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with further questions that will reveal thought process. I have been asked a number of
times, “When would it be the time to present the right answer”? When I have explained
that it is necessary to let go of the need to find the right answer, teachers and student
teachers seem resistant to the view of a teacher who does not have all the right answers.
Children as theory-builders.
During her presentation in Toronto, when Amelia Gambetti related the “story of
the fax,” artfully illustrated in the panels of the exhibit and described in “Making
Learning Visible” by Piazza and Barchi (2001), I finally understood the importance of
letting go of finding the right answer. To be able to communicate over the long distance
between the Model Early Learning Centre of Washington, D.C. and the Villetta School of
Reggio Emilia had intrigued both the American and Italian children. “After numerous
messages, gifts, cassettes, and videos had been sent back and forth,” there was the
realization by the children that “the ten days of waiting time for a reply to a message” to
be received in Italy produced a “weakening of the communication expectations” (Piazza
& Barchi, 2001, p. 214). And so the children at the Villetta School began to speculate and
create hypotheses on the rapid communication abilities of a facsimile machine. From
individual theories to a group theory, to a creatively illustrated pipe that brings the
message from Reggio Emilia to the depths of the ocean and across Ireland, to arrive
rapidly in Washington, D.C., is so detailed in the representation that the value of letting
go of the right answer is reinforced.
During the conference in Toronto, when someone in the audience asked Amelia
Gambetti and Lella Gandini, “When do you present the right answer?” Lella responded
and called attention to the project about the fax machine. When would it be