The Reggio Emilia Approach comes from the municipality of Reggio Emilia in Italy. In 1913, the municipality opened a preschool that would "provide physical and moral education for children, and preschool instruction." In 1938, Mussolini's Fascist Regime closed this preschool, declaring the school had been opened by the socialist government as an alternative to the parish, which was unthinkable in a fascist regime.

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In the aftermath of World War II, the city of Reggio Emilia made the decision to dedicate their rebuilding efforts to creating an education system free of fascism for their children. They collaborated with Loris Malaguzzi, an educationalist and pedagogista, to develop their new educational project. The village of Villa Cella sold a tank, six horses, and three trucks to build a school for children, using the instruments of the Facist Regime to finance their vision of the future without fascism.

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The Reggio Emilia Approach, at its core, comes from the understanding that children are active protagonists in their growing processes. Children possess a hundred languages; a hundred ways of thinking, expressing, understanding, and encountering otherness through a way of thinking that weaves together, and does not separate those experiences categorically.

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In a Reggio Emilia approach, educators respect children as equal citizens of the community, without presuming our knowledge is somehow more valuable than the child's. Educators commit to lifelong learning, and creating environments rich for children to explore.