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There was such happiness
on her face when she
realised what she had achieved. |
Those real-life
occasions that we all learn from
For three weeks the children
in the conductive groups and in the integrated Kindergarten have been working
during every spare minute that they can find to produce costumes for a fashion show. We
have been asked to present this fashion show at the fifty-year anniversary
celebration of the Association that I work for in Nürnberg, that took place last Friday.
The whole event was a great
success, including the weeks of preparation and the excitement that developed
amongst conductors, children, parents and other colleagues.
I was so happy after the event
was over that on Saturday morning I wrote a letter of thanks to the lady who
asked us to do this project.
This letter contained so much that I often try to express here that I decided to publish an edited
version –
‘Thank you
so much for asking us to produce a Golden Fashion Show, therefore once again giving
our lovely children the opportunity to take part in “real life”.
Once again
these children excelled all our expectations, and my expectations are always
very high!
It was a
lovely experience for me to see how a conductive upbringing really does pave
the way to allow our children to become fully participating adults in our wider
world.
I am so
pleased to be able to work in your wonderful team.
With your
enthusiasm for our work and through your spontaneity and action the conductive
team is able to offer our children most of the opportunities that they need. With the
protective wings our Association around them they are able to blossom in the
way that all children should be given the opportunity to do.
The
children learn skills that they can use to be functional within their chosen
communities as adults. When I speak of 'skills' I do not mean just walking
skills, I mean those skills that you yourself are so good at – looking people in the
eyes, communicating well, reaching out a hand and smiling at them, enjoying
life, being motivated to take part, wanting to be part of the action!
These are
the skills that we all need to live a joyful life and these are the skills that we try to
help the children to learn in a conductive upbringing. Of course they do this
as part of learning physical skills. They children can also learn to take steps
and to stretch a hand to shake someone else’s. These motor skills are all so
very important but not necessarily attainable by everyone, a lust for life most certainly is
attainable for everyone.
I thank you
very much for sharing your lust for life with me, with us all. I thank you for sharing
your enthusiasm to be part of the action with us and for allowing me and my
colleagues to exercise our own enthusiasms for our work and for our lives with
our children, to help them learn to enjoy their own lives to the full too.
I would
also like to thank you, for encouraging your colleagues who are responsible for
publicity and fund-raising to incorporate our children in as much action as
possible. Whether it is celebrations like yesterday, making paintings for your
visitors, making birthday cards, collecting donations or putting on exhibitions,
our children just love it when I say that you have a new idea for us, or that
your colleagues in the office need our help. The children’s ideas flow faster
than mine and the other conductors’!
It is
exhausting sometimes but the tiredness is soon forgotten, especially when,
this week I was asked to phone the homes of two children so that they could ask
permission to stay with us an extra hour in order to help complete art work for
Friday’s big festival!
It has been
such a pleasure to come back after the summer break. Having arrived a little
sad at once again leaving my Dad in hospital, I was immediately enveloped in
enthusiasm and smothered in golden ideas for three whole weeks until the climax
yesterday.
Everyone
who has entered our conductive rooms over this period has been caught up in the
atmosphere as there have been costumes and gold paintings hanging around
everywhere, drying off and waiting to be worn. The anticipation and the looking
forward to an appearance on stage has been great motivation.
We, the
conductors, were still beaming when we left work at 18.30 pm on Friday evening,
having returned from the Fest with two children, as promised by public
transport. With their help and our smiles we tidied away our crafty leftovers
and prepared for work on Monday.
We met our
cleaning lady, as we left and she said to my colleague – ‘You look like you
have fallen in love!’ My colleague told her that this was just happiness because we
had had such a lovely day. The children had been so good right up to travelling by
public transport.
But it was
not only the day on Friday, it was working so closely for three weeks on this
project that made our smiles that much bigger.
I thanked my
colleague yesterday for entering into her work with just as much passion as I
have. It is a joy for me to work with her, especially with all the extra energy
she provides and her great sense of humour.
It is important
for me that I can express my thanks to you in English. If you need help to
understand I will try to explain in German, but I am sure you will understand
what I mean in your soul .
I want to
tell you how grateful I am to you for your enthusiasm for your own life and for
the lives of everyone else. Your style fits so well with our philosophy of conductive
upbringing. Your spontaneity and lust for life are inspiring for me and for all
the children and adults that we work with.
Yesterday you
said that you won’t still be here for the 60th celebrations, but perhaps I shall
be, who knows. If I am still here this will be because of what I have learnt from
you, what I have been given through your enthusiasm for my work, because
you have given me the freedom to develop conductive upbringing with our team,
and because you inspire others in your team to help us along our way.
I
set out to write a short note to say thank you for yesterday but it ended up
being something much more. And I still have a PS!
PS
I
was lucky to meet two other people yesterday who have also been, together with you, part of my conductive life almost from its start. It was a joy to see them
both at the party to celebrate fifty years of our Association. Before i came to work here they had been ever-present in Budapest while I did my training. The child of one of them was in the
Kindergarten group where I trained in 1991, and the child of the other was
there in another group at the same time. In 1993, their wives were a great support to me
at exam time, always waiting for me to finish my final exams to hear
how I had succeeded, and to drink a celebratory coffee with me! They were both
instrumental in my finding work when I came to Nürnberg.
If
it was not for the early commitment of these two families to continuing the
development of conductive upbringing in Germany, and later your own enthusiasm,
I doubt that I would now be working here in your team. I thank you all once
again.
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