“This is what has been missing. We haven’t been able to reach students in this way before. The approach of Subordinating Teaching to Learning allows us to meet learners where they are, to build them up and recognize their abilities in ways they have not experienced.

The ABLe team and materials will be a continued presence as we grow our program for extended teacher development.”

— MS. YOLANDA GADSON, I HAVE A DREAM FOUNDATION

TEAM

Arthur B. Powell, Ph.D.

Experienced professor with a demonstrated, special interest in teacher development. Skilled in Mathematics Education Research and Teaching, Lecturing, Instructional Design, Curriculum Development.
Arthur’s approach to teacher professional development empowers teachers with skills, know-how and ideas for engaging and meaningful classrooms and curriculum that will change lives, and the future.
Arthur is a co-founder of ABLe and serves as its Executive Director.

Theodore Swartz, Ph.D.

Teacher, Principal, Superintendent and charter school founder, committed to sharing the benefits of the subordination of teaching to learning to children everywhere.
Ted is an educational app designer, creating iReadBetter, iSpellBetter and, with Dr. Powell, iCountBetter, all available for free on Apple’s App Store.
He is a co-founder of ABLe.

Sima Gandhi

Experiential Education Designer, Innovation Consultant, Entrepreneur, Speaker, Investor.
Strong facilitation skills mixed with a passion for the subordination of teaching to learning, design thinking and experiential education.
Sima produced the Readably program inspired by the work of Caleb Gattegno. The program is phonics based and uses color to give learners criteria to overcome the ambiguities of English.

Barbara Schwartz

Author, Teacher, Education Consultant who values deep listening, divergent thinking, and social-emotional learning through literature. Passionate about creating neurodiversity-affirming spaces for all.
Expertise in curriculum design, authentic assessment, interdisciplinary project-based learning, twice-exceptional education, and teacher coaching.
Barbara is the author of the poetry book Any Thriving Root.

Andy Dousis

Early implementer of the Responsive Classroom, with a heavy concentration in urban education.
Founder of The Growth Coach to help school leaders and instructional coaches improve instruction and integrate their efforts across the curriculum with a focus on systems, structures, devices, and the teaching skills necessary to promote effective learning.
Andy is the author of "The Research Ready Classroom" and "Doing Math In Morning Meeting.”

Jamaal A. Ince

Jamaal is is ABLe’s Administrative and Program Director, a mathematics educator and doctoral student at São Paulo State University. He has experience as a 7th Grade mathematics teacher at North Star Academy and as a mathematics coach in Newark Public Schools. His doctoral research is focused on the development and growth of mathematical identities in correlation with their foregrounds, and confidence in mathematics for minority students.
Jamaal completed his bachelor’s degree in the arts of mathematics at New Jersey City University and his MA in teaching with a focus in middle school mathematics curriculum at Relay Graduate School of Education.

OUR APPROACH

Subordination of Teaching to Learning

The subordination of teaching to learning means, in short, that teaching is guided by learning. It was introduced by Dr. Caleb Gattegno with his approach to mathematics, literacy and teacher development, and detailed in his book What We Owe Children: The Subordination of Teaching to Learning.

Caleb Gattegno

ABLe uses resources and approaches that support the Subordination of Teaching to Learning to allow students’ innate learning skills to flourish. The materials we use provide criteria for students to discover the subject matter for deeper learning, and the role of the teacher is to guide students as needed.

Dr. Gattegno’s broad set of insights extended to educational solutions in first language instruction, foreign language instruction in dozens of tongues, mathematics at all levels, and supporting the learning of persons with disabilities, particularly deafness. Having founded what he described as the Science of Education, he created materials, techniques and activities that provide teachers the tools to practice his “subordination of teaching to learning,” where the focus in all subjects, he insisted, should always be placed on learning, not on teaching.

He believed learning involves the following stages, and designed teaching materials and techniques to complement these natural learning attributes.

Awareness – encountering and noticing something unknown

Exploration – experimenting through trial and error, and drawing conclusions and criteria from one’s mistakes
Transition – practicing, which leads to speed and accuracy
Mastery – taking newly formulated know-hows, insights, understanding and knowledge and applying them to further learning

More information about Dr. Gattegno’s history and body of work can be found at www.CalebGattegno.org

Go to CalebGattegno.org

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Gregory E. Kimbal, jr

is an attorney and owner of Kimble Law, PLLC. His firm is dedicated to empowering communities by providing legal counsel and transactional legal services to small businesses, emerging companies, and nonprofits. In addition to chairing ABLe’s Board, he is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning (BBL).

Anita Gandhi

Award winning French Teacher with a demonstrated history of working in the education management industry. Skilled in the Use of Technology for a 21st century classroom, Curriculum Development, Teacher Training, Staff Development, Working With Children, and Teaching. Strong education professional with a B.A. Honours, B.Ed. and Master's degree focused in French Language and Literature.

kevin brennan

Recently retired as the Chief Executive Officer for The Bronx Charter School for Better Learning (BBL), working closely with the Board of Trustees, school administration and the faculty, helped to establish the school as one of the highest performing charter schools in New York and the only public school based on Dr. Gattegno’s philosophy of the Subordination of Teaching to Learning.

Jamaal Sherif Matthews

is an Associate Professor in Educational Studies and the Combined Program in Education and Psychology. Born and raised in Harlem NYC, Dr. Matthews’ research interests are grounded in his experiences as a middle school mathematics teacher in The Bronx. His research focuses on achievement motivation during adolescence and motivation in mathematics specifically. His work addresses how race, teacher pedagogy, and the sociopolitical context shape students’ beliefs about their abilities in and value of mathematics. He also applies a critical race perspective on the psychological processes that undergird adaptive and healthy school functioning for Black American and Latinx adolescents in urban schools.

marvin waldman

Marvin is president of The Shadow Group, a creative and strategic consulting firm which does work for both profit and not-for-profit companies. He is a visiting professor of Advertising in the Graduate Design Management program at Pratt Institute, an adjunct professor in the Integrated Marketing program at NYU and a founding board member of the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning, and a member of the advisory board of NATAN Worldwide Disaster Relief. . He served as a trustee on the boards of Generations United, a non-profit advocacy group based in Washington, and Business for America, which promotes corporate responsibility.

Bios Continue Here