News source for Pető Institute

 Stories about the Pető Institute's financial situation  have been circulating in the Hungarian media for a couple of weeks now and I have managed  find a source that links to them all.

 

http://www.hirkereso.hu/search?q=Peto+Intezet&timelimit=10000&archivum=-1&x=23&y=4

 

 

 

Hirkereső legnagyobb hir portál (Biggest news portal)  lists 134 items in newspapers and television right back to March 2013, with the latest being yesterday. Numbers 1-117 cover August and September 2013, so there are quite a lot to look at, but  a lot consist of  repeat information, rather than new 'facts'.

 

It provides  a very good way of tracking new reports and keeping up with the situation.

 

Translation facilities for non-Hungarian speakers can be found on the Internet.

New books to come from Conductive Education Press

I can hardly believe that it is nearly a year ago that the book András Pető was published and, after a brief respite to re-charge our batteries, we have been planning and preparing titles for 2013.

The first, due out very soon, is a quotationary titled:

CEP Quotationary of András Pető  and his Conductive Education.

Birmingham: Conductive Education Press. ISBN 978-0-9569948-5-1

This contains over 300 quotations by 40 people, (including András Pető) from 15 different sources. You can imagine that it has taken quite a while to assemble these quotations, arrange, and reference them. Soon you will be able to see them for yourselves and learn more about this complex man and the origins of conductive pedagogy.

The second, is a collection of blog postings by Ralph Strzałkowski:

Strzałkowski, R. (2013) Never never quit; my Conductive Education. Pieces of mind, memories and opinions from the desk of Ralph Strzałkowski Esq, Lawyer on Wheels.

Birmingham: Conductive Education Press. ISBN  978-0-9569948-6-8

Ralph's own recent announcement of this on his blog can be found at:

http://blog.lawyeronwheels.org/2013/08/the-title.html

Ralph attended the Pető Institute as a young boy and reports, reflects and examines his experiences there, what Conductive Education has done for him and how it continues to influence his life. This is possibly the first such personal account of a child's experiences of Conductive Education, certainly in English.

A third new title is in the pipeline, and will be out round Christmas or the New Year.

More information will be posted soon.

Watch this space.

 

New website for the Peto Institute ?

Yesterday I  needed to check the date of a Peto Institute publication and clicked on the link for the publications page that I gave a few weeks ago.
http://www.gillian-maguire.info/2010/07/conductive-education-publications-for.html

To my dismay there was nothing there and so I put Peto Institute into Google again and found what looks like a new site under construction using the previous URL. It does look very crisp and clear with colourful pictures across the top, but at present there are no pages for the library and publications that I could find.

 I will keep checking and when I find this information up again on the Internet, I will let you know.

http://www.peto.hu/

Conductive Education publications for sale

Today I discovered a list of books and pamphlets for sale at Hari Maria Library in the Peto Institute, Budapest.

http://www.peto.hu/konyvtar/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=1#15

The majority of these are in  Hungarian but there are eighteen titles in English and a few in German. Other subjects such as the education system in Hungary and neurology are also included.

The rules of the Library are available in English and state that:

Publications for sale


In the Libraries we sell mainly the publications published under the auspices of the Institute, and works connected with the activity of the Institute, respectively. This service is available for anyone during the opening hours.

The complete rules can be viewed at
http://www.peto.hu/konyvtar/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48&Itemid=68



If you wish to follow up on this, please contact library@peto.hu

English website for Peto Institute - is this new?

I have just discovered that the Peto Institute has a new English version of its website which looks very good, clean and fresh with a white background. I have no idea how long it has been up on the Internet.

http://www.peto.hu/en/

I have had a look around but was unable to find a list of publications and information on ordering these.

General information about the Institute can be found under the headings of Centre for Development and Conductive Care, Conductive Kindergarten, Conductive School, Adults' Education Unit, College for Conductor Training and Mária Hári Library and Regional Resource Centre.

http://www.peto.hu/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=52:our-institute&catid=36:general&Itemid=58

The introductory paragraph to the Library section says

Funds from the European Union and the National Development Plan in the frame of
the Human Resources Development Operational Programme have made the
refurbishment of the Mária Hári Library and Regional Resource Centre possible.

The Library holds thirty thousand volumes on a variety of subjects, not just Conductive Education. A brief description of its contents given.

The piece finishes with

A newsroom, a study, light and comfortable rooms for readers and a children’s
corner are expecting visitors day by day.

I am not sure if this means the library is now open to all and not just the Institute's staff and students. Perhaps someone will confirm it for me.

A museum devoted to the history of Conductive Education and Maria Hari's life is also on the first floor. Certainly worth a visit if open access is possible, if you are ever in Budapest.

Peto Institute is no longer the only option

Over the past year, and particularly this last week, I have been seeing news items about parents raising money to take their children to the Peto Institute in Budapest. A very worthwhile aim but these parents do not seem to have any awareness of the availability of Conductive Education services with conductors, not just in their own country, but very near home and quite often free, or at least subsidised in some way.

One of the stories reported the efforst of a family in Corby, Northants which cannot be that far from the Leicestershire Steps Centre and I assume they are not aware of this.

http://www.northantset.co.uk/news/Fund-for-James-reaches-5000.5891123.jp

http://www.ludlowadvertiser.co.uk/news/4818878.Ludlow_school_to_support_Megan_Baker_House/

http://www.stepscentre.org.uk/apps/content/html/viewcontent.aspx?id=1

It seems that Conductive Education still has a long way to go not only in promoting its benefits, but also promoting the services available locally. A difficult task and something to aim for in 2010.

I will try and do my bit and keep my lists of centres up to date and also aim to produce lists of services in more countries.

Photos taken in the Peto Institute

I was sent a link to some photos on the Internet which I thought I would mention on this blog.

Conductive Education centres all over the world have posted pictures on their websites illustrating their work with children, but these are very different. They are black and white, not colour, and carefully shot so they are more like works of art in their lighting and composition. Very interesting.

Click on the following link to see these forty-nine photos taken by Stuart Freedman of children in the Peto Institute, that have been posted as a slideshow. They are not dated and include a number of pictures of a British boy, Joe Pallot.

http://www.photoshelter.com/c/stuartfreedman/gallery-slideshow/G00007BLxf9u_EGI/?start

Stuart Freedman, is a photographer who has worked around the world from Afghanistan to Sierre Leone, and been published in der Spiegel, Paris Match and Newsweek. More information and other examples of his pictures can be found at

http://www.stuartfreedman.com/index.htm

Conductive Education Classics: no.2

The Institute for Movement Therapy and School for 'Conductors', Budapest, Hungary; a report of a study visit.
Over the years there has been a large number of reports of visits to the Pető Institute, in a variety of languages - English, German, Russian and Slovenian, for example. These form an interesting collection in the library as they not only present the different viewpoints of health professionals, parents, teachers and academics but also give different accounts of the work there over a period of time.
The first to come out of Hungary in English was that by Ester Cotton, a physiotherapist, reporting her study visit to Pető's institute in 1965. Her first visit at the instigation of Berta Bobath was only for one day, but she returned after being granted a month's study leave from the Bobath Centre and obtaining a bursary from the UK Spastics Society (Russell and Cotton, 1994). On her return to England her enthusiasm for Pető's system led her to set about trying to bring the system out of Hungary.
The institute was residential and Cotton gave a detailed account of the daily routine for the children which started at 6.00am when the children were woken and finished at 7.00pm. The group, rhythmical intention, and its effect were outlined, along with general background information on the institute's set-up, equipment and staffing. The report included a number of photos of the children on the plinths, standing, and walking with the conductors.
Although she wrote of 'unity of treatment and education' and 'conductors' there was no mention of 'Conductive Education'.
An abstract of the article was appended in English, French and Spanish.
Copies of this article can be obtained from the library. Further details on request.
References
Cotton, E. (1965) The Institute for Movement Therapy and School for 'Conductors', Budapest, Hungary; a report of a study visit. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 7, pp.437-446.
Russell, A. and Cotton, E. (1994) The Peto system and its evolution in Britain. London: Acorn Foundation.