Comment II

Tunde Rozsahegyi could not put her comment through the blog's comments so she mailed this:

Laci,

I absolutely agree with the thoughts in this thread of postings and since your original entry I keep thinking of the issue you highlighted.Yes, we live in a world in the 21 century when anecdotal evidence is not sufficient enough to move CE forward. If we want to strengthen CE by identifying, proving and making the strength and uniqueness of CE more widely acceptable we have to do two things: firstly disseminate our values, experiences and expertise in an academic manner; secondly identifying the weaknesses too.Over the last 30-40 years in English language so many people have said their thought and perspectives on conductive education: therapists, psychologists, educators but unfortunately less heard from conductors themselves. Would a professional body be helpful to change this? Would it be influential enough first of all to have members? I seem to remember that in the last 20 years there were sooooooo many attempts to establish a professional body! Sorry for being pessimistic but I see the role of a professional body something different.I think the advancement of CE and the establishment of a proper academic discourse is emerging, perhaps not in a pace as it is anticipated by those who just passively wait for its outcomes.Working for and 'doing' proper research, seeking and writing about evidence based practice seem to be something alien for the majority of conductors, but this perception needs to be changed and opportunities and support have to be given to those who feel confident and interested to be involved. Hard to believe this can take place without the support from CE organisations, managers and others in a decision-making position.Andrew writes a lot about the economic depression and I do not want to reiterate any of his thoughts accept that in recessions education always do well because people see a way of getting out from the situation by gaining new knowledge and experiences. Perhaps for those involved in the strategic level of managing CE services it would be a time now to rethink what would be useful as a long-term investment; how could they support their conductors to cope with this ever-changing world. To do this it needs long term vision, understanding and commitment to CE and belief in its values.A very final thought if conductors do not articulate CE, will not look into how it should be developed further it is hard to envisage that it will survive in a long term. Others will not do instead of us.

Best wishes,

Tunde