Georges Cuisenaire

Georges Cuisenaire, born on September 7, 1891 in Quaregnon and died on December 31, 1975 in his house in Thuin, was a Belgian pedagogue in mathematics.

He graduated from the Mons Conservatory of Music in 1907 where he obtained a first prize in violin.

He was a teacher in Thuin from 26 April 1912 at the Ville-Haute school. He is the author of the "Numbers in Colors" and the method of calculation now spread all over the world. This is a set of color strips that help children learn arithmetic, arithmetic.

In 1945, after many years of research and experimentation, he produced a set of colored cardboard strips, a kind of ruler that is very useful for learning to calculate with young children. The "Cuisenaire rods" method revolutionizes the learning of the calculus by becoming an instrument of a rare effectiveness whose qualities will soon be recognized by the pedagogues and the psychologists of the whole world. Its method is adopted by thousands of teachers in more than sixty countries. It was in 1951 that the first edition of the explanatory brochure "Les Numbres en Couleurs" was published in Belgium. Meanwhile, since 1948, he became professor, founder and director of the Industrial School of Thuin.

He will give more than two thousand lectures and demonstrations of his method of learning and will be received at the galleries of several universities.

On January 11, 1968, he received the insignia of Officer of the Order of Leopold and in 1973 Unesco recommended the use of the Cuisenaire material and suggested the reform of arithmetic programs based on his method