Caleb Gattegno
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Caleb Gattegno (1911-1988) was an Egyptian mathematician of Jewish origin, teacher, author and lecturer, known for his enthusiasm for the use of color in the teaching of reading, foreign languages and mathematics in primary and secondary schools. In particular, he became a strong advocate of the use of Cuisenaire rods, founding The Cuisenaire Company in 1954 to manufacture the rods and publish associated books and materials.
In the UK, he founded The Association for Teaching Aids in Mathematics in 1950, which later became the Association of Teachers of Mathematics.
He published more than 100 books and many hundreds of articles in journals and newsletters, many of which he founded, in various countries as he travelled the world giving demonstration lessons and lecturing on mathematics education. He travelled (10 trips around the world) and taught the subordination of teaching to learning in the fields of literacy, language learning and mathematics. CALEB GATTEGNO was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 11.11.1911. These are the milestones of his career:
Licencié ès Sciences (B. Sc.) in Physics and Chemistry, 1931 University of Marseille
Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieurs de Mathématiques, 1936
Mathematics teacher at the Lycée Français in Alexandria (Mission Laïque Française), 1932-36
Doctorate in mathematics at the University of Basel: Les cas essentiellement géodésiques des équations de Hamilton-Jacobi intégrables par séparation des variables, 1937
Founder and Director of the Centre d'Etudes Supérieures Scientifiques et Technique in Cairo, 1938-45
"Visiting Mathematics Professor" at the University of Liverpool, 1945-46
Master of Arts in Education at the University of London: The Mathematical Definition of Education, 1948
Docteur ès Lettres (Philosophy) at the University of Lille, 1952
Mathematics teacher and teacher trainer for grammar schools in the London area and at the University of London, 1946-57
Member of a United Nations (Technical Assistance) mission to Ethiopia with the object of finding a solution to the problem of illiteracy, 1957-58
Founder of The Cuisenaire Company, 1954; director until 1986. Production of the Cuisenaire materials and the accompanying manuals
Company extended to include publishing in 1960 with branches in 7 countries. 70 authors including Caleb Gattegno were published between 1960 and 1982
Mathematics at Your Fingertips 1961, film.
Founder of Educational Solutions in 1968 in New York where he lived until his death in 1988
Founder of the International Commission for the Study and Improvement of Mathematics Education (CIEAEM) in 1951; he left in 1960
In 1952 he founded The Association for Teaching Aids in Mathematics (ATAM), which became The Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM), and its journal Mathematics Teaching which is published 4 times a year and has 4000 members
In 1952 he also participated in the founding of the Société Belge des Professeurs de Mathématique d'expression française and its journal Mathematica et Paedagogia
From 1947 until his death, he ran seminars for international groups, mainly in Europe, in North and South America and in Japan
From 1971 until his death, he published the Educational Solutions Newsletter five times a year
He is the author of pedagogical works, books on psychology and books of reflection on different subjects (death, health, love, economics)
Between 1944 and 1988 he published almost 120 books and 500 articles in scientific and other journals in a dozen countries. See the bibliography of his works
He created pedagogical materials for the teaching of reading (Words in Color, Infused Reading), foreign languages and mathematics (Numbers in Color, The silent way,geoboards)
He died in Paris in 1988 two weeks after having run the seminar Le mystère de la communication near Grenoble.
