I have not taught Hungarian history for more than forty years. Among my fellow teachers at that time were strangers from the class, people who had lost their careers, true professionals, passionate teachers, and then among us there were former demobilized officers, puffballs, so to speak, partisans who supposedly fought against the Germans in Yugoslavia. And we were taught by quarreling faithful Komcs who wanted to be Soviet people.

The field was colorful, with many, many female teachers. It was a crazy world, but we were young and hoped for something better. In the 1970s, no one thought for a minute that the Soviet occupation would ever end. We were thinking of the one hundred and fifty years of Turkish occupation. We, of course, enjoyed teaching Balassi, Csokonai, Petőfi, Ady, Kosztolányi, Attila József and other greats of Hungarian literature.

 This is how we were able to educate our fools to be Hungarian and to have a sense of national identity. Although the teacher's salary was low, we were weighed down by a thousand problems, we didn't even dare to dream of an independent apartment or a car, but no one - not even the Komcs - thought of leaving the chair, teaching, and the children for even a minute. It is true that even then the unions did not represent the workers and teachers, as they were branches of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSZMP); wages and prices were raised centrally, it was a true Bolshevist dictatorship and in the so-called goulash communism we were called "shut up" It never occurred to us to go to the streets to demonstrate for our interests and grievances. The revolution of 1956 and the merciless, bloody reprisals that followed the war of independence haunted everyone there.

Now Hungarian citizens do not have "shut up" , they can freely choose and decide their fate. However, the majority of Hungarian trade unions, including the Democratic Union of Teachers, are stuck with the old party-state model. Komcsik's church has remained the same as before, they have missed the regime change, they don't care what their fellow members need, they don't fight for their interests, but continue to fight for left-liberal ideas, they are waiting for higher instructions - who knows from where? – and they line up against national education and Hungarian culture. I recently spoke with the wife of a riding friend of mine from the Balaton highlands - Orsi - who is a secondary school teacher in Budapest, and she is in despair that only seven of the teaching staff go to school on Monday; the others go on strike out of faith, mainly out of fear. Right now, during the epidemic, he complained, when due to Covid-19 there were several months of online education in schools, then they go to protest. The children hardly learn, they have incomplete knowledge and the professional responsibility of quite a few teachers has disappeared - stressed Orsolya, the teacher.

Unfortunately, I can confirm these dilemmas. One of my grandchildren, who is in elementary school, started online education in the second grade last year. Several children did not have a computer at home, or their parents did not know how to operate a laptop. Just think about how many schoolchildren across the country may be affected by the ineffectiveness of distance education. That is why every teacher should use every minute, hour, and day to teach with their personal presence. I don't have a survey, but I am convinced that the vast majority of the Hungarian teaching community will not sell themselves for false ideas, misleading slogans, false promises, and for them teaching and their profession are still the first priority. We know that the teaching career is at least as important as working in healthcare, since the future generation depends on the work of our teachers. Teachers are given the same financial respect as doctors. Of course, the teacher cannot be the "employee of the nation", as in our time, but let's admit that he is no longer. The teaching profession has a vision for the future, which every teacher working in a school - let's put our hands on our hearts - experiences year after year. And so far, this government has kept what it promised. Teachers will also receive the planned salary increases on time.

So why would the teachers go out on the streets to protest? For the few hundred PDSZ employees struggling to survive, to make it better for them? Those fellow teachers who still fell for the promises of the PDSZ think that they are just tools before the election, and that the Komcic left-liberals are deceiving them, as so many times. So wake up call! If I could, I wouldn't choose the old communist reincarnations and mummies, but the chair and the students. Because they don't want to mess around, they want to learn. And their parents think so too.

Source: Pest Boys

Photo: Pest Boys