Reading time: 3 minutes

The MCC Budapest Summit 2022, the largest international professional event organized by Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), was a massive success. The two-day conference focused on the topic “On the Values We Teach Our Children.” This year MCC hosted more than 30 guest speakers who shared their insights in roundtable discussions. More than 750 people attended the conference to listen to the internationally renowned experts from around the world.

Guests had the opportunity to meet prominent foreign experts such as Katy Faust, founder of the children's rights organization Them Before Us; the New York Times bestselling author Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute; the world-renowned philosopher, columnist, and MCC Visiting Fellow Peter Boghossian; Frank Füredi, sociologist and professor at the University of Kent; Joshua Katz, linguist, classicist, and professor at Princeton University; John O'Sullivan, political commentator and journalist; Rod Dreher, bestselling author and Editor-in-Chief of The American Conservative; and Josh Hammer, opinion editor at Newsweek and research fellow at the Edmund Burke Foundation. In addition to foreign experts, the conference also featured well-known Hungarian speakers such as Judit Varga, Minister of Justice; Gergely Böszörményi-Nagy, founder of the MOME Foundation; Professor András Lánczi, member of the Board of Trustees of MCC; and Gergely Szilvay, senior journalist at Mandiner and author of the book A gender-elmélet kritikája (A critique of the gender theory). Several members of the MCC academic staff spoke at the conference including Imre Porkoláb, Director of the Leadership Academy; Melinda Hal, head of the ‘Body and Soul’ Center; Rodrigo Ballester, head of the Center for European Studies; Boris Kálnoky, head of the media school; János Setényi, head of the Learning Institute, Lénárd Sándor, head of the Center for International Law and Márton Sulyok, head of the Center for Public Law also shared their thoughts on the topic.

 

The two-day MCC conference shed light on the importance of protecting our children and passing traditional values onto them. Steeping our children in traditional values equips them with knowledge and provides a secure framework for their growth.  It can also be a way out of the crisis our societies are facing. To paraphrase the words of Katy Faust, children need stability and balance, and it is the parent’s task to satisfy these needs.

Educational institutions also play a crucial role in the socialization of young people and the shaping of their identity. According to Dr. Calum Nicholson, today’s formal education focuses primarily on the transmission of technical content and knowledge to the detriment of students; less emphasis is placed on the transmission of traditional values and more natural ways of interacting which have historically had an impact on the socialization of young people. Another speaker, historian Hélène de Lauzun, stressed the educational function of TV series. In her opinion, young people today read less books and watch less films.  Instead, TV series have emerged as the only way to keep young people engaged and thus these programs have a huge influence on children's identity formation.

 

Summaries of the MCC Budapest Summit 2022: On the Values We Teach Our Children are available on the official website of Mathias Corvinus Collegium. For more information on the professional events organized in the MCC regional centers during the two-day conference, please visit the website of MCC or click on the links below: