Kalmár Sándor M.D. Ph.D.

“If we teach more we must cure less.” (József Fodor)

The pedagogue society is in a crisis in Hungary. The Hungarian education system produces below-average results with above-average costs while reproducing the above average inequalities. Earlier primary and secondary school teachers and especially formmasters paid a significant role in the function of schools as a socializing medium. Students were open towards their teachers and the majority of values necessary for sustaining a livable lifestyle were transmitted from pedagogues to pupils. Nowadays this is absent from schools. In the majority of schools there is no nurturing in the real meaning of this word, and nobody questions pedagogues about this. Education for the youth of our times is inadequate, because it falls far away from their everyday reality, means of communication or the things preoccupying them. Schools don’t even provide vocational training necessary to find a job (Cochen, 2006).

In schools, besides education, the following pedagogical activities are pushed to the background, in an extent depending on the school and the pedagogue:

• developing emotional processing skills of students
• helping students cope with current bio-psycho-social crises
• improving conflict solving skills of students
• increasing frustration tolerance of students
• teaching positive problem orientation to students
• improving communication skills of students
• improving decision making skills of students
• shaping the future perspective of students
• improving mental-cultural and spiritual level of students
• transferring of elementary cultural techniques to students

There is also no health education in schools. Health is not simply the absence of disease and disabilities, but the state of complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being. This holistic approach should be taken as the starting point. During HEALTH EDUCATION this complex concept should be transmitted to our children.

Mental nurturing of children is an indispensable condition of the development of a sound personality and becoming a healthy, mature, smart adult. Without this, high standard nurturing and education is unconceivable. The majority of our children do not even learn to read and write in school. Currently, 25% of the Hungarian adult population is functionally illiterate. Mental illiteracy of our children poses a serious public health problem in Hungary, which is a negative by-product of our civilization considered nearly natural, since the majority of adults are also in the same condition.

Mental illiteracy

The mental illiterate

1. does not know himself
2. does not know the developmental phases of human personality
3. does not know the structure of human
4. does not know the function of the human psyche
5. does not know the symptoms of psychiatric disorders and diseases
6. does not possess adequate conflict solving skills
7. does not know the actions necessary for preserving mental health
8. does not aim at learning them, because he can neither ask, nor is he aware of what he doesn’t know
9. considers his confused and false concepts as truth, and believes them
10. is full of prejudice
11. considers all who think differently from the mental illiterate as enemies, and this belief makes him sensitive and leads to fantasies, which determine his behavior. Several examples of this are present in everyday life.

There is multiple evidence for mental illiteracy which prevents pedagogues from recognizing mentally endangered kids:

• The majority of pedagogues not only do not know the most important mental and psychosomatic symptoms, but do not recognize them in children and do not know how to handle them.
• 41.4-41.8% of pedagogues acquired knowledge concerning the symptoms well manifested in behavior (aloofness, anxiety, problems of interpersonal relationships, and self esteem problems) during their college-university education.
• 19.4% of pedagogues acquired knowledge concerning suicidal fantasies in students during their college-university education.
• 22.2% of pedagogues engaged in expanding their knowledge concerning suicide with the help of books and trainings.
• 32.1-39.1% of pedagogues acquired knowledge concerning problems of emotional life and control during their college-university education and 21.1-27.9% gained further additional knowledge through self-education.
• 24.1-30.7% of pedagogues studied at college-university about the investigated psychosomatic symptoms and 23.0-32.3% gained additional knowledge with the help of textbooks and trainings.
• There is a significant proportion of pedagogues who did not acquire any kind of such knowledge during their college-university education. 19.0-33.4% do not possess any theoretical knowledge concerning psychosomatic symptoms, 37.7% have no theoretical knowledge concerning suicidal fantasies, and only 12.5% of pedagogues know how to handle them (Volentics, 2005).

Frequency of symptoms in students and of pedagogues who are not able to handle the given symptom
(Volentics 2005)

	Frequency of symptoms	Frequency of pedagogues incapable of managing symptoms
Headache	19.4	38.4
Mood fluctuations	38.6	27.8
Abdominal pain	13.7	39.4
Hysteric outbursts	17.7	29.0
Irritability	41.5	23.3
Pathological slowness	8.5	40.6
Breathing problems	2.9	50.7
Self esteem problems	37.4	16.6
Suicidal fantasies	2.1	50.7
Anxiety	41.5	21.4
Eating disorders	13.1	50.8
Social relation problems	26.6	22.1
Hypersensitivity	29.2	21.9
Aloofness	23.1	20.

Table 1. Frequency of symptoms in students and of pedagogues who are not able to handle the given symptom (Volentics, 2005)

The above raise attention to the severe deficits of current pedagogue training. The nurturing standard of schools decreases, nurturing has lost its significance. The majority of students do not consider pedagogues as partners in communication, and consequently the efficacy of the current school system in transmitting and conveying values is low. From the aspect of nurturing and transmitting values, school is currently in the last place among the main social media, after family and peer groups. For students the majority of pedagogues mean only a person transferring knowledge. The majority of pedagogues theoretically consider nurturing and tasks beyond teaching as part of their job, these, however, are pushed to the background by teaching.

By contrasting teaching and nurturing, and considering teaching manageable only at the expense of nurturing, they lose the holistic approach. They treat students as “learning robots”, and thus manipulation disguised as teaching increasingly dominates instead of nurturing. They ignore that the two major tasks of school, teaching and nurturing, are equal in importance, and one cannot be effectively pursued without the other. Pedagogues today increasingly possess the view that nurturing is a task beyond teaching, the “inevitable bad thing”, the “surplus burden” making teaching activity more difficult, and they do not notice that at this point they lose the rank of pedagogue and devalue themselves into teaching “robots.”

A key part of the mental aspect of pedagogues’ profession is life orientation, value orientation and an expectable value system. Investigating value selection among pedagogues we find conflicting results. About three fourths of pedagogues agree that sense of responsibility and sincerity are the most important. For many pedagogues, however, these are just words. Half of pedagogues consider tolerance, good manners and politeness important. There are, however, many intolerant people among pedagogues! More than half of pedagogues do not consider independence, autonomy, self-control, steadiness, persistent effort and imagination important values. Only one fifth of pedagogues consider selflessness, religious faith, sparing, patience, good behavior and loyalty important values, while pedagogues don’t consider leadership skills and obedience values at all.

Transgression of norms and the lack of respect for rules contribute to considerable chaos, divide the pedagogue society and create a break between pedagogues and the population. In this case the protective role of good schools is significant. In those schools where doubts emerge concerning collegial morals, alcohol and drug problems, transgression of rules, physical abuse and the appearance of stealing among students is more frequent (Paksi, Schmidt, 2006).

The main reasons pushing nurturing activities to the background:

• deficiencies of qualification already at universities
• a certain degree of mental illiteracy even among pedagogues
• lack of basic knowledge necessary for recognizing problems
• lack of preparedness for solving these problems
• lack of interest
• competency deficits
• motivational deficits
• lack of efficacy of postgraduate training concerning nurturing
• lack of interest even among those who possess the necessary knowledge.

The negative self-schema of depressed patients develops during childhood and adolescence due to the strongly critical attitude of parents and teachers which reduces self-esteem. According to epidemiological studies symptoms of clinical depression can be recognized in 3-5% of children and 7-10% of adolescents, and the lifetime prevalence of depressive symptoms before the age of 18 years is 18-20%. Pedagogues, who should be able to recognize the various symptoms characteristic of different ages, play a significant role in the early recognition of depression and other childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders (Pászthy, 2005). At peculiar risk are those students who perform badly at school, are unsatisfied with school and are uncomfortable in the school environment (Pikó, 2005).

Due to a severe lack of knowledge the number of children and adolescents with conduct disorders and mental impairment is increasing, and when this is coupled with the increasing lack of knowledge from the side of pedagogues this contributes to the inefficiency of the work in schools. The aberrations producing young murderers are also consequences of the deficiencies in nurturing. Nurturing should be more important than ever (Rucska, 2009). Blaming overcrowdedness is unfounded when arguing about why nurturing is pushed to the background, in Hungary there are 80 061 pedagogues for 773 706 primary school students. (Statistical Yearbook of Hungary, 2009).

The above indicate that it would be necessary for institutions for the training and postgraduate training of pedagogues to incorporate mental education into the graduate and postgraduate training system. The expansion of mental knowledge is indispensable for the timely recognition of the symptoms of personality development disorders.

The possibilities have no limits. Internet, available in every school and accessible for the majority of the population could help cure the problem quickly and at the core. In the past decade the number of internet users increased by 763.8% in Hungary and internet is now available for 61.8% of the population. The number of people using mobile internet is beyond one million. Internet-based training has extensive literature, and by introducing and employing internet-based postgraduate education for pedagogues, huge achievements could be accomplished incredibly quickly and at a relatively low cost (Kalmár, 2010).

References

• Cochen R. (2006) Miért kell megváltoztatni az oktatást, nevelést az intergalaxis korában. Új Pedagógiai Szemle. 9. 81-92.
• Kalmár S.: Konfliktuskezelő és kommunikációs tréning lehetősége Internet alapú továbbképzési rendszerben. Magyar Pszichiátriai Társaság Dél-Kelet Magyarországi Tudományos Ülése Cserkeszőlő 2010.Nov.26-27.
• Paksi B, Schmidt A (2006) Pedagógusok mentálhigiénés állapota. Új Pedagógiai Szemle. 6.
• Pászthy B (2005) Depresszió gyermek és serdülőkorban. Fejlesztő Pedagógia, 16. évfolyam 5-6. szám, 12-15.
• Pikó Bettina (2005) A serdülőkori depressziós tünet együttes egészségszociológiai összefüggései. Fejlesztő Pedagógia, 16. évfolyam 5-6. szám, 12-15.
• Rucska A (2009) Hogyan tanítunk? Fejlesztő Pedagógia 6. 41-48.
• Volentics A (2005) A depresszió előtünetei gyermek és serdülőkorban. Fejlesztő Pedagógia, 16. évfolyam 5-6. szám, 9-11.