What’s Clear to Me

I understand that essentialist education grew out of a response to progressive education. While progressive education is learner-centered and promotes student interest and curiosity as well as social and emotional learning, essentialist education is concerned with the true purpose of education – to give each student the basic skills and knowledge needed to live life. As such, the essentialist model is teacher-centered and focused on student discipline and performance.  I understand that E. D. Hirsch Jr. is a major proponent of essentialist education. After publishing his highly popular book Cultural Literacy, h wrote a series of books highlighting what a student should learn at each grade level. These books remain popular and highly used today.

I can also understand that there seems to be a marriage of these two models in the standards and teaching we are witnessing today. While standards-based instruction is part of every state’s educational framework, the ways in which these are fostered include numerous examples of progressive education, such as cooperative learning, learning styles, personality tests, etc.

What’s Not Clear to Me

I suppose I still need clarification on which model might be more dominant in the future. Which way are we headed? Will education reform in the U.S. lean more heavily on one or the other? Is a mix of both the best solution to our many education-related problems?

It is also unclear to me which one is more highly favored by educational “experts” and thinkers today. How big is the support for each?

Pictured with this comment is an example of essentialist education – one of the books in E. D. Hirsch Jr.’s popular education series, highlighting what students should know at each level or grade of their education.