Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
SPIRIT AND MOOD - Animated Student Life
SECONDARY SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 176 Gerzson Szinyei was also the author of outstanding achievements in the academic endeavours of the library radically transformed and it was exclusively adults who were teaching at all levels. The student-teacher assignments gradually disappeared and adults were charged with carrying out every task around the College. As a consequence, the rights of the student government were also significantly reduced. The students who were sworn-in were no longer responsible for ‘policing’ duties. The leaders of the College began to be concerned about the moral order and educational standards; they considered the new institutional mode of operation too loose and easy compared to the former rules of discipline. In the 1860s, the position of‘house parent’ was created. The task of this officer was to monitor the moral behaviour and physical health of the students. After a trial period of one year, István Kun was finalized in this position with a salary of six hundred forints per year. With this last, significant step, the student government lost all its duties and responsibilities pertaining to the daily life of the College. On the other hand, the leadership of the institution endeavoured to maintain traditions and offer a wide variety of activities to enrich cultural life for the youth. To this end, various nature collections were initated and expanded. The collecting of insects and stuffed birds, for example, was begun in 1858. It is with unabashed pride that the teachers recalled the visit to Patak, in 1889, of the Catholic bishop from Kassa who commended the school for its outstanding natural sciences collection. It was exactly twenty years after this that the botanical garden was established. A wide variety of medical, industrial, kitchen and ornamental plants were planted in three hundred separate plots. The initiators did not for a moment make any secrect of their aim to slowly convert the entire school garden into one big botanical garden. At the turn of the century, the College library was inducted into the National Association of Museums and Libraries. During this latter process, all the books and the system in which they were handled were closely examined. As no shortcomings were detected, the library was granted the right of benefitting from the state’s library fund. With encouragement from the MNER, the ‘educational reading nights’ program was reinstated. This meant that for eight Sundays every year the local public was invited to attend educational lectures and, in this way, the College seized upon another opporutunity to build bridges to the people in its immediate vicinity. Much as in the past, the publishing house of the College continued to have a significant role to maintain. By the end of the 1850s, forty-eight thousand copies of books were being published a year, which represented the tripling of its output over a short span of time. The encouragingly positive results of the publishing activities inspired the idea of relaunching the Literature Group of Sárospatak. The movement started with Gerzson Szinyei in 1873 with the aim of providing textbooks for the secondary schools and public schools. The inherent purpose was to extend and make continuous the intellectual influence of the College and its teachers wherever possible. In the domain of physical education, the key date in Sárospatak is 1858, when - thanks to János Antalfy’s perseverance - the local gymnasium and swimming pool opened. Unfortunately, the latter was destroyed by fire nearly fifteen years later, so no swimming lessons could be given for many years. In 1878, a new large gym having a surface area of two hundred twenty square meters was built but it could not be sufficiently heated in the coldest winters so physical education classes were not held for up to five weeks during such times. From the mid-
