ESSENTIALISM AND EDUCATION
INTRODUCTION
Essential means completely necessary, or extremely important in a particular way or situation or for a particular activity whereas education is a process of teaching, training and learning, especially in schools or colleges, to improve knowledge and development skills.
Essentialism as a theory asserts –education involves learning of basic skills, arts and sciences that were useful in the past and likely to remain useful in the future. The essential or basic tool skills stressed relate to reading, writing arithmetic and accepted social behavior. The above basic or essential skills according to essentialists need to be an integral part of every primary school curriculum.
At the secondary level the basic curriculum stressed by essentialists consists of history, mathematics, science, languages, and literature. Basic Education is another name for Essentialism- concerns itself with subjects that have “generative power”. Generative Power means subjects that have the potential to endow students with the ability to learn the higher more complex developments of these master subjects Discipline and necessary for systematic learning to occur in school situations.
Expectations from a learner as stressed under Essentialism - the mastering of a skill or a subject requires effort and diligence on the part of the learner. Expectations of the role of a teacher under Essentialism- The teacher needs to be mature and well educated in terms of knowing his