In the beginning
The association was founded on the 24 of January 1978 under the name of Une Ecole Pour Demain - Section de Franche-Comté by Besançon members of the Lyon association, Une Ecole Pour Demain. (The name is the translation of a publishing company created by Caleb Gattegno called: Schools for the Future.) The specification Section de Franche-Comté was dropped when the Lyon association ceased to function. Then, in February 2000, école was replaced by éducation to avoid misunderstanding : the association does not enrol students and does not hire teachers.
At the beginning, the aims of the association were to:
- provide the opportunity for studying subjects in the same way as children of different ages do in classrooms where teaching is subordinated to learning,
- supply its members with the training they needed,
- distribute the pedagogical materials at its disposal,
- serve as a convenient way for French teachers using Words in Color, the Silent Way, Gattegno Mathematics, etc. to order as a group the materials they needed from Educational Solutions in New York.
- organise the seminars led by Caleb Gattegno.
The founding members were : Bernard Bettinelli, Président ; Philippe Bruno ; Jeannine Fruneau ; Suzanne Petitcolin (Lachaise) ; Michèle Royer ; Marie-Françoise Tillet.
Workshops and seminars
The informal workshops, which existed before the creation of the association, gradually became a regular annual programme.
Transcription and publication of Caleb Gattegno's seminars
These seminars were recorded, transcribed (mainly by Christiane Rozet) and published by the association. Twenty-six have been published so far, which you can order from the association, and several more have yet to be transcribed.
Gattegno approach training courses
In 1988-89, 1989-90 and 1990-92 the association organised, jointly with the Centre de Linguistique Appliquée de Besançon, training courses of 200h.
The Delachaux et Niestlé stock of Caleb Gattegno's books
In 1992 the stock (which would otherwise have been pulped) was brought from Geneva to Besançon and stored at the home of Christiane Rozet and Roslyn Young.
The journal The Science of Education in Questions /
La Science de l'Education en Questions
From 1989 to 1987 this journal appeared twice a year (15 issues in all, with articles in English and French and occasionally in German and Japanese). On March 31, 1988 Gattegno wrote to us, "The initiative to produce a bulletin which would link together those educators on earth who are interested in the Science of Education pleased me greatly. A review concerning what has already been done by researchers who have been studying certain aspects of the subordination of teaching to learning for years, will serve as inspiration to readers who will then add their contribution and who will maintain a living and renewed link at the service of all students who are in contact with these readers."
Alain L'Hôte as publisher and Donna L'Hôte as editor worked to this end over eight years and, as from 1993, with a New York team (Bill Bernhardt, Peter Miller and Peter Ross) who took responsibility for the contents of one issue a year. Articles were published describing and discussing the teaching and learning of foreign languages (Silent Way), reading and writing (Words in Color), Gattegno Mathematics, history, geography and other subjects; reflections on learning and pedagogy; teacher training; feedback from workshops. and all kinds of ephemeral information in relation to these themes. Many of these articles can be found on this site.
In spite of the shared responsibility, the volume of work obliged us to stop publishing in 1997. This web site functions in another way as a link between those who are interested in the Science of Education.
Back numbers of the journal can still be ordered - see our catalogue.
The questionnaire sent out to our members
In 1997 we undertook (with the help of Marie-Laure Lagrange, who did a traineeship with us as part of her studies) a survey of our members to find out how we were perceived and what services they wished us to provide.
We received 98 replies. The main points that came out of it were the need for more contacts between people interested in Gattegno's pedagogy and more accounts of practical experiences in the field.
A new edition of La Lecture en Couleurs, (Words in Color for French)
In 1995 the association bought the rights to la Lecture en Couleurs, then almost out of print, from Caleb Gattegno's widow and heir, Shakti Gattegno.
After numerous meetings and discussions (including the consultation of other users by mail) an updated version was agreed upon. This latest version was published in 1998 thanks mainly to the painstaking efforts of Alain and Donna L'Höte in the lengthy process of colour choice and lay-out with the printers.
Dictées en Couleurs (Dictations in Colour)
Dictées en couleurs, created by Christiane and Maurice Laurent, was published in 2000. This CD-Rom is intended to help French speakers to learn to spell in French but it can also be of use to foreigners learning French. It is an update of Dictée Visuelle.
La Lecture Infuse
A CD-ROM version of Caleb Gattegno's La Lecture Infuse (Infused Reading for French) was published in 2002. This already existed for Apple II but the new technology has enabled us to add sound and colour which means it can be used with non-readers by teachers and parents who are not specialised in the methodology.
The association today
- We organise a dozen workshops and seminars in French every year: mainly weekends but also 5 and 10 day courses in summer. These courses are mainly intended for professionals in education: primary school teachers, foreign language, mathematics and literacy teachers, speech therapists, teacher trainers..., but are also attended by parents and other people curious to know more about this approach. See Stages.
- We run online courses.
- The workshops are grouped by theme to form training courses on teaching reading, foreign languages or mathematics. See Formation à l'approche Gattegno.
- We sell books and pedagogical materials to teachers and associations.
- We produce new books and pedagogical materials, see Recent publications and Current Projects.
As it has always been, the association is entirely run by unpaid volunteers. We have no employees.
This site has existed since 2000
Created and maintained by Glenys Hanson.
Completely revised and modernised in 2011.
Technical advice and help: Stiepan Kovac