All of this is a great forest. Inside the forest is the child. The forest is beautiful, fascinating, green, and full of hopes; there are no paths. Although it isn`t easy, we have to make our own paths, as teachers and children and families, in the forest. Sometimes we find ourselves together within the forest, sometimes we may get lost from each other, sometimes we’ll greet each other from far away across the forest; but its living together in this forest that is important. And this living together is not easy.

Loris Malaguzzi (1994)

Early learning professionals, in their pursuit of the new—the innovative—too often overlook the traditions that inform the sector’s approach to pedagogy. We all stand on the shoulders of giants. Spodek & Saracho (2003) remind us that only by building and understanding the past, can we come to understand the practices of the present and seek better…