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
The leadership put great emphasis on moral education as well. The teachers were eager to ensure the well-being of their students beyond in-class hours, also. Students were not allowed to have pocket money from home and they were required to write their parents a letter every Saturday to report on their own progress. The director monitored all outgoing and incoming correspondence. As a sign of a good working relationship between parents and teachers, on the request of the parents, the school stepped up its efforts in ensuring that the students completed all their homework and assignments. The English Residential school was for boys only and girls could not enter. Nonetheless, on certain special occasions and if sufficiently warranted, girls were allowed to sit in during the English classes. In adhering to another facet of the original concept, the school ensured an opportunity for needy students to be admitted for studies, also. Three categories were defined. Students subscribing for full benefits paid one thousand four hundred pengős per year (full meal plan) and a tuition fee of between one hundred and one hundred twenty-five pengős, the latter also including certain compulsory private lessons (two music lessons, fencing, German or French conversational lessons ever week). Students in the second category only lived in the building, but did not take their meals there (they ate in the regular dining- hall) and were not entitled to other privileges. For this they paid two hundred fifty pengős. Students in the third group slept in the attic. These were the poorest students and paid one hundred pengős per year. Only twelve students could be accepted into this group while the other two had thirty-five and forty respectively. Students could also be enrolled by parents in the English school’s academic program without being lodged in the building. These students were also required to participate in the English conversational classes in the afternoon, for which denominationally Reformed students paid fifteen pengős and students of other denominations paid twenty-five pengős. The important elements of “school for the poor” and “hint of Oxford” were able to be combined in this way. The extremely unfortunate denouement of this story is that this model institution enjoyed less than two decades of operation. 209 Poet and translator Dezső Mészöly (1918-2011) studied in Sárospatak and lived in the English Residential School. BACK IN THE HANDS OF THE CHURCH AGAIN - THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE TEACHER TRAINING SCHOOL The loss of the Academy of Law amplified the voices of those who wanted to retake possession of the Teacher Training School. As the school emphasized in its bulletins, the main concern was not who controls the institution but rather what principles the school would espouse and convey. The school leaders were in search of a solution which would better interest those living in the less-developed areas of the Bodrogköz, Hegyköz and Abaúj and attract large numbers of those children to the College. Obviously, the English Residential School was not the institution to resolve this matter so it became evident that there was a need for another branch institution which would better suit the needs of children of less- educated parents.
