Inherent contradictions in the concept of the child in 19th century Hungarian pedagogic manuals Béla Pukánszky
Attitudes related to children and childhood in a given historical period and culture are integrated into a complex theoretical construction, a concept of the child in the mentality of the society’s members. This complex image of child is not homogeneous but is divided into several components. We intend to reveal the components of this mental image through analyzing 19th century pedagogic literature. In our study we examined the content of Hungarian educational manuals and pedagogic textbooks written for teachers and teacher trainees in elementary and secondary education in order to reconstruct the authors’ concepts of child and childhood. Our investigations into the history of childhood are based on the history of ideas and mentality, since we concentrate on the changes in the attitudes to and the concept of the child. This theme also offers the potential for treating the history of childhood, in the broad sense of the term, alongside the synthesis of related sciences. Nevertheless, this could be the task of further research.
I. Concept of the child in manuals for elementary school teachers From the popular and commonly used 19th century Hungarian educational textbooks and manuals we have examined the contents of twenty which, in our view, appropriately represent this type of pedagogic literature of the period. The vast majority of the works are textbooks written from a pragmatic point of view, and their smaller proportion is the representative standard works of contemporary pedagogy. The latter are also applied for educational and training purposes in teacher training. Prior to the investigation covering twenty works, we analyzed the content of three books as pilot projects. Based on the results, we set up the following hypothesis: 1. A genre characteristic of pedagogic manuals and textbooks is that in their first chapters generally treat the universal features of humanity on an abstract philosophical plane. From these expositions we can draw conclusions about the image of the ideal child. This image comprises the motif of idealization, even myth creation. This is also normative: it expresses the long-term aim the author of the treatise on educating children set out. Such abstract images will be termed ’abstract concept of the child’. 2. In the chapters discussing practical educational methodology, particularly dealing with the practical aspects of reward and punishment, we can read a number of specific opinions, as educational tips concerning children. These can provide some immediate information on the author’s attitude to children in a particular pedagogic situation. The mental image based on the attitudes reconstructed will be termed ’specific concept of the child’. The specific concept of the child is of a descriptive nature: it also registers the ’faults of the children’, the features, as well as characteristics which exist on an empirical level and which are to be changed.
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Through analyzing the twenty pedagogic manuals and textbooks we wish to justify this dual (abstract and specific) structure of the concept of the child. Additionally, we also want to answer the following questions: 1 What ideal of man does the given work convey? 2 Can we reconstruct any coherent concept of the child based on the philosophic discussion in the first chapters? 3 What immediate, pragmatic concept of the child does the author’s opinion reflect in terms of practical methodology, reward and punishment, especially corporal punishment? (The way of discussing the problem of corporal punishment is extremely revealing about the author’s attitudes.) Does the author forbid, allow, or consider it necessary by any chance to use corporal punishment in the practice of education? 4 On the basis of all these points, is there harmony or disharmony between the abstract and specific concept of the child? 5 Can any change or development be seen in terms of the ideal of man, concept of the child and attitude to children, according to the pedagogic textbooks written in the given period, in the ’long 19th century’? Finally, we are also concerned with what caused the changes in the components in the concept of the child (provided there are any perceptible changes) and what they can be attributed to. Mapping out the hypothesized changes, Reinhard Spree’s research on German infant care manuals in the 18th, 19th and early 20th century can serve as a useful starting point. The deductions based on the investigations are startling at first sight because they contradict the picture we have built up of the mentality and pedagogic attitudes of the period. According to Spree, the guides of pediatricians during the Age of the Enlightenment (e.g. Johann Friedrich Zükert) suggested truly gentle and emotional treatment, a ‘socialization style’ to the parents. They should be their children’s friends, and try remaining so throughout the process of their upbringing. The authors advised against treating children harshly and authoritatively, and they argued that love and trust was fundamental to child rearing. These manuals from the Age of Enlightenment outline a child image, which is acceptant, supporting, and considers the child as an unconditional value. Whereas the authors of childcare and child rearing guides from the beginning of the 20th century (such as Adalbert Czerny and Carl Hochsinger), did not advise parents a warm, intimate and affectionate rearing, they instead popularized a rather purposefully organized upbringing, striving for cleanliness, demanding correctness, orderliness and discipline. They cautioned against the threatening danger of spoiling their children, prescribed relentless strictness (unerbittliche Strenge) so that parents could bring up unconditionally obedient and submissive children. These manuals published after the turn of the century describe childcare and rearing as a ‘well applied technology’, not as an activity based on human relationships in which the personal needs of a small child could play a role. (Spree 1986) The results of this research raise a further question: Can a similar change in the image of child be observed in the contemporary Hungarian educational manuals and textbooks?
II. The examination In order to examine the contemporary image of the child, we have chosen twenty of the two types of works dealing with the subject. The following works are included in our study: 1 “A’ gyermekeknek jó nevelésekről való rövid oktatás mellyet a’ szüléknek és a gyermek’ tanítók’ ‘s nevelőknek kedvekért öszve Perlaki Dávid a Komáromi Evang. Ekkl. Tanítója ‘s 2
megyebéli fő Esperestje. A szegényebb Osk. Tanitoknak, ingyen. Komáromban, Wéber Simon Péter betűivel. 1791.” Perlaki’s pioneering work is the first Hungarian language manual for those vocationally engaged in education. 2 “Gyermek-Nevelésre Vezető Út-Mutatás, a’ S. Pataki Helvetia Confessiot tartó Collégiumban Tanító Ifjúság Számára. (Tóth Pápai Mihály) Kassán, Elinger János Cs. és Királyi privil. Könyv-nyomtatónál. 1797.” The reason for examining this textbook, which primarily contains methodological issues, is the introductory references to philosophical and anthropological features of man, and the author discusses the variations of reward and punishment at great length. 3 August Hermann Niemeyer: “Grundsatze der Erziehung und des Unterrichts für Eltern, Hauslehrer und Schulmanner”, 1976. German pedagogy made a profound impact on the development of Hungarian elementary teacher training of the period both in theory and practice even from the 18th century. This impact applies to the handbooks used in the practice of contemporary teacher training. The author of one of these standard works used as a theoretic starting point was A. H. Niemeyer (1754-1828). As a professor of theology at Halle University, he wrote a two-volume work systematizing and summarizing pedagogy, which was soon considered one of the most popular pedagogic handbooks throughout Central Europe. The third edition of the book, which appeared in a number of editions until the end of the 19th century, was completed with a third volume by the author. János Ángyán translated a shortened version, and he also adapted it “for Hungarian affairs”. The book appeared in Pest in 1822 with the title of “Nevelés és tanítás tudomány a’ szülék, a’ házi és oskolai tanitók számára”. (Curiously, it fails to keep its promise to discuss didactic questions.) 4 “A nevelés tudománya. Írta Szilasy János, szombathelyi egyházi megyebeli áldozó pap,az egyházi tudományok’ doctora, és Szombathelyen a’ keresztény erkölcs’, a lelki pásztorság ‘s nevelés tudományának tanítója. Budán, A’ Királyi Magyar Fő Oskolák’ Betűjivel, 1827.” The influence of Niemeyer and his followers is evident in a number of contemporary Hungarian pedagogic works, e.g. the two-volume summary of works by János Szilasy, which is regarded as the first Hungarian systematic pedagogic summary (Mészáros 1977). Szilasy’s work was used as a handbook on the various settings of teacher training: universities, seminaries, courses of norm schools for elementary teachers’ training and the new two-year teacher training institutions (Pukánszky 1998). 5 “Neveléstan, mellyet Szilasy János’ szombathelyi e. m. áldozópap’, egyházi tud. doctora’ ‘s a’ t. hasonló nevű munkájából szerkeszte Márkl József. Pesten, Trattner – Károlyi Betűivel, 1843.” A remarkable example of an interesting contemporary genre: an adaptation of János Szilasy’s work. 6. Beke Kristóf: “Kézikönyv a’ falusi oskolamesterek’ számára. Budánn, A’ Királyi Magyar Universitas’ betűivel, 1828.” Beke Kristóf: “Neveléstudomány a mesterképző intézetek számára. Budán, a m. kir. Egyetemi Nyomda betűivel, 1844.” The author, a parson, wrote several handbooks for the students and teachers of elementary school teacher training (“master training”) colleges. 7 “Didaktika és methodika avvagy a’ tanításnak közönséges tudománnya és a’ tanítás módgyának tudománnya. Írta Lesnyánszky András, Nagy-Váradonn, Tichy János’ Könyvnyomtatóintézetében. 1832.” The Lesnyánszky’s textbook (according to another orthography Lestyánszky) is a translation and adaptation of the Viennese university professor Joseph Weinkopf‘s didactic handbook. 8 “Vezérkönyv az elemi nevelés- és tanításra. Vallási különbség nélkül minden tanítók’ ‘s tanulók’ számára készült ‘s a’ Magyar Tudós Társaság által másod rendű Marczibányi Lajosjutalommal koszorúzott pályamunka. Írta Warga János, prof., ‘s a’ Magyar Tudós Társaság’ levelező tagja. Budán, a’ Magyar Királyi Egyetem’ betűivel, a Magyar Tudós Társaság’ költségén. 1837-38.”
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9 “Népneveléstan. Írta Majer István esztergomi áldozópap és mesterképző intézeti tanár, táblabíró. Budán, a Magyar Királyi Egyetem betűivel, 1944.” The author organized the archiepiscopal “master training” institution in Esztergom. His work on public elementary education was later published in Slovakian. 10 “Tanítás-mód várasi, ‘s falusi elemi iskola-tanítók és mesterképző intézetek használatára. Írta Rendek József, Esztergom főmegyebeli áldozó pap, ‘s az esztergomi érseki mesterképző intézet tanítója és táblabíró. Pesten, Emich Gusztáv sajátja, 1846.” 11 “Alapnézetek a’ nevelés, és leendő nevelő, s tanítóról különös tekintettel a’ tan’ történeti viszontagságra, és literatúrájára. Írta Beély Fidél, Pannonhegyi Szent Benedeki Pap, a’ Magy. Tud. és Frauendorfi Kertmívelő Társaság Tagja, a Bakonybéli Apátságban a’ Nevelés Szép, ‘s Oklevéltan Tanára, és Tek. Veszprém Vármegye Táblabírája. Pozsonyban, Nyomatott Schmid Ferencz és Busch J. J. Betűivel, 1848.” Fidél Beély lectured on education for would-be teachers in the secondary grammar school of St Benedictine Abbey, Bakony. The manuscript of his work was completed as early as in 1842, however, censorship did not permit its publication. Curiously, the work included the first Hungarian language summary of the history of education and the history of schools. At the end of his work the author enclosed a detailed recommendatory bibliography, in which he enumerated the pedagogic books written in Hungarian. (Fehér 1997, p. 239.) 12 “Általános neveléstan. Dr. Peregriny Elek, a Magyar Akadémia lev. s a Pesti. Kir. Egyetem Bölcsész Karának bekebelezett tagja. egy finevelő intézet igazgatója által. Pesten, nyomatott Trattner Károlynál, 1864.” The author of this handbook was a Privatdocent of pedagogy at the university of Pest from 1860. He dedicated his book to his students and the sophisticated reading public that took an interest in education. Peregriny introduces not only his own concept of pedagogy, but while discussing each main theme he also offers a survey of the different standpoints of the contemporary – primarily German – authors. 13 “Tanítók könyve. Rendszeres kalauz a nevelés és tanítás vezetésére, az elemi iskola tantárgyainak kezelésére, s a tanítóknak az irodalom terén való haladására. Írta Bárány Ignác, a peti kir. kath. férfitanító-képezde tanára. Pest, Lauffer Vilmos tulajdona, 1866.” 14 “Nevelés- és tanítástan egyházi s világi tanemberek és tanügybarátok, néptanodai tanítók és tanítójelöltek használatára legújabb kútfők alapján kidolgozta Mennyei József, tanítóképzőtanár s a kalocsai tanítóképezde s elemi minta-főtanoda igazgatója. A m. kir. egyetem által pályadíjazott s a m. k. Közoktatási MInisterium által papjelölteknek s néptanítóknak segédkönyvül ajánlott munka. Harmadik javított s bővített kiadás, Budapest, 1875. Kiadja az Eggenberger féle Könyvkereskedés.” (The first edition of the three-volume textbook was published in Kalocsa in 1866-67.) The title page reveals a new phenomenon indicating progress after the Act of Public Elementary Education by Eötvös: The Ministry of Religion and Public Education recommended certain textbooks as manuals to elementary school teacher trainers and seminaries, supposing they suited the criteria. 15 “Neveléstudomány. Műveltebb közönség számára. Írta Garamszeghy Lubrich Ágost m. k. egyetemi tanár. Harmadik kiadás, Budapest, 1878. Nyomatott a “Hunyadi Mátyás” Intézetben.” (The first edition of the four-volume book came out in Bratislava in 1868.) The author of the monumental summary was the professor of pedagogy at the Budapest University between 1870 and 1900, whose Pedagogy represented one of the polemical Hungarian tendencies against Herbart’s pedagogy. 16 “A neveléstudomány kézikönyve. Írta Felméri Lajos. Második javított kiadás. Budapest, Eggenberger-féle Könyvkereskedés, Kolozsvár, Szerző saját kiadása. 1890. Ajtai K. Albert Könyvnyomdája.” (The first edition of the book also appeared in 1890) The pedagogic work of the professor of Kolozsvár represents a new paradigm in the range of 19th century Hungarian pedagogic books. This author is characterized by keeping a distance from Herbartian pedagogy, while the influence of French and English authors can obviously be
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perceived in his way of thinking. The manual of Pedagogy synthesizes the freshest contemporary knowledge of education, and, notwithstanding, a delightful reading written in a colourful style. 17 “Nevelés és oktatástan. Írták dr. Kiss Áron és dr. Öreg János. Negyedik Ujonnan átdolgozott kiadás. Budapest, Dobrowsky és Franke kiadása, 1895.” (The first edition of the textbook was published in 1876.) 18 “Népiskolai neveléstan. Tanítók és tanítóképezdék számára. Írta dr. Emericzy Géza tanítóképezdei igazgató. Budapest, 1882. Dobrowsky és Franke tulajdona.” The textbook written from a practical point of view thoroughly discusses the organizational issues of school life, and depicts the repertoire of techniques of maintaining order and discipline. 19 “Neveléstan tanítóképző-intézeti növendékek, tanítójelöltek és tanítók számára. Írta Erdődi János tk. igazgató. Második átdolgozott kiadás. Budapest, Kiadja Lauffer Vilmos, 1889.” (The first edition came out in Kassa in 1881.) 20 “Peres Sándor Neveléstana. Budapest, 1904. Lampel Róbert (Wodianer F. és fiai) cs. és kir. udvari könyvkereskedés kiadása.” We have closed our investigation into this subject by analyzing this work. Sándor Peres’s handbook on pedagogy attracts attention by its novel approach and forceful social pedagogic attitudes. The works we have treated can be divided into two types: The first type comprises works which considered the questions of education – “pedagogy” in the broad sense of the word – in the genre of manuals according to the criteria of scientific analysis. Presumably their authors’ aim was, in addition to their scholarly accomplishment, to support the training of parsons, elementary, public elementary and secondary school teachers, provide further training for teachers and additional knowledge for the reading public. (The works by Niemeyer, Szilasy, Peregriny, Lubrich and Felméri are included in this book.) The second type is comprised of the expressly practical works, textbooks written for active elementary school teachers and those going into this career.
III. Conclusions 1 The ideal of man and the pedagogic aim: The majority of the 19th century Hungarian pedagogic manuals and textbooks depict the ideal of man fulfilled in the Age of the Enlightenment as a valuable being who is born with a multitude of potential in his soul, and with the buds of abilities waiting to be developed and realized. He has to be reared, otherwise his abilities will be wasted. Nearly everybody can be shaped by reasonable education and appropriate methods, and the majority of people can be moulded till the end of their lives. It is seminal to develop in every child the capacity of being able to restrain his confusing desires and emotions, as well as to act with a sober consideration. Thus he can benefit the community and himself. 2 The influence of the Humanists and Kant: The topos on the educability of man appeared as early as the 16th century, which is evident in a tract by Erasmus: “The man is not born but formed by education…” (Erasmus, 1529, 1913, 52.). This creed of pedagogic optimism was the most expressively formulated in one of the lectures on education by Kant: “It is great to imagine that human nature can continuously be improved by education.” (Kant 1901 p 72.) The impact of Kantian pedagogy is noticeable in the majority of Hungarian pedagogic handbooks of the period. The authors strive to release the child from the constraints of the sensuous and material world by education. The ultimate
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end is to improve man morally in the light of superior ideals. This includes the inspiration for permanent self-perfection and the susceptibility to strive for transcendence. 3 Dual goals: In addition to the high ideals, the introductory chapters of these works also include some pragmatic goals. The authors make it obvious to the readers that man is a social being and cannot live by himself. Moral improvement can merely occur in the setting and by the means of a human community. Therefore most of these manuals set dual pedagogic goals: man and citizen should be shaped from the child. Mainly in the volumes written in the second half of the century, it is emphasized that the important aim of education is socializing the child and preparing him to be smoothly integrated with small or large communities, that is becoming a useful citizen. The reception of Ernst Daniel Schleiermacher’s social pedagogic discussions becomes more and more discernible in the Hungarian manuals, in parallel with the influence of some other social pedagogic tendencies. (The former is exemplified by Lubrich Ágost and Felméri Lajos, and the latter by Peres Sándor.) 4 The characteristics and changes of the image of the child: It is obvious from what we have discussed that most of the authors who analyzed philosophical-anthropological issues in the introductory chapters of the 19th century Hungarian pedagogic manuals see the would-be adult in the child. These writers pay relatively little attention to the special and distinctive role of childhood in the series of ages, its individual features, as well as the present as a state of being of the child. A few of the authors we have discussed treat the beauty of childhood extensively and thoroughly, poetically illustrating this stage of life with its own particular values by the means of natural pictures. These works clearly show the influence of the great pedagogues of German Romanticism (especially Moritz Arndt, Jean Paul Richter and Friedrich Fröbel). August Hermann Niemeyer, Majer István, Lubrich Ágost and the joint authors Kiss Áron and Öreg János fall into this group. On the basis of the works we have analyzed it is perceptible that the image of the child underwent a slow transformation during the century. The “dignity topos” of humanisticenlightened origin and the romantic-poetic “sensitivity of the child” had dwindled away by the end of the century. It gave way to a Puritan concept, from which the notion of human dignity and the admiration for the elemental force dormant in the child had already vanished. The textbook writers at the end of the century and at the beginning of the following century approached the major themes of education in a pragmatic manner: they show the child as a creature that is to be educated and integrated into a small or large community. The conclusion is evident: this change in the content and style of the textbooks is closely connected to the professional development of the pedagogic activities, termed ‘professionalism’. (See the paper by Németh András in this book.) 5 The characteristics of the concept of the child: As we have mentioned, the introductory chapters disclose that the authors consider pedagogy a normative science: they primarily focus on what they wish to educate the child as or, transform the child into. A lot less attention is devoted to introducing how they saw the child in its specific reality. The latter may be inferred with a careful perusal of indirect references and allusions. The pedagogic authors willingly formulated educational ideals and desirable goals under the influence of the Enlightenment, but in the first half of the century they paid relatively little attention to the child, the “subject” of education, his peculiarities, or his individuality. The authors had been increasingly interested in the latter, the child itself since
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the last decades of the century, and they discussed the physiological and psychological features of children at great length. 6 The “hypertrophy” of punishment: On the other hand, the authors of manuals and textbooks dealt far too much more with the analytic introduction of the desirable methods of education. When we take a close look at certain parts of the educational manuals, we can see that the content and the tone of the chapters on the various kinds of reward and punishment was far less sublime than that of the introductory chapters discussing human dignity and perfection on a universal philosophical plane. A peculiar contradiction becomes apparent here: as if the introductory parts of the textbooks did not treat the education of the same creature whom the pragmatic educational methods and advice, mostly at the end of the books, applied to. It is worth noticing the motifs, in marked contrast to one another, which are conspicuously different in both tone and content from the keynote of the general discussions on man. On the one hand, they praise man as a being endowed with immense values – the idealized and absolute image of the child, and, on the other hand, emerging from behind a series of pragmatic tips aimed at the real practice of education - the specific image of the child. These pragmatic guidelines and instructions on reward and punishment, including corporal punishment, reveal how the authors saw the child in his concrete state of being, as an actor in real life and in educational situations. A typical feature of the period’s concept of the child is that out of the twenty works we have examined only two (Majer István and Peres Sándor) forbid categorically the practice of corporal punishment for pedagogic purposes. One author, Erdődi János regards it as a very effective educational device. It is unambiguous that during the century no fundamental change happened in the attitudes towards corporal punishment, therefore this instrument remained an unalienable component of the pedagogic repertoire. Its legitimacy was not questioned by the vast majority of the authors of manuals and textbooks, and only the method of its execution was regarded differently. Here we should return to one of the questions we asked before analyzing the resources: Can any shifts be discerned in the advice on practical educational methods like the changes Reinhard Spree experienced in the infant and child care manuals written by German pediatricians? The question has to be interpreted in the context of the history of childhood: Did the concept shift from “the child as a lovable creature”, derived from practice, towards “the child as a creature to be disciplined”? When examining Hungarian pedagogic manuals and textbooks, we do perceive a similar phenomenon, but only in respect of the abstract concept of the child, that is the ideal of the child. The extremely optimistic early 19th century image of the child, which now and then included the components of the Romantic cult of the child and, accordingly, some emotional colouring, underwent a perceptible “objectivization” and, at the same time, an emotional “emptying” until the end of the century, when the image of the child became matter-of-factly distant and rationally sober. This tendency concerns only the abstract image of the child, while such transformation cannot be seen in the content of the specific image of the child. Its practically “static” nature is obvious in the attitudes to corporal punishment, which remains almost unvarying in all the segments of the period examined (apart from one or two extremities). In the routine of the school corporal punishment continued to be an everyday disciplinary device – at least this is what can be learnt form the content of the above manuals.
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References: Ariès, Ph.: L’Enfant et la vie familiale sous l’Ancien Régime. Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 1960. DeMause, L.: The Evolution of Childhood. In: DeMause (ed): The History of Childhood. The Psychohistory Press, New York 1974. DuCharme, C.: The Concept of the Child 1890-1940. Education Resources Information Center. http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/14/ 5d/07.pdf Erasmus: A gyermekek korai erkölcsös és tudományos nevelése. In: Erasmus: A gyermek nevelése. A tanulmányok módszere. Budapest 1913, pp. 41-107. Fehér Katalin: Beély Fidél és a bakonybéli bencés tanárképzés. Magyar Pedagógia, (3-4) 1997, pp. 235-245. Kant, Immanuel: Über Pädagogik. Mit Kant’s Biographie herausgegeben von Prof. Dr. Theodor Vogt. Dritte Auflage, Langensalza, Verlag von Hermann Beyer & Söhne, 1901. Mészáros, István: A neveléstudomány rendszere az első magyar neveléselméletben. In: Nagy Sándor (ed): Vizsgálatok a nevelés-oktatás korszerűsítésével kapcsolatban. Tankönyvkiadó, Budapest 1977, pp. 147-172. Pukánszky, Béla: Szilasy János neveléstana. In: Szilasy János: A’ nevelés tudománya. Budapest, 1998 pp. 347-354. Pukánszky, Béla: A gyermek a 19. századi magyar neveléstani kézikönyvekben. Pécs 2005. Shorter, E.: The Making of the Modern Family. Basic Books, Inc. Publishers, New York 1975. Spree, R.: Sozialisationsnormen in ärztlichen Ratgebern zur Säuglings- und Kleinkindpflege: von der Aufklärungs- zur naturwissenschaftlichen Pädiatrie. In: Martin, J./Nitschke, A. (ed): Zur Sozialgeschichte der Kindheit. Verlag Karl Alber, Freiburg, München 1986, pp. 609-659.
Prof. dr. Pukánszky Béla Head of the Department of Special Pedagogy University Szeged Faculty of Education H-6725 Szeged Hattyas u. 10.
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Prof. dr. Pukánszky Béla DSc Universität Szeged Pädagogische Fakultät, Institut für Heilpädagogik H-6725 Szeged Hattyas u. 10.
[email protected]
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