Monumentum aere perennius. On a festschrift honoring a teacher of latin and hungarian

Abstract

This is a review by literary historian Erika Szepes of a Festschrift in honor of the late Mrs Ilonka Kontra (1926–1997), a high school teacher of Latin and Hungarian in Budapest. Published in 2023, the book contains memories and appreciations of Mrs Kontra as an educator by 30 of her former students, who have become successful legal scholars, mathematicians, medical doctors, historians, social scientists, teachers in high schools and universities, diplomats, or theater directors. This slim volume (143 pages) contains a plethora of reminiscences of a teacher who taught her students to appreciate literature, both Hungarian and classical (Latin and Greek), from the 1960s through the mid-1980s. Editors Zsuzsa Hetényi and Miklós Kontra dedicated the volume to the many Hungarian teachers who have been protesting for the improvement of Hungarian public education since 2022.