believe his eyes, he called me in to find out what had happened. I just told him that he had seen my uncle during the holidays and had been given an hour’s lesson. For Pascal, those moments turned out to be very important. 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. In a few minutes, he had gained self-confidence. It was miraculous.
that I could never have been able to start on this path without my own experiences, basic human ones. I do not mean theoretical knowledge. It was as though I had always known I would find the answers to all my questions. These were: why is it that when we are little we have such great learning capabilities? Why do we lose them as we grow? Why is school not adapted to children’s capabilities? Why do they allow us to get bored in school? And so on. The pedagogical approach as well as the pedagogical materials created by Caleb Gattegno made me search
“Why is school not adapted to children’s capabilities?” I participated in many seminars and then undertook a lot of deep work on myself. I had already started on this but the tools and insights which Gattegno had brought me allowed me to go further and much faster. One needs to be ready for such work. His seminars were so rich, they opened up a significant field of study and allowed me to no longer be afraid, and to open up to any change of viewpoint. What I was vaguely thinking about the power we have over ourselves, the importance of awarenesses which allow us to understand, and therefore solve difficult situations which we encounter and still move forward, became quite evident as I had more meetings with Caleb Gattegno. The baby’s work and the hierarchy of learnings, and all he developed starting with his “model of man,” led me to develop unsuspected competences. From then on I began to look into pedagogical work, the deeper study of French, and the pedagogical materials created by Gattegno, because all of a sudden I felt the overwhelming urge to teach. I had the impression that all I had done so far had set me on this path which was mine. At the time, my greatest awareness was telling myself
for other ways of knowing and naturally led me to share what to me seemed most important. Working on knowing myself, what helped me most was to be aware of the Self and its attributes, on which we can act, on which I could act. I knew this because I had been through great adversity and had come out fairly well, but it only became clear after I worked with my uncle. PEDAGOGY After a few years working in seminars proposed and conducted by Caleb Gattegno, I felt that I was ready to teach and share what I had discovered. I became passionately engaged in the French language. The pedagogical materials were a gold mine for me. I had no wish to keep this treasure for myself. I talked a lot with my uncle and we also corresponded often. He strongly encouraged me. Before his death, we even had a project to teach French in Israel. He had laid the foundations for this with one of my cousins who, sadly, died in 1988 – a few months after Caleb. The public I was interested in were those having difficulties. I therefore set out and started working
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