Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
SPIRIT AND MOOD - From College Teacher Training to State-directed Teacher Training in Sárospatak
173 towns run by local congregations or else teach the College’s first year students in order to complete their practice teaching requirements. This provided only a partial solution to the difficulty, given that Árvay had only minor influence over these institutions. His second goal, that of complete integration, was hindered by prejudicial sentiment, the teacher training program not being considered as one which wielded any particularly significant prestige.. Talented secondary school students were generally discouraged from pursuing their studies in this branch of the College so they enrolled instead in the Theological Academy or the Academy of Law. In the beginning, even within the College, the new branch was constantly belittled, not only by students but by teachers also who made negative comments about a school that “produces professionals for the villages”. Most of the students in the teacher training program came from low-income families. The children of farmers, craftsmen or widows together represented over eighty percent of the combined student body, which in itself reflects the diminished prestige the program was accorded, or at least as it was perceived. The number of children coming from pastor or teacher families represented about fifteen percent of the student body. As these figures show, it can, nonetheless, be seen that the Teacher Training School helped mobilize the members of the rural population of the region. After ten successful years, the College was forced to discontinue the operation of its teacher training program. The Public Education Act also included detailed regulations pertaining to teacher training and the MNER had the intention of unifying the various training programs. This meant that József Eötvös wanted to establish a state-run teacher training school somewhere in the region. Having such an institution so close to Patak would have made it impossible to continue operating the current school. Significant amounts of money had been spent on developing the program and the buildings but the state regulations called for additional investment, something which the church district - struggling financially already - could not afford. Despite the number of enrolled students showing a positive rise and this perhaps giving a bargaining position in negotiations with the MNER, the leaders of the church district decided to hand over the College’s teacher training faculty to the state if it guaranteed to keep all three classes, to allow all enrolled students to continue in the program and to maintain Hungarian as the language of instruction. As a final point, the church leaders inserted in the agreement a clause reserving for them the right to take the school back should any of the points agreed upon not be respected or other changes introduced. So the state-owned Teacher Training School (TTS) and the College of Sárospatak went their separate ways for decades. The formal separation was not without its practical conflicts. The two institutions continued to share one school doctor and one physical education teacher and the directing Board of the TTS was replete with professors from the College. Almost all the teachers at the TTS were former students of the College and most of the students were graduates of the College’s secondary school. Furthermore, despite having left the TTS, József Árvay - now an administrator for schools in the Zemplén region - maintained close contact with the school and remained chairman of the Board of the TTS. The successor to his office of chairman was his close colleague, József Kiss. As can be seen, the intellectual community remained close-knit despite the
