper than edtech. Joe’s motivation stems from over 15 years of community resilience work, first in South Africa and then across the US. Pulse wasn’t built to sell software — it was built to restore communities by empowering the frontline educators and support staff within them.
Chapters:
- 00:00 – A New Approach to Teaching
- 06:00 – Challenges in Educational Reporting and Support
- 08:51 – Integrating Technology in Education
- 18:32 – Introduction to the Learning Management System
- 22:32 – The Intersection of Education and Community Development
- 28:55 – Empowerment in Education
https://www.linkedin.com/company/pulseconnectus/
🔥 Discover more about Education on Fire, get a FREE pdf of 10 guest resources.
https://www.educationonfire.com
🔥 Support the show – Buy me a coffee, Merch and Sponsorship Opportunities
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Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)
Their Primary First Journal: https://www.educationonfire.com/nape
Climate Solutions Are the Future of Business — and Young People Can Be Part of It
Josh Dorfman is a climate entrepreneur, author, and media personality. He is the CEO and host of Supercool, a media company covering real-world climate solutions that cut carbon, increase profits, and enhance modern life. Josh was previously the co-founder and CEO of Plantd, a carbon-negative building materials manufacturer, which was named to Fast Company’s list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies in 2024. He has founded two modern design sustainable furniture companies, directed Vine.com, an Amazon e-commerce business specializing in natural and organic products, and served as the CEO of The Collider, the nation’s first innovation center for climate resilience and adaptation. Additionally, Josh was previously known as The Lazy Environmentalist, a media brand he developed into an award-winning television series on Sundance Channel, a daily radio show on SiriusXM, and two popular books.
His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, TechCrunch, Fast Company, and Reuters. Josh has also made regular appearances on national television and radio programs, including Morning Joe, Fox & Friends, and NPR’s All Things Considered, and is the only guest to ever ride a bike onto The Martha Stewart Show.
Josh holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
5 takeaways:
- Clean energy is bigger than AI. Global clean energy investment hit $2.3 trillion in 2025 — dwarfing AI spending — yet it barely makes the headlines.
- Talk solutions, not just problems. Research consistently shows that solution-focused storytelling is what gets people to genuinely care about climate.
- Systems beat individual action. The biggest impact comes from businesses embedding sustainability into infrastructure — making the right choice the default, not an effort.
- Any skill set has a place in the climate economy. Finance, law, marketing, design — the clean energy transition needs all of it. It’s becoming the economy, full stop.
- Build resilience, not just inspiration. Young people need the tools to hold both problems and solutions in mind — and find real agency through their careers, not just their recycling bin.
Chapters:
- 00:00 – The Front Lines of Sustainability
- 00:49 – The Journey into Climate Awareness
- 13:48 – The Shift Towards Sustainable Business Practices
- 25:51 – The Rise of Climate Innovation
- 34:21 – The Importance of Empowerment in Education
https://getsuper.cool/
Newsletter | https://supercool.beehiiv.com/subscribe
YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@getsupercool
Climate Adoption Playbook | https://getsuper.cool/playbook/
LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/company/getsupercool
https://www.educationonfire.com
🔥 Support the show – Buy me a coffee, Merch and Sponsorship Opportunities
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Show Sponsor – National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)
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Primary Schools — Events & Resources for Educators
As we transition into the Easter break here in the UK, I will take the next couple weeks off to spend time with my family.
But today I share the events and products produced by National Association of Primary Education. These include:
- Reading Conference with University of Bedfordshire
- Maintaining Curiosity in the Curriculum – Christian Schiller Lecture – London
- Primary First Journal
- Book release of ‘John Coe – an Enlightened Voice for Primary Education’
Links to more information below.
Chapters:
- 00:01 – Introduction to Education On Fire Podcast
- 00:55 – Upcoming Educational Events
- 01:51 – Upcoming Events and Lectures
- 02:49 – Introduction to New Resources
- 04:23 – Reflecting on the Past and Looking Forward
- 04:51 – The Essence of Education
🔥 Discover more about Education on Fire — grab your FREE pdf of 10 guest resources:
👉 https://www.educationonfire.com
☕ Support the show — Buy Me a Coffee, Merch & Sponsorship:
👉 https://www.educationonfire.com/support
Show Sponsor — National Association for Primary Education (NAPE)
📖 Primary First Journal: https://www.educationonfire.com/nape
🎤 2026 Conference Keynote: Reading for Pleasure — Dr Roger McDonald Workshops: Writing, TESOL, Oracy, Drama & Storytelling, Poetry
👉 https://educationonfire.com/reading
📚 Maintaining Curiosity in the Curriculum – Christian Schiller Lecture with Claire Moloney-Banks