These along with many other questions are answered in a series of nine books written by Caleb Gattegno.  These books are a valuable resource for parents, educators and researchers who want to better understand how kids learn. Additionally, they have useful strategies on how to develop each child’s natural capacities to learn without relying on memorization.

The complete set of books is available for sale on our online store and viewable for free on our website:

• “Know Your Children As They Are”:  An important book for both educators and parents to understand their children from babies through adolescents
• “The Universe of Babies”:  Gattegno outlines the steps babies take in their development.  The book provides insights on how parents can help their child flourish.
• “Of Boys and Girls”:  Gattegno provides insights on improving the results for teaching boys and girls in all school subjects
• “The Adolescent and His Will”:  Understand why adolescents act the way they do and how to best teach them
• “What We Owe Children”:  Gattegno analyzes what children need to reach their potential.  He outlines what schools should achieve and what parents have a right to expect
• “Evolution and Memory”: This book is a must read for any scientist and researcher interested in understanding memory and how it fits in educating the young
• “The Mind Teaches the Brain”: Gattegno explores the relationship of the brain, the mind and the self in various aspects of human life and the implications these roles might have
• “On Being Freer”: How can you live a freer life?
• “Towards a Visual Culture”:  The key benefits for using media for education. What kind of programming enables children to learn the most?

The IRA is the leading reading association in the world with over 90,000 members.  We look forward to interacting with the over 10,000 teachers, principals and reading specialists that will be attending the convention.

If you are attending the convention we would like to meet you…we will be in booth #746

We hope to see you there!

I also know that if I someday use Words in Color and the language charts I should see how they are used in a real classroom!   So what better place to go to fulfill these needs than the pre-eminent school in North America fully dedicated to using Gattegno’s approach, The Bronx School for Better Learning.

This blog will document briefly some of the experiences and learning I had there.  Out of the many different activities I observe each day I will highlight the ones that apply most to the teaching approach and tools of Gattegno.

Monday Jan 25^th

I arrived on Monday morning just as classes were starting.  I was invited to sit in on a grade 1 class.  When I arrived they were working with shapes and blocks at group tables – a sort of free play with blocks and other shapes– and obviously busy and having fun with the task.  After some time the teacher asks them to come over to the carpet area and sit quietly.  Once they are settled and quiet he asks each in turn what they did with the materials they were using. Some made patterns, stairs,  many made spinners, one girl described building a castle to protect the King and Queen.  I noticed that they were very attentive to the teacher and each other during this time.  They wanted a turn to say what they did and hear what the others did also.

The Spanish teacher arrived to give a 30-minute lesson to the Grade 1’s using the Spanish charts.  The teacher used the Fidel to help the class say some of the vowel sounds and other word charts for numbers.  The kids were very excited to be using their Spanish words and often shouted out answers and repeated their answers several times. While the class was working on some Spanish numbers, one group of kids started using their knowledge of Korean numbers and started a discussion on that!  While it was all a little less “orderly” than some lessons, the level of interest and engagement of the students was very high and many were working hard to learn to say the words well.

During two visits to grade 1 classrooms to see English language arts lessons, I observed students who knew the color rectangle chart very well.  From the teacher’s silent direction of pointing to a sequence of colors, they were able to say the words.  The lesson was handled on an orderly way; each time the teacher pointed to a sequence, many hands went up, all excited to tell their answer.  Next, some students came up to point to the colors to show the word they wanted the class to know.  The teacher did not tell the student they were right or wrong but asked the class for a vote.  This seems like a clever way to delegate responsibility onto the class for deciding on correct answers.  It was very energizing to see the teacher and students using the charts so comfortably!

At the end of the day I was fortunate to participate in  a seminar for new teachers on using the language charts.  Two teachers, new to the school, had some questions and concerns about how to use the charts effectively.  They suggested the charts were difficult and possibly confusing to use with some students.  One question asked was about the order of the words on the charts and the order of the charts themselves.  There was also some concern about the order of letters on the Fidel.  Rather than addressing these concerns directly, the seminar leader simply led them through the approach that they could use with the materials.  He started with the “quay” (pronounced key) and led us through the steps of how to say it correctly, then showed us using a table and wall what it a “quay” was.  We also worked on how to pronounce “blackguard” using the Fidel.  The point I believe, is that the colors help them through the process of how to say some words.  They can then be asked to use the words in sentences to show meaning, and so on.  The colors (the Fidel) help them solve the problem or the challenge of learning English.

We then worked on using the Fidel to say the sounds, sliding our arm/pointer down the column of different spellings for the same sound as we did so.  The leader of course did not once tell us how to say any words or sounds correctly.  He did not “model” the sounds!

This was only the second time I had seen how the charts could be used to advance vocabulary with correct pronunciation. Although I came to this seminar just to observe, I found myself eagerly particpating in the learing process.  At the end, we all had a more clear idea of how use the charts and a better sense of their rational organization.

Looking forward to the next day!…….

Spanish, Italian, German and Haitian Creole Fidels

French Language Fidel

Dear family and friends,

Forgive me for sending a communal letter however I risk not sending it to some of you if I don’t do it this way. Please forgive me also for not writing sooner. Today is the first day I have opened my mail since the earthquake and I am overwhelmed with your kindness, your prayers and your deep concern.

We are alive and well thank goodness. Many, many people of course as you know are not. I volunteered one day (so far) with the Red Cross and was appalled to see the deep wounds, infected some of them, gaping wounds that should have been stitched up but others I’m sure were worse so they didnt get to have theirs done. I am so grateful to be alive and able to help a little.

We had a close call in the sense that four of us were at our house at the time, Yves and I upstairs, Marny and a youth downstairs. The youth and Marny ran outside before a wall fell and Yves and I ran downstairs to arriving just after the wall fell thank goodness or we would have been hit.

We are well and all the extended members of our family too. Our house is not and we are looking for a new home. Keep us in your prayers that we will be able to find something suitable in the area and something safe. We no longer are interested in living in a two story home.

We have food and water and we sleep at night in the park in the village where everyone else from the village sleeps. Its just fine becuase we have sponges to sleep on and enoubh sheets to keep us warm. Others are not so fortunate. So far it has not rained and we will pray for that as well.

The friends that some of you know are all well. Some have lost their homes and their belongings. We are fortunate that we were able to take most of our things out of the house and if the rest has to stay its okay. The Bahai school is great except for the director’s house which was completely destroyed at the moment of the quake. Fortunately there was only one little boy alone in the home and they were able to get him out after with no injuries. We keep hearing of how people had close calls and we are so blessed to be part of them. The new buildings and the old ones are just fine Iraj and I am so grateful for that. We have you and Bernard to thank for that and of course the Mona Foundation.

I will try to keep in touch as time goes on but public transportation is not as easy as before and we have no electricity at our house and no internet connection either so telephone is easier.

Our love to all of you and from the bottom of our hearts thank you for your support
Sue, Yves, and family

This is an email we received from Raymonde Rocourt, principal at the Aux Alizés school in Haiti where Dr. Caleb Gattegno’s educational approach is extensively used. As you may be aware, we did a comprehensive teacher training program in Haiti in December. Our thoughts are with the people of Haiti and we are actively trying to make contact with those we worked with; we will keep you up to date on any news we receive.

For further information, please contact info@educationalsolutions.com

On Tuesday January 12, 2010 around 4h50 Pm, as we were about to close our school “Aux Alizés”, my daughter Patrica, 3 of my grand children Ann-Koraly (12), Karl-Philippe (8), Kristian (5); 1 student Jean-Frédérique (10); our secretary Gémima; 2 teachers Sabina and Joanne; 3 guardians men Jacnet, Jean , Antoine; our security guard Mario and myself Raymonde have lived a real nightmare, an ordeal that I cannot really describe during a whole, long lasting, dark minute.

Indeed, that day, the 7.0 earthquake hit us hard and broke down several places surrounding our school but, thanks to God, all 12 of us who were still on site did not suffer any physical wounds but we certainly got deeply traumatized. Karl-Philippe did not say a word until very late at night and he eats very few since then. As soon as we felt the quake, we moved and stood under the doors arcades or bins during the strong shaking of the earth.

We ran away from the house right after and stayed as a group holding each other tightly while listening to desperate cries coming from the neighborhood where houses went down, kids got hurt, people were bleeding, cistern got broken and water was flowing all over. Our damages at school are enormous. The main building is still standing but shows major wall cracks all over. Some inside walls got off the poles and ceiling to which they were attached but are still in place and may fall anytime. No glass windows or doors broke down during the heavy shaking which is hard to believe because during the quake flowers pots, plants hanging here and there, garbage cans got flown away.

Everything inside my office and in the administrative office is on the floor i.e. computers, all what was on shelves and so on. Fence walls around the school property got partially down in some areas and completely in others. Patricia’s car parked in front of the school got severely/heavily damaged. Actually, we are looking for our civil engineer to go with us to the school for an inspection of the extent of the damages for further decisions. We’re still under shock because “aftermaths “are still shaking our land from time to time. This morning we had one again.

As soon as we can enter the school and make the inventory, we’ll send update about the damages. Today, local phone communications start over again and so I could know that 1st grade teachers Sabina and Marie Kerline have several cracks/fissures in their house; 3rd grade teacher Venette lost her house; our guardian man Jacnet lost his house also. We still cannot reach 4 of our teachers and hope they‘re OK at their end. Besides the school building itself, 2 of our board members – Marie-Therese Angus and her daughter Diana together with Bernard Angus with his wife Debbie and 3 kids have lost their house which completely collapsed. They’ve lost everything and can be classified as sinister.

On behalf of all of us, I thank everyone who spontaneously got concerned about us in our drama, our tragedy. Many of you wish to help us restore our damages by sending money. The best would be to “transfer funds” to our bank account specifying names of donators and desired use.

We’re all thankful to our Lord that we suffered only these damages and we hope that the 158 students who had already left the school premises did not lose their love ones and properties. This situation caused a real disaster for the People of Haiti as a whole!

Raymonde Rocourt
Principal of Aux Alizés

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Chapter 2 (Part 1)- The Awareness of Awareness

In Chapter 1, Gattegno discussed the role of awareness in all sciences and concluded that awareness can become aware of itself. The study of the awareness of awareness forms the basis of the Science of Education, and in Chapter 2, he discusses the awareness of awareness further.

To get in contact with your awareness, try moving your eyes. Then move them slowly from left to right, and then quickly from right to left. You are aware that your eye muscles are moving and that you are seeing different parts of the room, but you are also aware of your mind telling yourself to do these things. If you ignore your eyes in this exercise and only focus on your will to do the exercise, you have become aware of your awareness. Your mind is looking at itself telling itself to do a task. As Gattegno says, “the self is present in the awareness that is present in its content. The self comes to know itself as needing to be present in the content to become aware of it and as present in the awareness that lights up that content.”

When Descartes said, “I think therefore I am,” he stated that his awareness of thinking, not the content of his thinking, was enough to conclude he exists. Being aware of thought was an important step, but it is now more important to look beyond the activity of thinking, and instead look at the dynamics of our mind while in thought. If you can say you “know something,” this means that you are aware that you are aware of something. Whether you stress the “something” or the “awareness of something” affects whether you advance in the subject, or in the education of your awareness (of the subject).

Becoming aware of your awareness requires that you not fragment the psyche, and not get lost in the details. This statement is tough to grasp, as Gattegno separates the self from the psyche from the awareness, and details their interactions. However, his point remains that in any moment, a person can choose to focus on the content of their thoughts, or become aware of the self that is thinking them.