The school is funded by the church in Debrecen so I was expecting a wholly religious ethos, but it had more of a feel of a church of England primary school and, encouragingly, the kids were the primary focus.
The minister of the school greeted us with broken English and a huge smile, as did a small chirpy lady called Judit (yes, Judit number 3 so far). They sat us down and explained why the school was set up and why the church felt the need to support it. The history of Hungary is complex, but the isolation of disabled people and the complete shame their families faced is not. Disabled people did not have a place in Hungarian society, especially during the communist era where they could play no part in the countries 'progress'. In the past 20 years attitudes have slowly changed, which has allowed a place like Immaus to start belatedly an invaluable service.
We were then taken upstairs to receive a presentation from Judit (3rd). It was about the theory that the school followed - 'conductive education' (see http://www.scope.org.uk/help-and-information/education/conductive-education). This theory split the 4 of us down the middle, especially when we saw it in practice (more on that below) . The theory hasn't been proven this way or the other, but essentially it is a holistic approach that incorporates physiotherapy, education and religion.
After the talk, we went with Judit to collect 4 children and take them for some physical activity. The premise behind this was to train the children into moving parts of the body that their brain wouldn't allow them to. In education, the idea of peer mentoring is common, and doing the activities in groups was a way of incorporating this. The young boy I worked with, Matt, kept looking at others in the group doing the activities and copying them or attempting to do it better! The activities started with moving a limb then worked up to trying to walk aided or unaided. Matt was incredibly happy the whole time as was most of the four, but one girl who was autistic found the company of strangers difficult and was very upset, although this soon passed as she got used to it. What split the group was the idea that it wasn't a personalised therapy and individual as practised by the youth workers in our group, but for the teachers, of which I am one, we could see the benefit of the methods they used based on staffing levels and the client group. Conductive education is a hard concept to grasp in a practical way as it is not a commonly practiced method, although the fact that is growing in the UK and endorsed by charities such as Scope suggests that it may be a new way that many believe has benefits. I think the home had a marvellous and genuine ethos towards the kids, and in my work, if at every opportunity the clients are telling visitors how magnificent the school is without prompting, that is a good sign!
In the afternoon we went to the Great Church as guided by Ismael the minister. I had never been in a reformed church before so it was interesting but I was more interested in the fantastic views after walking 200 steps up to one of the towers!
In the evening we did what all British people do, compare multi-million pound businesses in each country so we went to Tesco... Which was more like a mall but still did the value range...
On the return to the flat conductive education still ruled the conversation but I stood by the fact that, after only 20years of working with disabled people, Hungary has become a world leader in a method of working with them... And the kids loved the place, which is better than being excommunicated... I'm sure the debate will continue!
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