Why Am I Proud to Teach Students Using

REI?
Resources for Infant Educators (REI) was founded in 1978 by Magda Gerber whom was
an infant specialist and her partner Rom Forrest M.D. as a non-profit organization. The goal of
this organization was to provide quality infant care and educate caregivers around the globe.
Magda Gerber worked in Budapest, Hungry working with infants and found the strength within
herself to make a change for parents and caregivers around the world. She found the realization
that infants are their own people and they are strong people who are able to partake in their care
and development. I found this quote that seems to sum it all up for me. Yet the infant Magda
showed us is so much more; she showed us that a baby is a miracle, a whole person, who, with
our deeply attentive care, unfolds into a wonder, unique in the world. She taught us to wait, to
watch without preconception, to observe with genuine curiosity, to see what the baby was trying
to tell us. She gave us new eyes through which to see, not the infant we have in mind, but the
actual infant before us, and to respond quietly, gently, slowly to its cues and initiations, and to
respond not only to its needs but its competencies as well. (Ruth Anne Hammond, 2007)
I found myself working through my Paraeducator program at Portland Community
College (PCC) and needed to do a practicum. I didnt know how I would do it with working 20
hours a week at the school and going to school full time sometimes 12-15 credit hours a term. I
started to look at jobs that I could do in the teaching field since I didnt know when I would get
my degree done. My better half jumped on Craigs List and the first posting that he found was a
place called Childroots. It was looking for educated and professional teachers for a
prekindergarten program in Portland. I didnt want to apply because I thought what kind of a
teacher am I? I have little experience with that age group, maybe 4 months during a summer
between grades in high school. I figured that there were a plethora of individuals with more
experience and education that I have to teach young children. After about 20 minutes of my
better half and I going back and forth on it I put in my resume about 30 minutes after the posting
was added to the web site. No more than 10 minutes after that I received an email to attend an
interview.
At the interview I was able to visit one of their schools and I was stunned by the beauty,
simplicity and overall attention to the students needs. The materials in the school were natural,
there was an abundance of natural light and the people whom I met there seemed very happy to
communicate with me. I was apparently just what they were looking for in the interview because
the following Monday they started me in training and that is where my love for REI began.
I had never heard of Magda Gerber before my one week training started and by the end of
it I was in love with her, the ideas that she brought to the table and amazed at how I could have
went so long in my life without thinking of infants as individuals capable of communication and
of being little people. I was additionally ashamed that I didnt come up with this on my own and
empowered to educate students in this way from now on and encouraging others to educate
themselves and do the same. The owner of Childroots ran the training and Childroots was her
baby and her inspiration. The idea started in her basement and has now run to include 6 schools
in the Portland area.
I learned about Magda Gerber and her beliefs that infants are people too and they are
capable in many ways of making their own choices and communicating needs to the adults
around them. The biggest think I remember taking away from training was watching a video
from a Magda Gerber training with parents of a infant walking up a wheel chair ramp. This
infant that was on the video was a little wobbly before she go to the ramp, then on her way up the
ramp she fell down. No one came to her rescue, as I am watching this video I can remember my
heart racing, thinking that I would have ran to that childs aid. Then to my surprise this child
stood right up and went back to the ramp and walked back up. The child didnt cry, didnt rush to
a parent for help and none of the parents over reacted either.
Moments like this one are why I like to use REI in my classroom and why I am proud to
say that I work for a school that teaches uses the REI philosophy. In my classroom I spend a lot
of time verbalizing my observations to the children. Giving them language that they do not have
yet and helping identify feelings of themselves and their friends. My children go off of their own
emotions and as a teacher I wait for their reaction until I react. I try to give them an organic
experience taking in sensory and information. I love watching the learning development and
growth in my students.