Winkler Martha School - Winkler Martha's pedagogy

We present Winkler Márta, the first Hungarian experimenting teacher's alternative school and alternative pedagogy on the basis of her latest book and selected point of view from specialized literature. The notions of alternative school and alternative pedagogy are interpreted in different ways in specialized literature, mostly they are defined as deviating from the traditional, standard, and majority schools. There is terminological obscurity in this field. The notion of "alternative school" can be interpreted in different ways depending on the field it is used in. In our research we focus on the pedagogical point of view instead of the educational / school policy and economic ones. Winkler Márta's school and pedagogy is difficult to determine in this respect. It is altruistic, because each class (a separate point of view during entrance) has children other schools do not tolerate or can do nothing with them. We can meet different kinds of children: autistic, hyperactive, anxious, living in difficult conditions, having attention-keeping issues, chronic diseases or special needs. However, it is not only their school. By teaching them together with others she achieved outstanding results. We can read about many problematic children in books, we can get to know what they became when they were adult. We can get acquainted with successful people's life experience. The school is art-oriented, for it develops children's various skills, includes art into its instruction methods and pedagogy. Children live there in a very colourful world. They sing, play the pipe, listen to music, dance, dramatize, paint, make decorations, fancy dresses, illustrate fairy-tales, maintain national traditions, folk-tales, and folk-songs. They go to the theatre, perform for kindergarten kids and for adults. They produce fantastic objects during their handicraft classes and in camps. Creativity is well developed at school. Elite. Yes, "the social elite", first of all representatives of the profession gladly bring their more delicate, anxious, late-bloomer children to Winkler Márta's school with its protective community. They judge well. Alternative schools present a new chance for those children who lack motivation, are talented, self-confident, did not want to be taught, but wanted to study, or ..., etc. That is why it is important to keep the school unchanged, the possibility to reform it by cooperating with children, parents and teachers who consider this school their own.