It is our belief at TNS that the world of childhood should not be confined to specialist literature
and subject blocks, but should offer itself as an opportunity to the families who have come
together to create The New School community and all those who wish to be a part, with all the
necessary sensibilities and the desire to act upon their desires.
“Learning without boundaries” communicate and share our aims, ideas, theories and
experiences of our practices of inclusive and research-based learning that engages the students
in constructive hands-on activities, encourages dialogue; experimentation, observation and the
sharing of the culture of integrated learning while making connections with -n subject groups,
disciplines and with people.
Taking inspiration from the Reggio Approach, we at TNS are the pioneers in documenting
childhood learning experiences by valuing their thinking processes, ideas, theories and
hypotheses. These documented learning experiences or ‘Learning stories’ not only interpret the
students’ formation of ideas and their path to constructing their knowledge, but also values the
teachers’ work.
‘Hundred Languages of Children’ a poem written by Loris Malaguzzi, is a metaphor recognizing
the facts that human beings can express themselves through many languages; that every
language has the right to be fully developed. All expressive, cognitive, communicative
languages originate and develop through experience; every child is a constructor and co-
constructor of these languages and their cultural variations; the co-existing languages in a
person or a child extend in all directions to form actions, logics and creative potentials; all
languages including verbal, non-verbal, expressive, symbolic hold equal value and how we as a
culture and society, support in nurturing.
‘We call our first exhibition “The eye, if it leaps over the wall”… the wall of habit, of practice, of
the normal, of non surprise, of ostentatious confidence, of the end, of finishing… if not, it seems
to me that we kill pedagogy, literature, art, relations between children, between children and
adults. The central issue we have to get over is the image of childhood. The exhibition puts
forward fundamental ideas on which our experience attempts to act. So it is a document, a
declaration of project; it is a junction of philosophical, ethical and political propositions… It is an
exhibition that should testify to the pleasure and the fatigue of learning, the joy of discovery, of
formulating hypotheses and theories; it should testify to the struggle against boredom…’
Loris Malaguzzi
This 100 languages event is not an exhibition of works, but an opportunity to spread the idea
and importance of the many different ways in which a child or an adult can learn,
communicate, think, reach out and tell their story using verbal and non-verbal languages.
Through this event, we aim to narrate the story/ies of children, teachers and their learning at
TNS Beaconhouse reconfirming the values and our inspiration from the Reggio Approach.
These stories in the form of documentation, printed material and short videos open windows
into our classrooms and our Visual and Performing Arts ateliers; representing our practices as
Reggio inspired, a PBL and IB World school.
In conjunction with this pedagogical experience the participatory activities and performances
by Pakistan’s well know artists Rafi Peer, Nighat Chawdry and Quadrum provides an
opportunity to witness, experience, understand and realize a few of the non verbal languages
that are a part of the 100 and how they can play a major role in developing the sensibilities that
constitute a whole child.
