Siegfried "Zig" Engelmann

"Your presentation must be consistent with one and only one interpretation - the correct one" I use Zig's rule (above) every day at work in my own compositions and in reviewing others'. Thanks Zig.

I learned a lot from Zig. Have tried to pass it on as well. I don't know of anyone who works as hard as Zig did. He made this world a better place. Thanks Zig. I helped the neighbor boy learn to talk when his mother came to us because her son was mute at 3 years old. She's a doctor and cried on my wife's shoulder because of the situation. I only knew what to suggest because of you. He entered first grade on time and is performing at grade level. Have also passed on several copies...

I am a student of education at a university in the Midwest. I never met professor Engelmann, but over the past few years, I have read his work and the work of his colleagues as I have realized the lack of value in what the teacher education program at my college was offering. While the teacher education program at my college simply taught us about useless fads and pseudoscience, I was lucky enough to discover via my own research the works of Zig Engelmann and his cohorts, and I am incredibly...

Zig was larger than life. Although it's been 40 years, I have some lasting memories of him that have endured. He would hold class down in the basement of his clinic while lifting weights, and snap himself with a rubber band around his wrist every time he had the urge to smoke. I found myself championing his methodologies for capturing the child not benefiting from a traditional learning approach throughout my career. DI worked wonderfully. This world is better place because of Zig....

Zig was the most AMAZING educator of all time! He cared about kids---especially the hard-to-teach kids and conveyed that commitment to everyone he touched. I was an award-winning ADI recipient; however, I could never have begun to approach being the teacher I was without Direct Instruction. In fact, I told Ziggy when he handed me my award (2000) that I felt as if I was getting an award for "adding two eggs and a half a cup of water to an OUTSTANDING cake mix!" (Zig's kind response was, "It...

I had the privilege of meeting Zig at a NIFDI conference, and I was immediately in awe of him. I loved listening to him speak, he was not one to mince words and told it like it was. I appreciated that about him. He will be dearly missed.

I worked for Siegfried Engelmann & Wes Becker at Engelmann & Becker Corp in 1973. Was for only 8 months but enjoyed working for them. Ziggy as he was called in the office will be greatly missed.

Zig was an inspirational man who did a lot for the educational world. His sharp and witty sense of humor will be missed.

My love and prayers are with his immediate family and his DI family as they grieve his passing.

"A DIku" by Tom Besson

Zig did more for kids
Than anyone else could do
Just by teaching them