More about konductiv neveles and konduktiv pedagogia....

I was pleased to see Tunde, Andrew and Susie respond to the posting re konductiv neveles and konduktiv pedagogia. I see it as my job to present information about the holdings of the library and leave others with a much more in depth knowledge of Conductive Education to analyse, criticise and comment. This is what they have done, raising further requests for information in the process, so here goes.

The library holds four reports of visits to Budapest by Germans in the 1960s:

Otto Klein, from the Humboldt University, Berlin visited the Institute in 1962 calling it ‘Institut für Bewegungspädagogik Budapest’and produced a detailed report of the work there. He referred to the work as ‘Konduktion’ und ‘konduktive Bewegungspädagogik’ and the staff as ‘konduktor’ and ‘Bewegungspädagoginnen’ An English translation of the report mostly used the term ‘movement teacher’ and after a quick scan of the German I could only spot mention of ‘kondutive’ twice amongst the many references to movement pedagogy. Mention of rhythmical intention is made.

In 1964 Helmut Eckhardt, a doctor visited whilst on a two week study trip to Budapest and had read Klein’s report two years previously. I do not have an English translation of this and my German is very rusty, but he did use ‘konduktorin’ and ‘konduktor’.

Rolf Lehnhardt, a journalist wrote up his visit in 1965, just after the new profession of konduktor had been recognized by the Hungarian State and he does use the term konduktive Methode and quotes Peto as saying,

Seit 1939 nunmehr in Budapest widme ich mich vorwiegend der konduktive
Bewegungspädagogik.

Ungvari and Schmidt, two Krankengymnastinen (physiotherapists) reported on a three day visit to Budapest in 1967. Again I have no English translation of this, but they wrote of Pető’s method, rhythmic intention and konduktorinnen.
None of these four uses the term Konduktive Förderung,(conductive upbringing) a term commonly used in Germany today. All four appear to be positive enthusiastic reports.

As to Pető’s use of education to describe his work, the article mentioned by Andrew is one he published in 1955 in Gyógypedagógia. An edited version in English was published in The Conductor, 1993. Full references for both of these are below.

Tunde raised the English translation of Konduktiv pedagogia (published in 1971 by Hári and Ákos) in 1988 which was called Conductive Education, but the use of Conductive Education was quite established by then and further investigation would find if any other terms were used then too .

If anyone has anything further to add to this discussion or knows of relevant material please do get in touch. As I said before there is so much in the library that could form the basis of a number of research projects.

Photocopies of all the items listed below can be supplied under the usual conditions. Please contact me if you would like any.

References

Eckhardt, H. (1964) Die Behandlung zerebralgelähmter Kinder in der ‘Bewegungsversehrten-Erziehungsanstalt und Konduktor-Seminar’ in Budapest unter Leitung von Prof. Dr. med.A. Pető. Beiträge zur Orthopadie und Traumatologie, 11(6), pp.419-424.

Hári, M. and Ákos, K. (1971) Konduktiv pedagogia. Budapest: Tankonyvkiado.

Hári, M. and Ákos, K. (1988) Conductive Education. London: Routledge.

Klein, O.(1962) Zur Bewegungspädagogischen Behandlung zerebral gelähmter Kinder im Institute für Bewegungspädagogik Budapest. Beiträge zur Orthopadie und Traumatologie, 9, pp.315-332.

Lehnhardt,R. (1965) Lebenshilfe für Bewegungsversehrte. Schwabische Zeitung. [Exact date and page unknown]

Pető, A. (1955) Konduktiv mozgasterapia mint gyogypedagogia. Gyópedagógia, no.1, pp.15-21.

Sutton, A. (1993) Conductive movement therapy as special education. The Conductor, 5(2), pp.37-39. [Summary in English of Konduktiv mozgasterapia mint gyogypedagogia. Gyópedagógia, no.1, pp.15-21.]

Ungvari, E. and Schmidt, H. (1967) Bericht über das Institut für Bewegungstherapie in Budapest. Krankengymnastik, no.9, pp.323-325.