On a quiet morning in Quezon City, a group of early childhood educators gathered—not just to learn new strategies, but to re-examine the very way they see children, learning, and themselves as teachers. What unfolded over the next days became more than a training. It became a shared experience of reflection, creativity, and rediscovery.
This marked the first training under Project PAGSIBOL—Providing Access to Growth, Safety, and Inclusive Beginnings of Learning—an initiative of The Inclusion Initiative (IAMYOU) in partnership with The Teacher’s Gallery (TTG). Designed for early childhood educators, the training opened a space where questions mattered more than answers, and where play, inquiry, and story guided professional growth.
From the start, participants were invited to slow down. Instead of beginning with techniques, the conversation began with values: Who is the child? What does inclusion look like in everyday classroom moments? What does it mean to truly listen? These questions set the tone for a learning journey inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy, where children are viewed as capable, curious, and full of ideas worth honoring.
As the training progressed, the room transformed. Tables became learning stations filled with natural objects, recycled materials, light, texture, and color. Educators explored the same invitations and provocations they would later offer to children—touching, arranging, experimenting, and wondering. In these moments, many teachers found themselves reconnecting with a sense of curiosity they had not felt in years.
Play was no longer discussed as an “extra” or a reward after learning. It was experienced as learning itself. Through sensory exploration, storytelling, and process art, participants saw how children communicate in many ways—through movement, materials, questions, and imagination. These “hundred languages” reminded teachers that learning does not always need to be loud, structured, or uniform to be meaningful.
One of the most powerful shifts came through reflection. Teachers began to see how inclusion lives in the small, intentional choices they make each day: how materials are arranged, how questions are asked, how children’s ideas are documented and valued. Observation and documentation emerged not as paperwork, but as acts of care—ways of making children’s thinking visible and honoring their growth.
The training also created space for honest conversations. Participants shared challenges from their own classrooms—limited resources, diverse learning needs, and the tension between structure and freedom. Instead of offering one-size-fits-all solutions, the facilitators encouraged adaptation. Inclusion, they emphasized, is not about copying a model, but about responding thoughtfully to one’s own context.
By the end of the experience, lesson plans and learning stations had been designed, but something deeper had taken root. Teachers spoke of seeing their classrooms differently—not as places to control learning, but as environments to nurture it. They began to see themselves not only as instructors, but as co-learners walking alongside children.
The Quezon City training laid the foundation for what PAGSIBOL hopes to grow: empowered educators, inclusive classrooms, and learning spaces where every child feels safe, seen, and capable. What started as a gathering of teachers became a reminder that inclusion begins with how we listen, how we observe, and how we choose to grow—together.
As PAGSIBOL continues its journey in other communities, the story that began in Quezon City remains a powerful starting point: a story of beginnings, of rediscovered wonder, and of inclusive learning taking root.