The View of Education During the Renaissance

In the age of the Renaissance, a human-centered world view, which valued human dignity, came into being, displacing the God-centered world view which had regarded obedience and abstinence as virtues.

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1515) was the main representative of this new, humanistic view of education. He asserted that the purpose of education is to teach people, who are originally free, to attain the complete development of their human nature and to acquire a culture rich in individuality. He emphasized the humanistic aspects of culture, such as literature, the fine arts, and science. Emphasis was also given to physical education, which had been neglected in the Middle Ages. The image of the ideal person in the Renaissance Age was an “all-round man of culture,” whose mind and body are harmoniously developed. Erasmus’ idea of the return to the original human nature was inherited by Johann A. Comenius and Jean Jacques Rousseau.