Quotes from The Gattegno Effect

"It was like my search for a box of matches had led me to a volcano."
Yoko Yasuda, President of the Rainbow Laboratory, Tokyo

 

"Listening to him (Dr. Gattegno) speak was an act of discovery . . . "
Bill Bernhardt, Professor of English, City University of New York (CUNY)

 

"Dr. G: 'You're boring them. You don't vary the activities enough. You have to learn how to play their games the way they do.'"
Allen Rozelle, Teacher, Santa Cruz, California

 

"Gattegno calls on teachers to become scientists of education in their classrooms by using the tool of watchfulness."
Alf Coles, Senior Lecturer in Education (Mathematics), University of Bristol

 

"Instead of expostulating theories at conventions, he walked into classrooms and showed us how it's done."
John Pint, Teacher/Author/Columnist in Mexico

 

"This Gattegno approach to group study seemed to me the ultimate refinement of the Socratic Method."
John Pint, Teacher/Author/Columnist in Mexico

 

"I had never been part of a class which was so concentrated, so eager to learn, so implicated in what was happening. I could actually feel myself learning."
Dr. Roslyn Young

 

"I hear his voice saying, 'Don't take anything for granted!'"
Fusako Allard, Teacher in Japan

 

“ . . . his work is all encompassing; his Science of Education is in fact a Science of Life."
Dr. Caroline Brandt, Communications Skills Instructor, Abu Dhabi, UAE

 

"The idea of subordinating teaching to learning is essentially humbling in its spirit . . . "
Dr. Caroline Brandt, Communications Skills Instructor, Abu Dhabi, UAE

 

"What I saw was hard for me to believe: a way of teaching that had more respect for people’s intelligence than anything I had experienced."
Lindsay Pearson, ESL Instructor at the Riverside Language Program

 

"Short-cutting the learning process, offering false praise, or praise at all, is no match for the delight that comes from doing one’s own work and making one’s own learning discoveries."
Dr. Leslie Turpin, Managing Director of Sandglass Theater in Putney, Vermont

 

"My lessons became far more dynamic and lively and soon everybody realized that working in a group was a great advantage."
Dr. Cecilia Bartoli

 

"Somehow students feel the difference in your attitude: their work often becomes far more imaginative and efficient and results come as a by-product."
Dr. Cecilia Bartoli

 

"'Don’t you really think these children have reached their ceiling?' Silence followed then, in hesitation I finally replied, 'No. Actually I don’t really think they have looked up yet.'"
Edna Shaw

 

"The children were delighted. Their allotted classroom soon became a hive of anticipation, even joy."
Edna Shaw

 

"The promise of Gattegno’s methods was not just that children would perform at grade level, but that they would perform at levels beyond expectations, and so close or prevent what we now refer to as 'the achievement gap.'"
Dr. Marilyn Maye, Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at New Jersey City University and a Mathematics Education Consultant for state and national organizations

 

"Simple economics would say that it is baffling this is not applied in most schools."
Luigi Magnano, self-employed

 

"Dr. Mataira: 'At the end of the 20 minute session I was elated. I had actually composed a number of sentences and I knew exactly what the function of each word was without any explanation.'"
Te Ataarangi

 

"I am continually aware that I am constantly learning, and as a result eagerly approach learning opportunities of all sorts . . . "
Bill Robbins

 

"After premising that he had never said this to anyone before, he shared with us in a seminar that his overall view was that, 'Life is a grand experiment.'"
Robert P. Echter, Special Education Teacher with Kindergarten to Grade 8 students in New Haven, Connecticut

 

"I was fascinated by the quiet concentration in the room, and the tangible focus by even those who had no interest whatsoever in this unusual language."
Dr. Patricia Benstein, Teacher residing in Europe

 

"Being present to ourselves, to the people we are with, and the situations we are in, and to ever-changing energies inside and outside of us, can never become automatic."
Dr. Patricia Benstein, Teacher residing in Europe

 

"My job is to trigger in each of them the necessary awarenesses to turn them into better mathematicians."
Brendan Marcus, Teacher of French and English as foreign languages

 

"By making them experience how to learn effectively in everyday lessons, I expect them to become aware of how to learn."
Michiko Watabe, Teacher of English and Japanese in Japan

 

"One of the things I learned was that to retain a target, students’ production is far more important than teachers’ explanation."
Michiko Watabe, Teacher of English and Japanese in Japan

 

"Although I could not quite figure how my emotions had gotten so involved, I knew that if I were going to teach, it would have to be the sort of teaching that would engage my students to the heightened degree that I had found myself . . . "
Daniel Tamulonis, Kindergarten Teacher at the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning, NY

 

"We had feedback sessions regularly, many of which were filled with long silences, sighs and stares. Ultimately, these sessions became a part of the day we all anticipated."
Daniel Tamulonis, Kindergarten Teacher at the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning, NY

 

"I learned from him that mistakes are to be welcomed as our best guides to knowledge."
Ghislaine Graf

 

"J’ai un rêve : que tous les pays d’Afrique découvrent et pratiquent La Lecture en Couleurs et l’approche pédagogique initiée par Caleb Gattegno."
Geneviève Godard

 

"Gattegno’s exhortation was that each of us should claim our own experience and learn from it."
Dr. Marti Anderson, Educator currently based in Bangkok, Thailand

 

"They could utter English words with perfect English pronunciation, with no effort, while enjoying it."
Manuela Bartoli, Freelance Consultant, Project Manager in the educational and vocational training fields, and teaching both English and Italian as second languages

 

"He was a master ahead of his time and his vast contributions have been the foundation for a new generation of teachers and learners."
Manuela Bartoli, Freelance Consultant, Project Manager in the educational and vocational training fields, and teaching both English and Italian as second languages

 

"From Dr. G it became apparent that the best “curriculum” and “materials” for each student came not from the school system or the publishing companies, but from the students themselves."
Phyllis Berman, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director RLP (Riverside Language Program)

 

"It is the teacher’s responsibility to create an atmosphere in class where mistakes are encouraged."
Phyllis Berman, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director RLP (Riverside Language Program)

 

"It was not Dr. Gattegno’s way to provide us with answers but to lead us through a process of exploration . . . "
Lane Serota, ESOL Teacher and Library General Coordinator RLP (Riverside Language Program)

 

"I was, and continue to be, mesmerized by the intensity of his gentle guiding of students to learn languages."
Dr. Clifton de Cordoba, Principal of a community adult school with 13,000 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District

 

"I judged, and that judgment was to lead me to having nothing to do directly with Gattegno’s work for many years."
Laurinda Brown, Teacher Educator at the University of Bristol, Graduate School of Education

 

"Tous les matériels Silent Way que Gattegno a mis au point permettent de forcer la présence des apprenants et de provoquer les prises de conscience nécessaires à leur compréhension et à leur progression."
Malik Berkane

 

"Everyone else, even my graduate school professors, seemed like fluff after Gattegno."
Dr. Paula Hajar, Professional Development Specialist in Mathematics at the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning, NY

 

"What I prize most from Gattegno is his belief in the inherent genius of human beings. It is a belief that I have tried to make the foundation of my own practice as an educator. It is what has kept me in the field, and has kept teaching fascinating."
Dr. Paula Hajar, Professional Development Specialist in Mathematics at the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning, NY

 

"Rendre intéressantes des choses simples, claires des choses compliquées, tout en s’autorisant à tirer des bords vers des terrains de jeu moins évidents que la grammaire et le vocabulaire, c’est le challenge de cette approche."
Maritée Juge

 

"The most precious thing we had was self-awareness, the capacity to think about ourselves and what we were doing in a detached way, and that we should never let go of it."
Jim Reed, retired Instructor of Modern Languages and Literature at Oxford University

 

"His approach was often teasing, provocative, designed to unsettle your assumptions and prejudges, very much like the Socratic Method..."
Jim Reed, retired Instructor of Modern Languages and Literature at Oxford University

 

"This descent of awareness into one person, and from him to others, and then to all, is another fact of awareness which is increasingly becoming collective every day."
Excerpt from On Humanism in Language Teaching: Critical Perspectives, Dr. Earl Stevick, Oxford University Press, 1990.

 

"Challenges set the right context for all of us to become producers of knowledge and skill rather than a consumer and memorizer of other people’s knowledge."
Eaton Donald, President of Educational Solutions Worldwide Inc.

 

"The challenge he made for participants was to ‘catch’ themselves as that energy shift occurred, to notice when one moves from a state of not being aware to one of being aware."
Dr. A. J. (Sandy) Dawson, Principal Investigator for the National Science Foundation grant, which is educating Micronesian mathematics educators to the doctoral and master's degree level

 

"J’ai été épatée par sa façon de transmettre son savoir par la découverte en mettant de coté toute forme de répétition."
Raymonde Rocourt

 

"Gattegno m’a permis de découvrir les potentiels de chaque apprenant et il a déclenché en moi le désir d’accompagner ce petit être selon son rythme . . . "
Raymonde Rocourt

 

 

"The Silent Way 'forces' practitioners to be independent and creative, with one of the outcomes being that teachers end up feeling empowered, as I did, to construct what is needed."
Andrew Weiler, Teacher of the Silent Way since 1978, currently working on a book that combines applications of the Science of Education with what learners can do for themselves

 

"One of Dr. Gattegno’s legacies has been to produce a system teachers can use to transform what they do, and continually improve on what they do."
Andrew Weiler, Teacher of the Silent Way since 1978, currently working on a book that combines applications of the Science of Education with what learners can do for themselves

 

“'Piaget: Gattegno was born too early and his approaches regarding his way of teaching are ahead of his time.'”
Laura Guajardo, retired Teacher

 

"Dr. Gattegno constantly pushed me to combat unfounded opinions and too-broad generalizations."
Carol Rose

 

“'Patience is not a virtue in education,' he would remind us often, 'it is a necessity!'”
Dr. Jane Orton, Director of the Chinese Teacher Training Center, University of Melbourne

 

“ . . . developments in cognitive science are confirming much that Gattegno proposed, and even more that he intuitively embedded in his resources and techniques."
Dr. Jane Orton, Director of the Chinese Teacher Training Center, University of Melbourne

 

«Les élèves vous donnent leur temps, Que leur donnez-vous en échange?»
Renée Wisler

 

" . . . we had no idea at the time that he had introduced the Silent Way to the Maori in New Zealand, or that he was currently working on a set of charts for the Inupiaq language in northern Alaska."
Dr. Jim Green

 

"The principles espoused by Caleb Gattegno apply to almost any learning situation — be it in the classroom or in life."
Dr. Roann Altman, Lecturer at the English Language Institute of the University of Michigan

 

"Instead of thinking that he was hopeless, as his teacher had kept saying to him all year, he realized on that day that he could use himself in an efficient way because he had the capacity to do so."
Claudie Gattegno

 

"Why is school not adapted to children’s capabilities?"
Claudie Gattegno

 

"I was at last more present to the pupils than to the clock."
Christiane Rozet, Secretary of association Une Education Pour Demain (An Education for the Future)

 

"Even now, I believe that it is possible for me to learn a language, any language, if I were given the Silent Way charts of that language, some rods, and a speaker of that language."
Kazuko Shimizu

 

"In the pre-Gattegno years, what I took for granted was the physical presence of the learners, teacher, and language in the classroom."
Wojciech Łukaszewicz, Founder and Teacher at Global Village Language School in Białystok, Poland

 

"Caleb Gattegno’s ideas are still very inspiring and to have met him was a remarkable experience in my life."
Dr. Ubiratan D'Ambrosio, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the State University of Campinas in São Paulo, Brazil

 

"I left the hour-long demonstration believing that I had learned more French and had acquired a better feel for the language than I had achieved in three years of school instruction."
Dr. Katherine A. Mitchell

 

"'What makes you so excited about teaching children to read?' She replied: 'Because they all learn!'"
Dr. Katherine A. Mitchell

 

"L’utilisation que font les enseignants du silence lui accorde une vraie valeur pédagogique. Ceci met ainsi en relief la pertinence potentielle de ce que ces enseignants disent dans la pratique de leur enseignement subordonné à l’apprentissage de leurs apprenants."
Dr. Michel Sagaz

 

"I also learned to perceive mistakes and obstacles as dynamic elements in building up and nourishing my reflections."
Anne Bregani, Teacher/Poet

 

"When I attended a lesson, I discovered, through the dance of a pointer, a new dynamic of colors and sounds giving access to speaking a language!"
Daniela Cerretti

 

"Today I would say without hesitation, 'Yes, it was easy,' and move on to seek another challenge."
Junko Shinada, Staff Member of the Gattegno Approach Study Group and Silent Way Tokyo

 

"The concept of subordinating teaching to learning is universal; children of all ages, races, ethnicities and socioeconomic status learn at higher than expected levels when teachers apply this principle."
Dr. Joyce F. Baynes, retired

 

" . . . there was no denying the effect it had on the students. They were on the edge of their seats . . . "
Donald Cherry, English Teacher at Hiroshima International University

 

" . . . the approach freed me to be more observant and responsive to the always changing needs of students."
Donald Cherry, English Teacher at Hiroshima International University

 

"'Students were able to focus on what they were seeing.'"
Dr. Marietta Elliott-Kleerkoper, retired from teaching, but still runs writing workshops for fellow poets

 

“'Dr. G: 'I create the best instrument I can. People will do what they want with it.'”
Dr. Theodore Swartz, Professional Development Specialist at Bronx Charter School for Better Learning, NY

 

" . . . it was an intense, stimulating, and exciting time during which we had the luxury of exploring a reconceptualization of language education with some of the best minds of the time."
Dr. Alvino Fantini, Professor Emeritus at World Learning’s School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, and currently serves as an International Consultant

 

"Something was missing; I was unhappy with the relationship between the teacher and learner, and the manner in which I was conveying knowledge."
Isabelle Luter Doussain, French as a Second Language Teacher in France

 

" . . . l’apprentissage n’est pas un transfert de connaissances, mais un espace dynamique et interactif qui suscite le désir et le plaisir d’apprendre . . . "
Soré Hadara

 

"After four days of being challenged to rethink their teaching methods, the teachers and administrators seemed to have concluded that the potential violence surrounding Aristide’s return was outweighed by their need to complete the training."
Esaie Pierre, Senior Research Scientist for an international pharmaceutical company

 

" . . . it is possible to discover and see new horizons and create fields of investigation hitherto unsuspected, by just displacing very slightly our thoughts, our mind, our viewpoint."
Jean-Jacques Dutrait, former Architect who now conducts literacy and French as a second language courses.

 

"I would never have dreamt of doing to others what my teachers had done to me — waste my time and try to disable my native ability to learn."
Stephen DeGiulio, Professor of English, TESOL, linguistics, and adult education/teaches at the Dona Ana Community College of New Mexico State University and directs a non-profit adult literacy program

 

"I choose to work in a different way where I try to set up a paradoxical place of safety that sits right on an edge of discomfort."
Chris Breen, Independent Consultant/Teacher/Emeritus Associate Professor of the School of Education at the University of Cape Town (UCT)

 

"I began to see that a teacher could rely on the students to do astonishing things if the teacher set the situation up clearly enough, then stepped out of the way . . . The students are far more brilliant than the teacher."
Dr. Bruce Ballard, Staff Trainer at the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning

 

"I was shocked to find that a 45 minute language lesson could trigger such an intense inner experience in the learner."
Dr. Masayuki Onishi, Senior Researcher at RIHN (Research Institute for Humanity and Nature), in Kyoto, Japan/regularly teaches Japanese, Bengali, and English, and occasionally conducts Silent Way workshops

 

"If I am watchful I can see how learning finds its way into the nooks and crannies of a challenge . . . "
Adrian Underhill, International Enhanced Language Training (ELT) Consultant and Trainer

 

"As Dr. G said, learning is contagious and perhaps also bigger than us."
Adrian Underhill, International Enhanced Language Training (ELT) Consultant and Trainer

 

"教師の「沈黙」は言うまでもなく、教師が言語を「教えていない」ことを目の当たりにし、あらためて目を見開いた。"
Etsuko Nagasawa, working at the Center for Learning in Osaka, Japan

 

"Caleb insisted that the learner should and would get satisfaction and motivation exclusively from his or her own knowledge of personal achievement."
Jeremy Steele, retired

 

"Were there any skills a child had taught himself in the acquisition of learning to talk that might be able to be used to teach him to read?"
Janice Mattina, Founder and Teacher at Center Montessori School in Bradenton, Florida

 

"It was the power of Dr. Gattegno’s ideas about how children should be educated and his personal ability to explain and demonstrate why his ideas made sense that convinced these parents to take the risk."
J. Parker Damon

 

"[Teaching is] a job where you can be rewarded in the moment and over time, first by the observation of the awarnesses among your own students, and then by the progress they make every day."
Sylvain Dufros, Director Assistant and Professor of French as a foreign language in a private school in Tokyo

 

"There is no reason, no content, no situation that can ever justify a joyless class."
Dr. Barbara Villez, Professor of Didactics, Law, and Media Studies at the University of Paris

 

"It is the tragedy of his life that he will probably never again find himself with a man like Gattegno, who knows, as few teachers do, that it is his business to put himself into contact with the intelligence of his students, wherever and whatever that may be . . . "
Excerpt from How Children Fail, by John Holt, 1959

 

"I now know that language is not a thing to be memorized, but a functioning to be acquired."
Steven Quinn, Teacher at an English Language Center in Melbourne working with illiterate refugees from all over the world

 

"You and they are setting up a very powerful feedback loop. You are subordinating teaching to learning."
Henry Liebling, Website Developer for Education for Sustainability and Global Learning in teacher education

 

"I tried to observe the teachers closely so that I could use their experience as the starting point for triggering an awareness of the vast potential for learning in their classrooms . . . "
Dr. Kathleen Graves, Associate Professor of Education practice at the School of Education, University of Michigan

 

***

 

"We observed the thinking process involved in encouraging students to experiment with language, increase their awareness and their curiosity, and discover the rules without overt explanation or prescription."

Rosie McAndrew

 

"The seminar began with the question: what is the problem of learning to read? Or, what must a child do to learn to read? We were already fumbling with that as we looked around at each other."

Janice Mattina, Founder and Teacher at Center Montessori School in Bradenton, Florida

 

"We were held to task, we were shown respect as learners, and we were treated as if he knew we could master the task. Dr. Gattegno used a technique he called feedback. He would look pointedly at one of us and say seriously and with interest, 'feedback.'"
Janice Mattina, Founder and Teacher at Center Montessori School in Bradenton, Florida

"If the instructional starting point was to be a focus on student learning, then teachers needed to have control over what is taught, what materials and methods are used, and how and when they are used."
J. Parker Damon

"It was one of the most extraordinary and moving spectacles I have seen in all my life."
Excerpt from How Children Fail, by John Holt, 1959

 

"Equally important was a kind of respect for these children, a conviction that under the right circumstances they could and would do first-class thinking."

Excerpt from How Children Fail, by John Holt, 1959

 

"Why did I become attached to Dr. Gattegno's ideas? My provisional answer is that the attraction lies in his uncompomising search for truth."
David B. Davies

 

"I tried to follow Dr. G's admonition: 'The students' job is to work on the language; your job is to work on the student.'"
Dr. Kathleen Graves, Associate Professor of Education practice at the School of Education, University of Michigan

 

"My only guidance is to question them — I have come to believe in the power of a good question."

Dr. Diane Larsen-Freeman

 

"Researchers are only now discovering what Gattegno taught so many years ago about the contribution of sleep to learning."

Dr. Diane Larsen-Freeman

 

"As a teacher, I learned what to look at and how to find ways to help in particular situations, as well as how to stay out of the way."

Dr. Barbara Villez, Professor of Didactics, Law, and Media Studies at the University of Paris

 

"Emphasizing independence, autonomy, and responsibility, the Silent Way teaching method not only subverted my concept about learning, but also fascinated me as I could provide freedom and joy to the learners."

Daisy Hsaio

 

"Dr. G: 'I don't prepare a lesson — I prepare myself."
Bill Bernhardt, Professor of English, City University of New York (CUNY)

 

 

"I can't recall a single story that he told more than once in my hearing over a 20-year period."

Bill Bernhardt, Professor of English, City University of New York (CUNY)

 

 

"At that time he introduced to us a revision of The Subordination of Teaching to Learning that he had come to during his recent travel. It was now amended as, 'The Activity is the Product.'"

Robert P. Echter, Special Education Teacher with Kindergarten to Grade 8 students in New Haven, Connecticut

 

"The results and the feedback from the students were so good that other teachers, working for the same school but not using the Silent Way, came to observe my classes."

Laura Guajardo, retired Teacher

 

"Dr. G: 'One can only do at any given moment whatever one is able to do.'"

Carol Rose

 

"It was no longer the good teacher transmitting knowledge; the teacher was guiding the student on the road to discovery and awareness. It was no longer the good or bad student; it was the student who was discovering and learning in his own way, at his own rhythm."

Isabelle Luter Doussain, French as a Second Language Teacher in France

 

"I learnt that every awareness in languages was derived from another awareness; and I had figured many of them out by myself."

Brendan Marcus, Teacher of French and English as foreign languages

 

"After intently listening, he responded, 'I wish that were my class,' a response that startled me."

Carole Adams

 

"[Gattegno's] response was, 'You must not be afraid to fail.'"

Carole Adams

 

"Dr. G: 'Come now. You are all educators. What is educable in your students?' There was dead silence."

Bob Coe, retired Teacher of French, Spanish, and ESL

 

"Gattegno challenged us to examine our core beliefs about human beings as learners . . . "

Bob Coe, retired Teacher of French, Spanish, and ESL

 

"What is educable then in the learner is awareness, and the role of silence on the part of the teacher is essential in allowing that awareness to take place: to throw the learner back on himself and make him use those skills he developed during the learning of his mother tongue and take responsibility for his learning."

Bob Coe, retired Teacher of French, Spanish, and ESL

 

"I remember that I heard Caleb Gattegno say during a seminar: 'As teachers, we shouldn't be obstacles for our pupils.'"

Michel Zobel

 

"I am telling you this to show you that Dr. Gattegno's work has made my life much easier."

Nathanaël Zobel

 

". . . that the nature of any content area must dictate how it is best learned."

Katherine A. Mitchell, retired

 

"Dr. Gattegno's ideas and publications regarding education go beyond specific methodologies, and provoke questions about the educational process, and interactions between teachers and students."

Dr. Alvino Fantini, Professor Emeritus at World Learning’s School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, and currently serves as an International Consultant

 

". . . teachers have the capacity to identify those approaches that best meet the needs of their students, even when such approaches demand deep, sometimes disconcerting introspection and continuous self-scrutiny."

Dr. Theodore Swartz, Professional Development Specialist at Bronx Charter School for Better Learning, NY

 

"Without a moment's pause, Dr. Gattegno quipped mildly in his clipped British accent, 'The last time I was on a plane, I wrote a book.'"

Dr. Theodore Swartz, Professional Development Specialist at Bronx Charter School for Better Learning, NY

 

"This means that instead of filling students' memories with data, a teacher must help students discover things by themselves, to move from awareness to awareness."

John Pint, Teacher/Author/Columnist in Mexico

 

"'I want you to use awareness as a tool to study something about your own behavior.' [Gattegno] told us, 'and then I want you to write about it.'"

John Pint, Teacher/Author/Columnist in Mexico

 

"The first of these insights was the fact that learning — gaining an awareness — does not require a lot of energy if the essence of the concept or idea being taught is made available to learners in ways that they can grasp. The second of the insights follows from the first, namely, that identifying the essence of what is to be learnt is fundamental to effective teaching."

Dr. A. J. (Sandy) Dawson, Principal Investigator for the National Science Foundation grant, which is educating Micronesian mathematics educators to the doctoral and master's degree level

 

" . . . before learning there is often a time of confusion . . . "

Dr. A. J. (Sandy) Dawson, Principal Investigator for the National Science Foundation grant, which is educating Micronesian mathematics educators to the doctoral and master's degree level

 

". . . we kept in mind the two stages that are involved in learning any skill: developing awareness and then gaining facility in those awarenesses."

Dr. Bruce Ballard, Staff Trainer at the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning

 

"My son immediately started to play with rods, and a box of Cuisenaire Rods and a green book titled Arithmestics was his companion for the rest of our travels."

Dr. Masayuki Onishi, Senior Researcher at RIHN (Research Institute for Humanity and Nature), in Kyoto, Japan/regularly teaches Japanese, Bengali, and English, and occasionally conducts Silent Way workshops

 

"I told him not to worry, that he and his work had shown me a way to live my professional life joyously."

Allen Rozelle, Teacher, Santa Cruz, California

 

". . . the problem with learning is never in the learning, but interference in the learning, and one of the qualities of silence is the reduction of such."

Adrian Underhill, International Enhanced Language Training (ELT) Consultant and Trainer

 

"If I ask myself what draws me to this way of teaching then I might answer that I have found in the Subordination of Teaching to Learning an experience of becoming more myself, and also a source of a great joy."

Adrian Underhill, International Enhanced Language Training (ELT) Consultant and Trainer

 

"As Dr. G said, learning is contagious, and perhaps also bigger than us."

Adrian Underhill, International Enhanced Language Training (ELT) Consultant and Trainer

 

"He fiercely contested pre-conceived ideas and fought courageously for what he knew to be valid."

Michael J. Hollyfield, Director of the Cuisenaire Company of the UK

 

". . . 'What have you done with Robert?' Robert had scored 100% in a spelling test, having refused to attempt any spelling tests until that day."

Michael J. Hollyfield, Director of the Cuisenaire Company of the UK

 

"The most powerful thing for me about Gattegno's work is that clearly he was able to teach in 18 months what most mathematics teachers work on for many years with their students."

Laurinda Brown, Teacher Educator at the University of Bristol, Graduate School of Education

 

"This may mainly indicate my ignorance, but I am not aware of any other model of learning and the learner that is as complete as [Gattegno's]."

Dr. Piers Messum, Teacher, London, England

 

"Dr. G: 'You are evading questions in saying, 'They do it by imitation.' By imitation, indeed. The greatest nonsense I have ever heard, and everybody repeats it. It's absolutely wrong. No one can learn to speak the mother tongue by imitation.'"

Dr. Piers Messum, Teacher, London, England

 

"Gattegno insisted that the materials themselves were not the Silent Way; one could teach the Silent Way even without the materials. It was just a matter of allowing the students to do the work themselves."

Dr. Roann Altman, Lecturer at the English Language Institute of the University of Michigan

 

"Gattegno also expected that students would be able to assess their own performance, that they would develop inner criteria for knowing when something was on target or not."

Dr. Roann Altman, Lecturer at the English Language Institute of the University of Michigan

 

"He talks about awareness and mathematics and then asks us to do some work. It is not a soothing experience as he keeps each one of us on edge with provocative and challenging questions. But we work and there are many 'Aha!' moments in the room."

Chris Breen, Independent Consultant/Teacher/Emeritus Associate Professor of the School of Education at the University of Cape Town (UCT)

 

"'I'm an elder of sorts too,' [Gattegno] told them, 'So put up with me when I tell you, you need to stop talking!'"

Dr. Jim Green

 

"His The Science of Education is an attempt to develop the comprehensive set of terms and relations needed to ground education as a genuinely human science."

Dr. Jim Green

 

". . . these children and teens, freed by principles of learning that respect their essential nature, were like volcanoes of creative affect and intellect . . . "

Stephen DeGiulio, Professor of English, TESOL, linguistics, and adult education/teaches at the Dona Ana Community College of New Mexico State University and directs a non-profit adult literacy program

 

"That moment is when I saw that the way to free learners is to free oneself to interact with others in the moment — and that no curriculum, no method, no theory is more important."

Stephen DeGiulio, Professor of English, TESOL, linguistics, and adult education/teaches at the Dona Ana Community College of New Mexico State University and directs a non-profit adult literacy program

 

"'How do you get them to respect you?' The answer came in a very quiet voice, 'By being someone they respect.'"

Stephen DeGiulio, Professor of English, TESOL, linguistics, and adult education/teaches at the Dona Ana Community College of New Mexico State University and directs a non-profit adult literacy program

 

"The children are happy and verbal, confident in themselves and in their knowledge, eager to try out new ideas and know that mistakes are simply more opportunities to learn."

Dr. Joyce F. Baynes, retired

 

"The Silent Way frees me of the roles I was dutifully taking in the past: the expert, the controller, the guardian, the entertainer, the caregiver, you name them."

Wojciech Łukaszewicz, Founder and Teacher at Global Village Language School in Białystok, Poland

 

"Dr. G: 'We shall only be able to serve as educators when we reach deeper and deeper into the mystery of the mind at work on itself.'"

Henry Liebling, Website Developer for Education for Sustainability and Global Learning in teacher education

 

"Many children found using the rods rewarding, as relationships and equivalences could be visualised, pointed out and spoken about — something I never remembered from my own childhood."

Henry Liebling, Website Developer for Education for Sustainability and Global Learning in teacher education

 

"Dr. G: 'Tell your own story, not someone else's. Tell me what you think. Speak from your own experience. Try things out for yourself.'"

Henry Liebling, Website Developer for Education for Sustainability and Global Learning in teacher education

 

"I saw how it put the responsibility for learning squarely on the learners' shoulders, while making the teacher responsible for guiding them along the way and actively staying out of the way of their learning."

Bill Robbins

 

"[Gattegno] loved opening Russian nesting dolls by throwing another question to your question, in order to make you think, analyze and discover the heart of the matter (if possible), by yourself."

Ghislaine Graf

 

"He said that people needed decades to really understand what the Science of Education is all about."

Ghislaine Graf

 

"As the children investigate the rods and find their own way to play and manipulate them, their insights and challenges continue to amaze me."

Daniel Tamulonis, Kindergarten Teacher at the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning, NY

 

"Then suddenly a voice emerged, 'But where do we make the start?' to which a quietly confident Caleb replied, 'Being a human being is the right start.' How true the response!"

Edna Shaw

 

"I would try to set challenges that would allow the teachers in training to work at the edge of their knowledge and experience."

Dr. Marti Anderson, Educator currently based in Bangkok, Thailand

 

"Everyone's intelligence and willingness were involved in the process."

Daniela Cerretti

 

"What he did say, however, has for years given me food for thought, particularly about teaching."

Dr. Leslie Turpin, Managing Director of Sandglass Theater in Putney, Vermont

 

"Over the years our team was able to reduce the number of hours taught during a course without compromising the results we obtained."

Dr. Roslyn Young

 

"He had great respect for the people who came to his seminars, but often little respect for the ideas we held and he pushed us into examining them seriously."

Dr. Roslyn Young 

Sima Gandhi