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A PIONEER OF MODERN PEDAGOGY IN HUNGARY: SÁNDOR KARÁCSONY (1891—1952)
attempts at “indirect education” based on the needs and interests of pupils. He
contended that both direct and indirect approaches to education missed the
target in that they concentrated on only one side of the educational equation,
and neither of them gave due consideration to the other side of the relationship,
where teacher and pupils are interdependent, and it is only their joint efforts
that may bear fruit. He maintained that teacher and pupil do and must interact
across the whole range of psychological functions, and they must relate to each
other with their whole personalities.
Legal relations in education are today identified with the legal regulation
of education, and regarded as falling within the domain of legislation, con¬
cerned with the rights of children. This attitude, however, misses the point.
It disregards the fact that legal relations assume a special form in education:
they depend on the distinctive features of the pedagogical context, the main
constituent of which is the relationship between teacher and pupil. In a viable
legal relationship within an educational context teacher and pupil are not par¬
ties with conflicting interests, they are not separated by any rigid hierarchy,
but partners who have to work for a common purpose, while fulfilling differ¬
ent tasks. Thus, e.g., teacher and pupil should work out “the rules of the game”
together. Such legal relations may create an atmosphere of community, a sense
of social well-being, which may foster mutual respect of each other’s autonomy.
As for faith and religion, educational theory has always been reluctant to
recognize their role in education, since it has been afraid that by doing so it
might encroach upon the territory of religious education in the literal sense.
However, it is easy to see that no one can undertake the job of educating people
who is not committed through faith to his profession. A teacher must believe
in something: the science underlying the subject s/he is teaching, the ideals of
humanism, or a religion. Those who have not got this faith can only provide
a service at the level of clerks or “educational skilled workers”."
Briefly summarizing the above, education depends on interaction between
teacher and pupil. During this interaction, based on interpersonal psychology,
they relate to each other as artist and audience, they develop their intellect
through discussing (scientific) problems using language, and they develop a
community in which both sides have their roles to play in a social-volitional rela¬
tionship. And if the teacher’s faith shines through the traditional role of teacher,
his/her educational work may become confessional: in talking about his/her
subject and through his whole behaviour s/he will bear witness to the sense of
life, and s/he may attract disciples. This is the master/disciple relationship, a
33 KARÁCSONY, A magyar demokrácia, 51.
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