András Pető

András Pető (born September 11, 1893 in Szombathely ; † September 11, 1967 in Budapest ) was a Hungarian doctor who developed conductive support for people with cerebral and movement disorders.

childhood

András Pető was born in Szombathely, Hungary, in 1893, the eldest of three sons. The father fell ill with Parkinson's in 1907 , which forced András to support the family financially through his own work. He worked as a tutor, private tutor and newspaper editor. Pető was no longer able to concentrate sufficiently on school due to the necessary support from the family, but left it with the Abitur . After graduating from high school, he studied in Vienna from 1911 . Originally he wanted to become a journalist , but decided to study medicine in Vienna. From this point on, Pető has spent almost thirty years in the German-speaking region and Vienna shaped him at a time when this city was one of the “spiritual capitals of the world”. During his student days he met Jacob Levy Moreno , who later became a doctor, playwright and psychotherapist , with whom he had a lifelong friendship. With Moreno, Pető played impromptu theater for children and later for prostitutes in Vienna . According to Hári, group therapy later developed from this . He came into contact with the various psychological schools of the time that had their headquarters in Vienna: Freud , Adler and Frankl .

Study and training

Pető's studies and further training show a versatile interested and committed person who also published novels, poems and dramas under pseudonyms. In addition to these literary activities, he was also interested in ancient and eastern religions. He knew the Austrian song composer Hanns Eisler and joined the KPÖ in 1919. It speaks for the greatness of Petoe that although the humanistic roots of the teachings of Karl Marx are reflected in his work , they do not reflect the Stalinist attitude towards people. As a medical student, he worked for three years in a tuberculosis department from 1914-18 and then in the war hospital in Grinzing , where he completed his training as an internist in the pulmonary ward and internal department. In 1921 he received his medical diploma and in 1922 he became an Austrian citizen.

In the years after 1920 he continued his education in neurology , psychiatry and physiotherapy and practiced in various clinics in Austria in senior medical positions, where he dealt with the problem of congenital damage in children. Since 1921 he worked in different clinics and sanatoriums, dealt with orthopedics as an assistant doctor and in 1922 carried out movement therapy with his chief physician Hecht in the sanatorium in Semmering. In 1928/1929 he was the medical director of a people's sanatorium in Vienna, where he worked intensively on combining different healing methods. The next year he worked as a resident doctor in the state and nursing home for the mentally ill and nervous, and from 1930 to 1938 he was an employee at the Institute for Physiotherapy in Vienna. During this time he also worked as the director of the medical publisher Weidmann & Co and was editor-in-chief of the publication Biologische Heilkunst of this publisher, for which he wrote articles under around 60 pseudonyms in nine years, in which the basic principles of conductive promotion could already be recognized in the series from 1931 . In Vienna, Paris and Budapest at that time he was better known as a journalist, but less known as a doctor.

In 1938 he fled as a Jew from the National Socialists to Paris, where he stayed briefly and worked as a specialist journalist, after which he returned to Hungary as a Hungarian citizen. There is very little to be found in German-language secondary literature about Pető's life during the Second World War and the persecution of the Jews in Hungary. However, there are references to his stay in English-language literature: accordingly, it is likely that Pető lived in one of the international shelters in Budapest during the German occupation and was thus able to survive. András Pető's mother was murdered in Auschwitz . Hári writes that from 1939 to 1947 Pető paid his taxes in Budapest as a physiotherapist. During this time he is said to have laid the foundations of conductive education.

The development of conductive support

After the war, Pető got his doctor's license and started his movement therapy work with 14 children who were assigned to him from the state children's home by the Ministry of Education and Public Welfare and who were considered "uneducable". An attempt should be made to apply the method created by Pető in practice. From 1945 to 1963 Pető was responsible for the curative education college for somatopedagogy, which is comparable with the German physically handicapped education. From 1948 he held lectures there with the rank of professor for students who could gain their experience in the affiliated institute. This institute for physical education emerged from the work with the "untrainable" children after 1945. Pető had developed structured programs for these children and organized life and work in the group. The attempt started with very modest means because the state budget could not provide anything. He was given four medical students to help out. The daily routine was precisely planned, diagnoses were not allowed. The children should be observed without evaluations and motivated to actively learn meaningful everyday activities in the course of the day: eating, going to the toilet, getting dressed, etc. Pető was successful with his work, some of the children were able to go to school after 2 years.

In February 1950, the Institute for Movement Therapy designed by Pető was completed for a capacity of 80 children, which now received a budget from the state budget. Only in 1963 could the institute be withdrawn from membership of the Ministry of Health and placed under the Ministry of Culture. Pető had fought for this for a long time, he understood his method as movement pedagogy, while the Ministry of Health understood disability and support as a biological problem and therefore spoke of movement therapy. In Pető's understanding, however, the emergence of a new way of life, the development of a coordination of movements, was a learning problem that can only be met with a “completely educational approach”. In order to be able to learn a new movement, the child or adult needs to be active and not a special method of movement exercises. The conductor pays attention to the introduction to the correct movement.

From 1963 the institute was called the Education and Pedagogical Training Institute for Motor Disabled People . Pető left the curative education college that year and devoted himself entirely to the management of his institute. In 1965 the training of conductors was officially approved. András Pető died in the institute on September 11, 1967 at the age of 74.

The institute after Pető's death

The institute, now named after Pető, was first headed by Maria Hári until 1992 and then by various other personalities. Since 2007 it has been headed by the Hungarian diplomat Franz Schaffhauser. Schaffhauser was responsible for teacher training at the University and, before joining the Pető Institute, program secretary in the Educational Science Institute of the University of Budapest. In 1989 the International András Pető Foundation for the Dissemination of Conductive Promotion was set up by the Hungarian government, to which the International Pető Institute, the College for Female Conductor Training, its practice kindergarten and the practice school belong.

Conductive promotion in Germany

The conductive support developed by Pető was brought to Germany through the initiative of Peter and Hanni von Quadt, parents of a disabled child. The von Quadt family was made aware of Pető by the stock exchange expert André Kostolany . In 1994 Peter von Quadt founded the FortSchritt eV association together with other affected parents. In 2006 he received the Federal Cross of Merit for bringing conductive support to Germany and is still committed to promoting cerebrally damaged children and adults using this method.

At least 56 institutions across Germany are currently working according to the Petős concept, and there are 18 independent associations in Germany.

literature

• Angelika Baumann: The relationship between physically disabled pedagogy and conductive support in education and upbringing. Athena-Verlag, Oberhausen, 2009. ISBN 978-3-89896-365-7 .
• Margarete Danielczyk: Conductive support for adults. Concept according to András Petö. Pflaum-Verlag, Munich / Berlin, ISBN 3-7905-0896-9 .
• Annette Fink: Practice of conductive support according to A.Petö. Reinhardt-Verlag, Munich, 1998 ISBN 3-497-01454-0 .
• Maria Hári / Julia Horváth / Ildikó Kozma / Márta Kökúti: The Petö system. Principles and practice of conductive promotion. International Petö Institute, Budapest, 1992. ISBN 963-04-2531-9 .
• Maria Hári: The History of Conductive Pedagogy . In: Conductive Education, Occasional Papers, German Version, Supplement1, First published by Trendham Books Limited 1997 ISSN  1418-5881 Abbreviated translation of the Hungarian original by Maria Hári: A konduktiv pedagógika története. Mpanni, Internationales Petö-Institut, Budapest 1997, ISBN 963-04-9333-0 Hungarian, but correspondence from Pető in German or English. With photos and attached documents (many documents and letters in German)
• Nadine Janousek: The concept of conductive support according to András Petö. Grin-Verlag, 2010. ISBN 978-3-640-66025-4 .
• Sandra Schwarzenbacher: Conductive multiple therapeutic support according to Petö and Keil: theory-practice-effectiveness. VDM-Verlag, 2009. ISBN 978-3-639-20661-6 .

Web links

• Petö Institute, Budapest. English language homepage
• Federal Association of Conductive Promotion according to Petö

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hári, Maria: The history of conductive pedagogy , abridged translation of the Hungarian original from 1977, German version in Occasional Papers 1997. p. 12.
2. ↑ ^{a b} website Gresch, Hans-Ulrich  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 15, 2012  
3. ↑ Hári, Maria: The history of conductive pedagogy , shortened translation of the Hungarian original from 1977, German version in Occasional Papers 1997. 22ff
4. ^ Hári, Maria: The history of conductive pedagogy , Abbreviated translation of the Hungarian original from 1977, German version in Occasional Papers 1997, p. 13
5. ^ Fink, Annette: Practice of conductive support according to A. Petö . 1998, p. 31.
6. ↑ Fink, Annette: Practice of Conductive Promotion after A.Petö. 1998, p. 31 ff ./Danielczyk, M .: Conductive Promotion in Adults. Concept according to András Petö. 2003, p. 18f.
7. ^ Fink, Annette: Practice of Conductive Promotion according to A.Petö .1998, p.31 / Hári, Maria: The History of Conductive Pedagogy , Abbreviated Translation of the Hungarian Original from 1977, German Version in Occasional Papers 1997. P. 13.
8. ↑ Baumann, Angelika: The relationship between physically handicapped pedagogy and conductive support in education and upbringing . 2009, p. 188.
9. ↑ Fink, Annette: Practice of conductive support according to A.Petö . 1998, p. 32f.
10. ^ Hári, Maria: The history of conductive pedagogy , abridged translation of the Hungarian original from 1977, German version in Occasional Papers 1997. P. 14ff
11. ↑ Forrai Judit: Memoirs of the beginnings of Conductive pedagogy and András Pető . Birmingham, 1999, pp.25 and 26. Pető presumably lived in one of the houses that were under Swiss diplomatic protection
12. ^ Hári, Maria: The history of conductive pedagogy , abridged translation of the Hungarian original from 1977, German version in Occasional Papers 1997. p. 16.
13. ↑ There are different information about the number of children: Hári, Maria: The history of conductive pedagogy , Abbreviated translation of the Hungarian original from 1977, German version in Occasional Papers 1997, p. 29 quotes a source that there are 20 children with the Little Disease acted as "incurable and idiotic". Until then, they hadn't been taken care of, they just vegetated in the children's homes.
14. ↑ Baumann, Angelika: The relationship between physically handicapped pedagogy and conductive support in education and upbringing . 2009, p. 193.
15. ^ Fink, Annette: Practice of conductive support according to A. Petö . 1998, p.33; the Swiss Red Cross had provided blankets; see. also Baumann, Angelika: The relationship between physically handicapped pedagogy and conductive support in education and upbringing . 2009, p. 193 ff.
16. ^ Fink, Annette: Practice of Conductive Promotion after A.Petö. 1998, p. 33; Baumann, Angelika: The relationship between physically handicapped pedagogy and conductive support in education and upbringing. 2009, p. 194 speaks of 14 children; Danielczyk, M .: Conductive support for adults. Concept according to András Petö. 2003, p.19 by some.
17. ^ Hári, Maria: The history of conductive pedagogy , shortened translation of the Hungarian original from 1977, German version in Occasional Papers 1997, p. 43ff.
18. ↑ Baumann, Angelika: The relationship between physically handicapped pedagogy and conductive support in education and upbringing . 2009, p. 197. Here also the various heads of the institute between 1992 and 2007.
19. ↑ Fink, Annette: Practice of conductive support according to A.Petö . 1998, p. 34.
20. ^ Lions Club Munich - Heinrich the Lion: Peter von Quadt lectures. Accessed April 16, 2011.
21. ↑ Förderverein FortSchritt Starnberg eV access on February 1, 2013.
22. ↑ Federal Association for Physically and Multiple Disabled People, Specialized Committee for Conductive Promotion (Ed.): Integration of Conductive Promotion in the Rehabilitation and Education System for People with Disabilities in Germany. Conductive promotion. 2009, p. 41 and p. 16.