Treasure hunters - a movement of students researching local values

&nbsp, ; ; The dreamer and main organizer of the Treasure Hunters, Mária Szanyi, ethnographer and teacher (mentor of TUDOK), wanted to implement and establish the TUDOK method in the Upper Hungary within the framework of the SZMPSZ, with the difference that the Treasure Hunters could apply – making their own affiliation obvious – by searching for and processing local values. The idea coincided with the efforts of the then president of the SZMPSZ, László Pék, who dedicated a prominent place among the SZMPSZ programs to the teaching of local history in Hungarian schools in Slovakia. ; In the first two years, the SZMPSZ applied together with the Csemads for the competition, which was then still organized with regional rounds. Later, with the change in the application conditions, the SZMPSZ applied independently, and the conference of the Treasure Hunters – students researching local values truly became a conference, without competition. This has proven to be very good, because year after year, students aged 11–18 present those local historical values in relaxed, yet responsible, conferences with full presentations that present significant documents of the time to the audience, not only in terms of their birthplace, but sometimes also from the perspective of Hungarian cultural history. ; The presentations cover a variety of topics: the beauties of places hiding natural treasures, castle histories, settlement histories of villages, religious and art historical values of churches, our ethnographic treasures, the history of industrial monuments, etc. The lives of famous personalities, the origins and customs of old holidays affecting communities, and the emergence of newer ones are revealed over the years. The presentations are enriched by projected images, audio materials, and often valuable tangible relics. ; Each conference is equivalent to a free university. There is no better way to teach local history and strengthen the connection to one's homeland than the joy of one's own discovery. Despite the fact that no prizes are awarded at the conference, year after year the most experienced professionals, university professors, and distinguished researchers evaluate the students' presentations in order to make the presented material better and more complete with their guidance, which the schools publish to the public at a community event, and which can be utilized in the teaching of regional knowledge in the future. ; From the beginning, the goal of Kincskeresök was to research local history and present local values based on their own research. Over the course of more than 10 years, Kincskeresök has become a movement in the Upper Highlands. On average, about 50 presentations are given at the national conference each year (if we add to this the approximately 70 presentations prepared for the regional rounds of the first years, as well as the competition entitled New Renaissance, announced jointly with Csemadok in the spirit of “2008 is the Year of the Renaissance”), at past conferences, even if we count narrowly, at least 500 projected image presentations were included. ; In addition to the national conference, the students also present the topics they have worked on at micro-regional conferences or at community events in their hometowns. Thematic local history conferences or regional conferences based on the Treasure Hunters are organized in several places, and by now several schools have local history publications or regularly published local history booklets containing student research presented at the Treasure Hunters.