{"id":3277,"date":"2016-06-15T12:37:54","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T11:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=55012"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:11","slug":"the-upbringing-of-future-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2016\/06\/15\/the-upbringing-of-future-politicians\/","title":{"rendered":"The upbringing of future politicians"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A good politician has authority and character, according to Erasmus. In his time, that meant: a study of Latin and Greek, a classical education. Today we all go to school and a quite different approach is required to ruthlessly confront our leaders with virtuousness.<\/p>\n

Imagine Desiderius Erasmus looking at our current political system with 21st century eyes and wondering how to prepare future politicians for their official duties. He\u2019d write a very different book than the one he wrote in 1515 and which became famous under the title The Education of a Christian Prince<\/em>. Erasmus wrote this book for Prince Charles, who would later become the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The chancellor of Brabant, Jean le Sauvage, had hit upon the idea of appointing Erasmus to be a counsellor to the young Charles, and it was with this book that Erasmus courted the favour of this future Christian prince. The result is an interesting and wise book in which Erasmus sets out his humanist ideas and provides an inspiring description of the character development which a future leader must embrace to become a good <\/em>prince.<\/p>\n

Character<\/h3>
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But what type of book would Erasmus write today if he had to curry favour with future politicians? How would his humanist ideas about upbringing translate to today\u2019s society? What character development would he want to see in our future leaders? And how would he expect that character development to be achieved?<\/p>\n

I considered these questions recently on a long walk through Rotterdam. And the longer I walked through those streets, the more convinced I became that Erasmus would want to live on the street and would have wanted to write his 21st century book on upbringing in the language of the street.<\/p>\n

So what do I mean?<\/p>\n

More in the series about Erasmus and Rotterdam<\/h2>