"We can learn much from the Reggio story - as we wrestle with our own enormous problems; uneven quality, poor coordination, and lack of access and affordability of early childhood services; coupled with universal recognition of the need for high-quality early childhood programs to boost children's chances for later school success." [C. Edwards, L. Gandini, G. Forman, 1994,p. 5] The preceding excerpt taken from the introduction to the first edition of The 100 Languages of Children, has always been true, and is especially relevant at this time in our history. Going over my notes from last month's Winter Institute in Reggio-Emilia I was struck by this year's theme, which was CONTINUITY. Institute participants were asked on the first day to provide their thoughts on what the prompt of continuity meant and provoked in them. Many ideas were generated, and each became a theme or point of reference for the conference. For me, continuity means not only ensuring that children are able to work and learn through the benefit of the Reggio principles throughout their education, but also that ALL children are able to benefit from quality educational experiences in beautiful, safe and clean environments, regardless of income, location, or birth. We saw examples of many wonderful schools from all over the world, and each seemed very normal to each of us knowledgeable of the Approach and the important role the environment plays. So it is disheartening and frustrating that not all citizens in our country agree with this 'radical' idea - recently promoted by President Obama in his State of the Union address - to make high-quality preschool available to all children in the United States. "....conservatives said they were suspicious that it would be a foot in the door toward more big government...", that they ..."fear the creation of another federal entitlement program"..and that "...there was little evidence that large-scale preschool programs do much good for children in the long run." ["Conservatives Skeptical of Expanding Preschool" The New York Times, 2/15/13] The fact that we are arguing over providing the minimum standard is just plain sad. I selected the accompanying image to put a bit of perspective on this issue, and that is , no matter what we decide, it is still comforting to know that all children all over the world, love to learn and have fun in engaging and unique ways. The students at the Grand Rapids Child Discovery Center come from extremely diverse backgrounds and experiences, yet all of our children respond to our approach in similar ways - with vibrance, joy, productivity, construction, sincerity, and energy! This picture was taken at our annual Fall Celebration. This photo booth was designed to not only be fun, but connect with our belief and practice of documentation. Recording our story in multiple ways helps us develop our rationale and provide evidence for school experiences and environments such as ours. - emm