Dénes Dienes: History of the Reformed Church Collég in Sárospatak (Sárospatak, 2013)
SPIRIT AND MOOD - On the traditional path - the humanities section of the secondary school and theological education 199 A New Crown Jewel: The English Residential School
With united effort, the supporters of the proposal, however, were able to overcome these fears, aversions and the counter-arguments, both financial and content-related, emanating from Budapest. Klebelsberg’s principal allies in Patak were Imre Elekes, director of the secondary school, Géza F arkasfalvi F arkas, chief head lay officer of the College, Károly Janka, the pastor of the College and Ernő Dókus, chief head lay officer of the church district. The most significant support, however, came from a new formation, the National Association of Patak Students which included exceptionally prominent alumni like Károly Panka, the director of the National Fibrary, or Ferenc Finkey, who by then was chief justice officer in Budapest. The intensive phase of the negotiations pertaining to the establishment of the English Residential School took place in 1929 and construction was begun the following year. The building was officially inaugurated on 1 October 1931 as part of the anniversary celebrations. In starting the school year with one class of grade one students and one class of grade five students classes, all in the English program, the building was at least partially occupied by students. English teaching was entrusted to a young Fatin and English teacher, Gyula Szabó. As construction continued, a third class was soon started. Fajos Héthy began teaching here in 1937 and Sándor Maller joined him in 1938. From the very first day, two English native speakers also worked here, helping students in conversational classes to practice what they had been taught in class by the Hungarian teachers. The traditional system of language instruction which was based on ‘translation only’, as rooted in the teaching of Fatin, was, for the most part, little used. A new system with the inclusion of additional in-class hours resulted in the instruction of English becoming the dominant discipline in the new school. There were two English classes every day and it was strictly required that the students spend one class hour of these two hours with the given English native-speaking teacher and one hour with the Hungarian teacher. In every grade, six hours were set aside for English grammar and literature. For the students to be able to create coherent texts on their own was considered the central element in the education program. Everything taught was consistently linked to the English culture, so, from the second academic year onwards, students read English and Scottish fairy tales and, later on, the core reading material was focused on British history, the arts and English society. By the last year of the secondary school, students were familiar with the work of every British author; by the fifth year, they reached a level of competence in the language sufficient for certain subjects (world history, geography, natural science and philosophy) to be taught to them in English. In the case of the English Residential School, the teachers broke tradition and instead of using self-published textbooks, they ordered books from Switzerland, Germany and England, the adjustments in curriculum based on the these books and the foreign purchases were allowed by a special MNER decree. The special 207 Sándor Maller and his students Miklós Teleki, Pál Szemere, Iván Csutorás and John Shirley, all wearing the uniform of the English Residential School, circa 1940
