Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 200-201. (Budapest, 2007)

TANULMÁNYOK — ARTICLES - FORRAI, Judit: History of a Special Healing Method for Motor-disordered Children: Conductive Education - A mozgásszervi betegségben szenvedő gyermekek egyik sajátos gyógymódja, a konduktív nevelés története

started as early as possible, already before institutional-age, which means that mothers have to be taught healing educational ways for application in the home. 2. It is essential that teaching should be varied and the rhythm adaptated to the individual's needs, while common work and directed play cannot be result-oriented, rather the activity itself needs to become the goal. 3. He proved that there are no hopeless cases. Thanks to his methods, the intellectual abilities of all disabled people may be developed. 10 These three perceptions form the basis of Pető's method. In the beginning of the 19th century institutions were founded for mentally disabled children in Austria and Switzerland. It was a step forward that a curriculum was made for the pupils. Hans Jacob Guggenbuhl (1816-1863) run an institute in Adenberg, a combination of a hospital and a school, where both doctor and teacher worked with the children simultaneously. They used outdoor gymnastics as well as pharmaceutical therapy. In the beginning of the 20th century rhythm and movement played an essential role in the forming of new types of schools, such as movement art, Waldorf or Steiner schools. The qualities of these schools are a basic element of the Institute based on Pető's method as well. There was a lot of talk in the coffee-houses of the European capitals about Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), an eminent thinker of his age,. In the beginning he was an anarchist. Later on, standing close to theosophy, he founded anthroposophy. He was a great admirer of Goethe, whose works on natural history were commented by him. The director of the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Germany asked him to develop the best possible modern pedagogical method for the children of his factory workers - so the famous school system, the so called Waldorf or Steiner education, was born. Steiner's philosophy doesn't only develop the intellect", but rather the whole human being, including his or her emotional and physical capacities. Into his thinking he melted the Eastern cultures' knowledge of the human being, the interaction of body, soul and spirit. The different layers of the being form concentric circles: in the middle stands the bodily nature of humans, the next circle is perception and motivations, and the third one is the individual. The first Waldorf School was founded in 1919 in Stuttgart. This time its co-educational system was a novelty. The first eight years of the twelve year long learning process were built on single most important person: the class teacher. The main aim of teaching was not to gain lexical knowledge, but to establish a firm and personal relationship to the children, and to develop psychological self-recognition. Arts played an important role: singing, instrumental music and artistic movement. According to Steiner all humans have a sense for music, but it is a question whether this sense remains repressed or it is successfully brought up onto the surface. His principle was the same as that of Zoltán Kodály

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: there are no "musically illiterate" children, since children are all apt for music and rhythm. Since children can express their feelings through arts, it is a school of the heart, since they do blacksmithing and pottery, work with metals and wood and learn geodesy, it is a school of the hand, and because certain subjects are taught in a concentrated way, in more 10 Szabó, Anna Gordosné: The history of special education, Notes. Budapest, Tankönyvkiadó, 1988. 17-24. 11 Steiner, Rudolf - Wegman, Ita: Fundamentals of Therapy, An Extension of the Art of Healing through Spiritual Knowledge. 1922 12 Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, educator, linguist.