The passion to understand – and to pass on !
Mathematics :
After four years teaching at the French high school in Ottawa
(Ontario, Canada), I returned to France in 1975 to teach at a middle
school, because that's where everything happens.
I stayed at that middle school - the Georges Pompidou Middle School
in Courbevoie - for 39 years! Well, sometimes part-time when full-time
seemed unreasonable.
I passionately developed an atypical teaching style, which was
difficult at first but became increasingly popular and successful: my
last 15 years of teaching were a real joy, I was proud of my work... and
my students, their families, and my colleagues appreciated it and told
me so.
Little by little " So, according to... "
("donc, d'après...") matured in my mind. Quietly: I must have thought about it for seven or
eight years before taking the plunge, and then writing it took me
another four years.
Its first edition dates back to September 2013, and it was one of six nominees for the 2014 Tangente Prize...
and noted for its quality by the jury of the 2019 Science Education Book Prize of the Academy of Sciences.
" So, according to..." (an axiomatic construction of geometry in middle school) has become a reference: a book written out of passion, but also to share that passion, to open up geometry to all those who have been convinced that "math isn't for you!"
I published an expanded edition at the end of 2019.
Building on my momentum, in October 2021 I published what was to be the first volume of " Mathématiques du cycle 4 " (Mathematics for Cycle 4), numbers and calculations... ("nombres et calculs)" and which will probably be the only volume: too academic for my taste, even though I don't regret writing it.
More recently (in October 2024), I published a first collection
of texts that appeared between March 2023 and October 2024 under the title " Math as I like it... and as I tell it
" ("les maths comme je les aime... et comme je les raconte!"):
lighthearted math episodes, just to read and enjoy (and sometimes
accompanied by far-fetched stories). And now, I hope to publish at
least one more, at the end of 2026!
I am currently working on a new book, but time has at least taught me to avoid making announcements. So I will wait until I have written it before talking about it.
From passion to sharing:
So, according to:
because the first 100 pages of the book ("the basis of the basis") can serve as an introduction to Euclidean geometry, I am sharing
them under a Creative Commons license (PDF available to all, except for
commercial use).
(Of course, I don't claim to have "the" truth, and other entry points are just as possible and coherent!).
Two passionate teachers very generously gave me the interactive graph of the book's 150 definitions and 200 theorems. It's fantastic work and really useful for teaching, and I'm super grateful to them for sharing it... Their app "theorems graphs" is also available to everyone on the book's website.
Mathematics for Cycle 4, numbers and calculations:
because the first 30 pages of this book ("overview of Cycle 3 learning") can serve as an introduction to Cycle 4 calculations, I am also sharing them under the same conditions as "the basis of the basis"
Images of mathematics:
Since 2017, I have been a member of the editorial committee of the website Images des Mathématiques (associated with the CNRS):
I edit the section " pour aller moins loin – ressources pédagogiques " (to go less far – educational resources) and I also write a few articles for the website – “ which I help represent at various events: the 80th anniversary of the CNRS, the APMEP national conference, etc.
Two articles in which I have attempted to revisit my perception of mathematics education:
Images des mathématiques: A taste for math (Included in the first stroll through the "IdM garden")
APMEP: A passion for teaching and sharing
And finally, a new adventure (click on the banner):
in French
... and in English
(Reminders and) other links:
Click on the images to access the corresponding website:
My articles in Images of math :
Thales' harps (Included in Volume of articles 2023)
The divisors of a number, based on its spectrum
A taste for math
Launch of the Year of Mathematics
As many... or not?
Collèges : Middle schools: do we want to throw geometry in the trash?
Towards an algorithm for prime numbers (April Fools' Day!)
Water skiing, computers, the game of Go, aviation...
and the Paris Zoological Park:
Being passionate doesn't mean being monomaniacal! However, I am pretty much incapable of taking only a superficial interest in something: if a subject interests me, I have to delve into it, make it my own... and then share it. Well, there's no point in fighting your nature!
Water skiing:
after practicing it since the age of 10 (on unsuitable skis: there were
no skis for children yet), I ended up becoming a national instructor at
the age of 20.
Computer science:
From 1980 to 1984, I led "logic and computer science" courses at Paris 1 (Sorbonne) as a temporary lecturer
and naturally these courses led me to design, in 1985 - and in
assembly language! - the first software for teaching school mathematics,
the " Superprof " range, on Amstrad...
Then, around 1988, again quite naturally, I designed a computer-aided design and drafting (CAD/CAM) software program, Vectoria 2D pro. In 1993, Vectoria 2D pro received the INFO'PC certification, preceded only by the software program "AUTOCAD" ®, of which it was the discreet French competitor.
Starting in 1999, after an intensive 20-day training course on networks and the Internet at the Poissy media center, I administered my middle school's educational network, then participated in an experiment with interactive whiteboard (IWB) teaching.
The game of Go:
one of my great passions. At one point in my life, I even dreamed about it at night! During the 1980s and 1990s, I wrote an essay on the game of Go (at the request of Luc Thanassecos, founder of the publishing house L'Impensé radical, which specializes in strategy games).
Aviation:
following the same pattern, after obtaining my pilot's license, I ended up writing the "flight technique" manuals for the École Française de Pilotage (a school linked to the flying club where I had obtained my license).
The Paris Zoological Park:
inevitably, after joining SECAS (Société d'Encouragement à la Conservation des Animaux Sauvages), an offshoot of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle - Parc Zoologique de Paris (Vincennes) under the 1901 law, I edited its magazine, La Lettre de la SECAS, from 1996 to 1998.
