“The Pető system of education is distinguished from any therapy, method or methodology.
It is a system of organisations of innumerable unified, complex operations and methods with a particular organisational structure.
Pető’s Conductive Pedagogy differs fundamentally from traditional practices. The person’s whole way of life, attitude to life and the functioning of their whole body are addressed during systematically structured work, relevant to ages and abilities, while the individual is motivated into action.
Pető’s basic theory as a doctor and as a teacher was that everyone must be lifted from the point at which they are at the moment. A completely paralysed child must not just be looked after, if she can’t even move an eyelid, she must be taught how to blink, and once she can blink she achieved something, then she has made progress consciously too… And it is important in that child’s life.”
J Szathmary (1991 unpublished training notes)