Frédérique Papy-Lenger (August 12, 1921 – January 9, 2005) was a Belgian mathematician and mathematics educator active in the New Math movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Early life and education

Frédérique Lenger was born on August 12, 1921, in

Arlon Arlon (; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Luxembourg (Belgium), province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes, Belgium. With a population of just over 28,000, it ...

, Belgium, one of three daughters of a lawyer. After studying classics in the Lycée Royal d’Arlon, she studied for a licentiate in mathematics at the

Université libre de Bruxelles The (French language, French, ; lit. Free University of Brussels; abbreviated ULB) is a French-speaking research university in Brussels, Belgium. It has three campuses: the ''Solbosch'' campus (in the City of Brussels and Ixelles), the ''Plain ...

from 1939 to 1943. The University officially closed in 1941 to prevent its takeover by the German occupation, and her studies continued underground. In 1968, she completed a doctorate with a two-part thesis, one part on mathematics education and the other on geometric transformation groups.

Career

From 1947 to 1950, Lenger taught mathematics at the l’Ecole Decroly, while working as an assistant to mathematician Paul Libois, who suggested that she perform research involving

projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting (''p ...

and

triality In mathematics, triality is a relationship among three vector spaces, analogous to the duality relation between dual vector spaces. Most commonly, it describes those special features of the Dynkin diagram D4 and the associated Lie group Spin(8 ...

. This became a precursor to the work of another student of Libois,

Jacques Tits Jacques Tits () (12 August 1930 – 5 December 2021) was a Belgian-born French mathematician who worked on group theory and incidence geometry. He introduced Tits buildings, the Tits alternative, the Tits group, and the Tits metric. Early life ...

. In 1950, Lenger joined the mathematics faculty of the Lycée Royal d’Arlon; in 1957, she was appointed prefect at Arlon and director of the State Normal School in Arlon. She became a professor of mathematics at the Berkendael State Normal School in Brussels in 1960. In 1961, with several other mathematicians, she became one of the founders of the Centre Belge de Pédagogie de la Mathématique (Belgian Center for the Pedagogy of Mathematics). From 1974 to 1980 she worked in the US, at the Comprehensive School Mathematics Program in St. Louis, Missouri. She returned to Berkendael in 1980. She retired in 1981 but continued to work as a volunteer at the French school in

Nivelles Nivelles (; ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. The Nivelles municipality includes the former municipalities of Baulers, Bornival, Thines, and Monstreux. The Nivelles arrondissement ...

until 1992.

Contributions

Lenger began her work on developing a modern school mathematics curriculum in 1958, working with Willy Servais and in consultation with Georges Papy, whom she married in 1960. With Madeleine Lepropre, Lenger ran an experimental training program for kindergarten teachers based on the new curriculum in 1958–1959, and was encouraged by the enthusiasm the kindergarten students showed for the material. With Papy, in the mid-1960s, she developed a six-volume high-school mathematics program based on the principles of

set theory Set theory is the branch of mathematical logic that studies Set (mathematics), sets, which can be informally described as collections of objects. Although objects of any kind can be collected into a set, set theory – as a branch of mathema ...

and

abstract algebra In mathematics, more specifically algebra, abstract algebra or modern algebra is the study of algebraic structures, which are set (mathematics), sets with specific operation (mathematics), operations acting on their elements. Algebraic structur ...

. She was an invited plenary speaker at the first International Congress on Mathematical Education, speaking there on the "

minicomputer A minicomputer, or colloquially mini, is a type of general-purpose computer mostly developed from the mid-1960s, built significantly smaller and sold at a much lower price than mainframe computers . By 21st century-standards however, a mini is ...

" method for teaching

binary number A binary number is a number expressed in the Radix, base-2 numeral system or binary numeral system, a method for representing numbers that uses only two symbols for the natural numbers: typically "0" (zero) and "1" (one). A ''binary number'' may ...

arithmetic to schoolchildren. She became the founding president of the International Research Group in Mathematical Pedagogy in 1971. Her books include ''L'enfant et les graphes'' (Didier, 1968), ''Mathématique moderne'' (Didier, 1970), ''Modern mathematics'' (two vols., Collier, 1968 and 1969), ''Graph Games'' (Crowell, 1971), and ''Graphs and the Child'' (Harvard University Press, 1979). She also produced many educational booklets through the Belgian Center for the Pedagogy of Mathematics and the Comprehensive School Mathematics Program.

Legacy

The rue Frédérique Lenger in

is named after her.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lenger, Frederique 1921 births 2005 deaths Belgian mathematicians Belgian women mathematicians Belgian mathematics educators Belgian women educators People from Arlon Free University of Brussels (1834–1969) alumni