Give them the due due, do
As part of the continuing discussion of the mysterious Chinese posting on conductive upbringing, Susie Mallet has pointed out its affinity to the position of the Ákoses' book Dina. My own comment in return is published below –
Thank you for mentioning Karóly and Magda Ákos in this context.
This gives me opportunity to say, again, what a privilege it was to have known them, thoroughgoing representatives of the intelligentsia of Hungary of its time. Such a terrible shame that, though they lived in Vörös Hadsereg útja only a mile way from the PAI spanking new HQ in Kútvölgyi út (which they never visited), they were effectively excluded from Conductive Education in Hungary: another terrible example of the what-might-have-beens of Conductive Education.
Dina
As for their book Dina, now there's another strange story. Gabi Haug published the original German manuscript, in Germany, through the tiny poetry publishing house of Alabanda Verlag. It did not sell. It appears in German-language bibliographies but its effects upon practice have been negligible, and Gabi's attempt to establish the parental self-help network that the Ákoses had advocated are now lost in the mists of history.
I published an English translation of the German text through the Foundation for Conductive Education. That did not sell either. This was long before the days of print-on-demand publishing and, if I recall, we were left with some seven or eight hundred copies on our hands, Gill Maguire and I tried to push the book over the years that followed but sales were at best only a tiny trickle. The Foundation lost quite a bit of money over this adventure and the Ákoses never made a penny from their efforts. There is no apparent sign of its existence in present-day CE in any of the English-speaking countries.
Gabi and I could conclude that the image (the icon) of Conductive Education, in which it was projected as some amazing things that conductors did to children on parents' behalf, was just too beguiling. In social-policy terms, the image of 'institutional Conductive Education' as the Ákoses called it – in contrast to parental Conductive Education, has proved a disaster. Its 'solution' to the Conductive Education's availability problem is self-evidently unattainable: all that is needed is more – and more – and more conductors, and centres/programs for them to work in.. The Ákoses' sterner vision, of something that is primarily the responsibility of parents themselves, may be more attainable in theory but ultimately could not compete.
The English translation of Dina was also published in Chinese translation, by what is now SAHK, but does not appear to have penetrated the Chinese CE culture. There was also a Russian translation, produced in Moscow by the publishing house Uliss. I have found no trace of Uliss for some years now. I wonder what happened to the copies that it had printed – pulped, or mouldering in some warehouse? I have certainly see little sign of the book's existence or influence in Russian-language Cyberspace.
There was never a translation into Hungarian and I suspect that most Hungarian-trained conductors will not have heard of it. In Hungary, as elsewhere, the Ákoses' names seem to have been effectively struck from the cartouches!
Potentially one of most influential and important books in Conductive Education has vanished almost without trace. Talk about lost chances and what-might-have beens!
Yes, thank you for helping bring them their due.
References
Ákos, K., Ákos, M. Dina: a mother practises Conductive Education (Pető System), Birmingham, Foundation for Conductive Education, and Ulm, Alabanda Verlag
Some pages of this book are available free on line through Google books:
Mallett, S. (2010) How to 'ignite children's enthusiasm', Conductor, 23 July
Sutton, A. (2008) Poetry, and philosophy of science, Conductive World, 29 March
(There is plenty else mentioning the Ákoses on Conductive World.)
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