1. What a time to be asking this question!
One way of identifying what is essential within conductive pedagogy, and what is not, is to look at its development, in the context of its changing historical contexts.
…hence consideration in terms of its historical stages (Sutton, 2006)
Last year I knew what to say about what might be needed and what might come next
…only eleven weeks ago, at the start of this semester, I would have said much the same.
But now? What has changed?
WORLD RECESSION!
Nothing will ever be the same again!
Whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you live/work!
...and that goes for everything and everyone in Conductive Education too.
I would have started by talking about the possible switch from 'international' to global'
…again, see Sutton (2006)
I would have offered examples of the predicted shift, brought about largely by internal contradictions
…between the mode of CE production
…and the relations of CE 'production'
I would have suggested that CE's practice has fitted (increasingly?) poorly with its direction and economics
…with conductors working in almost any way other than how they are trained to
…and with users often demanding from it things that it was not designed to provide.
New ways of working (new modes of CE production) are bound to emerge in this situation
...with new goals and values
…with new practices, some good, some bad
…and with a new generation who may be in contradiction with the old
...and having to await 'dead men's shoes'.
New 'modern' factors would serve to increase this internal stress, for example
…new structures (relationships) for Conductive Education
…new 'people' in CE, that is significant people (so more potential conflict with the old)
...the Internet (blogs, Skype, social networking, maybe also Twitter, vlogs, knols, and then what?)
...the emergence of 'new countries'
…with their own demands
…not just BRIC, also smaller emerging economies (not only through the importance of oil)
...'new' applications (conditions) beyond motor disorders
…not really new at all: remember András Pető and the origins of the system
...and perhaps you have your own, further suggestions
Put this lot together and you would have had unstoppable forces for change, anyway
…you would have seen the slow, painful emergence of 'global CE'
…along with 'new' structures ('relations')
…private practice, commercial companies/partnerships, self-employment
…conductors working not just as conductors but using their understandings in other roles
And less tangible, but very important (essential even)
...generalised principles to define and hold the whole thing together
...otherwise, how could 'Conductive Education' survive in this as an entity?
I would have examined the originally proposed topics of the lecture in this already uncertain-enough context:
…conductors as a new and developing 'profession'
…the range and types of special educational practice
…the three-layered meaning of 'multi-disciplinary'
…whether conductors necessary for CE
...and whether they are sufficient
…the developing world
Even if the world and its economics were to have remained as they were only a few months ago
…we would have seen further patchy shift in the heritage of András Pető
...Conductive Education would have faced growing diversification
...and critical evaluation and modification
...to counter which, explicit formulated principles just might have been more widely discussed
...to a truly global stage.
2. What has changed over the last two-three months?
Sub-prime mortgages, repossessions, bank collapses, share falls, savings/pensions in trouble, companies merging/closing, redundancies, unemployment, whole national economies going to the wall, falling prices and falling intrerest rates, the imminent threat of deflation...
...and the first effects upon the 'real economy'
...now spreading public awareness that we really are in trouble
...and talk of 'austerity'
What are we waiting for next? You tell me!
...what about the 'public sector'?
...not just the bureaucrats
...but also health, welfare and social services
Where is CE in all this?
It is in the real economy
…providing services for people who are about as low down in public and political priority as anyone can be
…competing for diminishing financial resources (very fast diminishing resources)
…trying to squeeze funds out of the public sector
…and/or or dependent upon 'charitable giving'
…and/or looking for people to pay for their Conductive Education out of their personal surplus income.
Predictions, please…
Nil desperandum, conductivists.
Take a positive slant
...everyone is now in the same boat (the playing field is being bulldozed level)
… who/what else will be any better off on the long run (other professions, services)
… how much longer is the 'long run' for those now regarding themselves 'safe'?
The big unknown for everyone, everywhere (not just for Conductive Education)
…either we face a tight time (then everything will 'get better', i.e. it will be much the same as it is now)
…or we face major social and economic change, (and things will never be the same again)
If the outcome is to be predominantly the second of these what is there to do now?
…rearrange the deckchairs while the band plays on ('displacement activity'!)
… 'KBO' (W. Churchill)
…'hope for the best and plan for the worst'
…at least change the mind-set, and start 'post-apocalyptic' thinking
Post-apocalyptic planning, is that even possible at this stage?
...again, think positive.
...for example, think Triassic–Jurassic extinction
The dinosaurs almost all disappeared (leaving a few aligators, some turtles and a lot of birds)
...but also leaving the mammals inherit the earth!
Now is the time for little bunnies to look to their potential strengths,
So… whatever next?
And there will be no time to redeploy and reconstruct to resolve its internal contradictions for itself
External forces may impose such change upon us
...if, to put it simply, the money dries up.
That need not necessariy mean curtains for Conductive Education and the heritage of András Pető
What are our evolutionary advantages (and disadvantages)
... what are the triumphs/failures,
...what are the strengths/weaknesses of world-wide Conductive Education?
These may be vital factors in what happens next.
Triumphs/strengths: demonstrable adaptability; geographical spread and diversity (in practice and structures); continuing parental enthusiasm; a continuing implicit identity (but see next paragraph); a mass of barely realised potentials yet to be elaborated/demonstrated; an as yet barely realised generalisability to a wider range of applications/conditions; demonstrable potential for adaptation to new theatres (Internet, developing world, others?); long, often productive experience (by some) of attack, shortage, stress and endurance; a tradition of survival aginst the odds despite severe shortage and adamanr opposistion (András Pető again, and also many of the international pioneers of recent years); some very idealistic and altruistic people. As a result, conductive pedagogy has been successfully implemented, in all sorts of situations. What else?
Failures/weaknesses: no coherent, agreed explicit account of the system; therefore all sorts of would-be emulations; no effective representative bodies (employers, employees, users); so no unified positions/actions; little culture of collaboration; no obvious allies in existing systems; no political support, no leadership, or 'followership'; poor communication, internal and external: some 'weak links'. And with rare exceptions, conductive upbringing, CE's potentially strongest card, has been largely set aside. Er, that's enough failures and weaknesses for now!
Remember the mammals. Can Conductive Education's's evolutionary advantages be utilised to outweigh its evolutionary vulnerabilities? Exciting times for the small and warm blooded!
Reference
This lecture was deliverd to first year student-conductors at the National Institute of Conductive Eduction, on 2 December 2008. It is introducted more fully in Conductive World:
http://www.conductive-world.info/2008/12/conductive-education-whatever-next.html
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