Towards A Visual Culture Now Available Online

Dr. Caleb Gattegno’s Vision For Educational Television

NEW YORK - Dr. Caleb Gatttegno’s ideas about television and education make for enlightened reading even though it’s been more than 40 years since those ideas were first published in Towards A Visual Culture.

The book, perhaps one of his most concise and to date most prophetic writings, is once again in print and now available to read free online or to download for $5 a copy from the publisher, Educational Solutions Worldwide Inc. (ESWI).

“In Towards a Visual Culture, Dr. Gattegno makes the case that we learn more quickly and comprehensively through sight than language and he sets out a framework for educating through television,” said Eaton Donald, CEO of Educational Solutions Worldwide Inc.

The edition is one of 50 of Dr. Gattegno’s most important books and papers that are being republished throughout the year as part of the celebrations to commemorate 100 years since his birth.

Dr. Gattegno believed TV is a product of our own developing self-awareness as human beings and our growing need to communicate ideas and logic at increasingly higher levels of speed and depth of understanding than what spoken and written words now permit. In the natural evolution of things, Dr. Gattegno believed that visual media would open the door to higher rates of human learning and advancement.

At the time of writing (1969), Dr. Gattegno believed that TV was not yet up to the task of furthering the higher purposes of human awareness, especially in the case of educating children, who he believed were learning nothing of much value from TV except perhaps what goes into the making of beer and cigar commercials.

Dr. Gattegno was, however, certain that the young medium would eventually come around to serving the greater good and he outlined specific steps educators and broadcasters could take to achieve that end more quickly, including making scientific inquiry more entertaining. At the same time, he believed that the broadcasting technology itself had to - and would –become more accessible to wider ranges of broadcasters than the purely commercially driven TV producers of his day.

One cannot help but speculate while reading the book what Dr. Gattegno would think of how far things have come 23 years after his death with the rise of specialty channels devoted to everything from cooking to space travel as well as the advent of the world-wide web and YouTube, which has the potential to make broadcasters out of all educators. He probably would approve but also remark that we are still a long way from living without the printed word.

Media Inquiries, please contact:
Martin Power
Educational Solutions Worldwide Inc.
Tel: 1-800-491-1615
Fax: 1-800-841-6695

About Educational Solutions Worldwide Inc.
http://www.educationalsolutions.com

Educational Solutions Worldwide Inc., is a leading force in developing new approaches and products in the educational field based on the pioneering scientific research and groundbreaking pedagogies developed by Dr. Caleb Gattegno.  Today, the company continues to re-invigorate his vast riches of unique educational approaches, materials and technologies in highly creative ways that serve its mandate of making the learning of mathematics (Gattegno Math), a second language (The Silent Way) and basic literacy skills (Words in Color) easily accessible and highly integrated in the daily activities of people regardless of who they are and where in the world they live.