Essentialism in Philosophy: Plato's Perspective and Its Implications

Essentialism

The philosophy of essentialism was coined by a Greek scholar named Plato, whose focus of the study was the philosophy of Parmenides, and regarded truth as an imperishable, permanent and unchangeable idea (Sahin, 2018). As such, Plato strongly held the idea that all things in life have an essence, and that they have a form or idea. According to Plato, a substance has specific characteristics: separable, identical and durable; even though everything explains its being through the discrimination between existence and essence. Because essence is the ‘what’ of anything, the essence and substance have been among the most fundamental concepts of metaphysics that focus on reason and faith, often explored in philosophy dissertation help. This is also because they are permanent, imperishable and unchangeable (Donovan et al., 2021). Against this backdrop, essentialism as a philosophy stresses that things and people have natural characteristics that are inherent, intangible, and innate because they contribute to the essence of that being. In short, essentialists believe that beings or entities have unchanging and underlying essence with which they are identified.

In education, as per Raty et al (2017), essentialism is an approach or philosophy that proposes and assumes that all children should be equally and thoroughly taught the basic essential subjects and traditional disciplines. Thus, the essentialist educational philosophy is a doctrine that holds that certain traditional concepts, skills and ideas are important and should be methodically and thoroughly taught to all students regardless of their abilities, conditions, interests and needs (Watkins & Noble, 2019). As such, the primary goal of essentialists is to impart a certain society’s cultural heritage and traditional knowledge to students. The subjects that encourage a more educated and happier lifestyle are included in the curriculum to achieve this purpose. Therefore, traditional discipline act as the conduits for transmitting cultural heritage to students in various ways that are determined by the teachers.

The essentialist believers hold that there is a common core curriculum that is based on the essential knowledge to be imparted to students, as well as disciplined ways of using academic rigour (Zhou & Pilcher, 2018). According to Kaygin et al (2017), these common core subjects are majorly cultural heritage, which is exemplified in the works of great writers and thinkers. Similarly, as per Roberts et al (2017), the main aim of this knowledge impartation is to preserve moral and intellectual standards and values. But schools are the main settings where this heritage could be transmitted to students through teacher’s disciplined efforts, with the help of perennial and main textbooks, as well as classic or essential academic material. Ideally, textbooks are effective ways of transmitting cultural heritage because they are timeless and essential sources of skills and knowledge. According to McCarthy (2020), this transmission can be conducted only through academic rigour, which is to be administered by teachers.

The essentialist movement in education first appeared in the United States of America during the 1930s when educationists sought to oppose progressive approaches that were then prevalent (Sahin, 2018). Yuan et al (2021) observed that behind this reaction, The Great Depression occurred- triggering renowned educationists like Bagley to question the educational system and its role in the economic crisis. Consequently, Bagley identified two specific defects of the US’ educational system namely: progressivism, which he claimed were making the education system weak, as well as the relaxation of academic standards in many schools, which led to the policy of widespread social promotion amid lack of skills and knowledge (Watkins & Noble, 2019).

Considering Bagley’s analysis of the US educational system and the problems associated with it, he is regarded as the founder and promoter of essentialism. According to Yuan et al (2021), Bagley criticised progressive and pragmatism education through his works and writings. Specifically, he advocated for educational essentialism by publishing academic works about curriculum, teacher education, educational psychology and philosophy. In one of his works, Bagley argued that American students were not getting the same educational knowledge as European students at the same age (Dewilder & Skerfsrud, 2021). Moreover, he compared the US educational system with the educational systems of other countries such as Germany, and concluded that the US education system lacked the necessary rigour to prepare the children for active societal participation.

Against this backdrop, the essentialist educational philosophy holds that elementary schools are the best place of focus because it is the essential and primary educational stage. According to Raty et al (2017), essentialists believe that all elementary school children should receive a good grounding in mathematics, sciences, reading and writing; and that the study of core subjects such as humanities, mathematics, and sciences should be grounded on that premise. Similarly, as per Dewilder & Skerfsrud (2021), essentialists emphasise that respect for the school authority and teachers is of great importance and should be provided as one of the hard disciplines. Therefore, discipline is a significant characteristic of the essentialist approach because disciplined children will uphold discipline in society and life. Moreover, essentialists believe that academic rigour and knowledge, character development and patriotism are important characteristics of a good citizen that children should learn early enough. With these skills, the children will function effectively in life and as members of society (Donovan et al., 2021).

More importantly, essentialists believe that teachers should impart into students the essential characteristics, contribute to the student’s development by equipping them with academic rigour, knowledge and patriotism (Sahin, 2018). Therefore, traditional approaches are considered essential tools. When the children acquire this traditional knowledge, they acquire the skills of reasoning, which will help them train their minds and become members of a common culture. In short, essentialist educational philosophy emphasizes teaching children basic skills and intellectual self-discipline. In doing so, as essentialists believe, traditional disciplines will help the students to develop the cultural heritage and wisdom of western civilization. The most effective way to do this, according to essentialists, is to allow teachers to transfer the knowledge to the students in ways that they prefer.

Core subjects such as literature, writing, reading, mathematics, history, music and art are supposed to be ‘vehicles’ for transmitting western culture and heritage. These subjects are considered traditional subjects because they give a back-to-basics approach to learning. They also facilitate the transfer of the historical and cultural heritage of western civilization to students through appropriate values, skills and attitudes that are determined by teachers as the main authority (Sahin, 2018). Similarly, as per Raty et al (2017), these skills are considered essential because they lay the foundation and prepare students for future education, the employment space, and effective social or political participation. Finally, the main aim of these skills is to facilitate the transformation of students into individually and intellectually developed people who are well-characterised with respect, patriotism, discipline and hard work. Applying this to the current context, essentialism therefore promotes the arts, science and other principal skills that are beneficial to children in their early years are reflected in the children’s future through formal education, helping to transfer essential human culture to students (Watkins & Noble, 2019).

The essentialist approach holds various core principles that are of great importance to consider when building a case for it. First, essentialists believe in hard work, discipline and respect for those in authority, and therefore educationists must ensure children acquire these traits (Watkins & Noble, 2019). Secondly, Dewilder & Skerfsrud (2021) observed that a key principle of essentialism philosophy is that specialised and differentiated subjects are organized, developed and made the focus of education, and thus interdisciplinary studies are never considered. Also, because discipline and hard work are important, the teacher should adopt a disciplinary and rigid character (Watkins & Noble, 2019). Nonetheless, the other principle of the essentialist philosophy is that because the philosophy is teacher-centred, the teacher takes the lead in teaching and learning. This implies that they are responsible for maintaining discipline and order within the classroom (Donovan et al., 2021). The other principle of essentialism is that the curriculum is subject-centred and that the teacher is the sole authority to build the curriculum, doing so based on the core subjects. Because the teacher is the sole authority, they must have the necessary academic qualification that enables them to promote and appreciate character development and academic learning (Donovan et al., 2021). Furthermore, according to Raty et al (2017), the teacher must also be able to control the students by distributing the right penalties and rewards.

Essentialism and progressivism are the two terms that are currently used to represent two of the most common educational theories that are considered to have a conflict for centuries. According to Kaygin et al (2017), the conflicts have majorly been as a result of pairing various opposite schools of thoughts: race versus individual experience, interest versus effort, freedom versus discipline, learner initiative versus teacher initiative, activities versus subjects, psychological organization versus logical organization.

We argue that these assumed opposites are mostly misleading because every member of a pair represents a much needed and legitimate factor within the educational process. We consider the two schools of thought to be differing majorly on what emphasis they give to each member of the paired words, and an attempt to apply both schools of thought would lead to dualism, which appears to be less superior when each opposite is set off against one another. Moreover, this essay argues that when opening more schools and higher education institutions for the ever-increasing numbers, the reduction of scholastic standards is inevitable. As such, theories that emphasise immediate needs, personal interest and freedom, and by effect, discredit the opposites of discipline, remote goals and discipline have become more appealing. Below are some of the reasons why in this essay, we think the essentialist theory of education is more appealing:

First, progressives have given more emphasis on interest over effort and maintained that interest over solving a problem has always generated effort. However, essentialists have an unequivocal recognition of the motivating force of interest, but also opine that interests, especially the more permanent and higher ones, emanate from efforts to learn that may not originally have been appealing at first. If people can develop higher interest out of initial interest that is at the outset more attractive and appealing, then that is well and good. However, if this is not the case, then essentialists have the best solution for the problem – by recognising duty and discipline, which are two concepts that progressives are always ready to reject unless the duty is the self-recognized duty and the discipline is self-discipline.

Whereas progressives tend to regard the teacher-initiative as a form of ‘necessary evil’, essentialists believe that adults’ responsibility to provide direction and guidance for young people is an inherent human nature, and provides the fundamental basis for prolonged dependence of children on adults within the context of adult support and care (Sahin, 2018). It is the biological condition of human advancement, and fundamentally the meaning of infancy. As such, essentialists would give teachers the responsibility of overseeing a systematic program of activities and studies to help the children develop the essential skills. Whereas informal learning acquired through learner-initiated experiences is important and such opportunities should be availed to children, informal learning should be regarded as a supplementary rather than the central theme of learning – thus the need for an essentialist approach to education.

Considering the modern society’s period of necessary dependence, there is a constant need to induce each generation into the society’s heritage of culture. The less complex cultures can easily be transmitted by imitation; however, the more highly complicated cultures require more highly organized systems of education. According to Kaygin et al (2017), this is further necessitated by the need to have stronger control over young people. As such, the essentialist theory, alongside its disciplinarian characteristics, presents as the best approach for having a firmer grip on the children as opposed to, for example, the progressive approach which gives high regard to child freedom.

On the question of the subject against activities, the essentialists hols that race-experience is a phenomenon of great significance especially for the sake of culture. While essentialists also recognize the importance of personal or individual experience as an important aspect in the interpretation of organized race experience or racial culture, experience is a means to an end rather than an end itself. This is opposed to what the progressives believe in the importance of living in the present, and their opposition to formalism, especially the form of verbalism that textbook instructions are likely to generate. However, modern essentialists tend to recognize all these shortcomings.

Lastly, essentialists acknowledge that the organization of learning experiences in the form of school subjects entails the use of large meanings and concepts, and some members of each generation may not be able to master these complex concepts. For younger learners or those who never achieve optimum mental growth, they need a relatively simple educational program that helps them solve the simplest problems. Yet, other forms of education theories (e.g. progressivism) oppose the idea of formal, abstract and organized learning to take place in schools, thus denying some children an opportunity to solve problems while discouraging even the competent ones from pursuing studies that they are excited about.

Nonetheless, it is important to be cognizant of the various shortcomings of educational essentialism. For instance, Dewilder & Skerfsrud (2021) claimed that because essentialism is largely teacher-centred, it is difficult to identify the role of the child within the learning process. Ideally, in an essentialist school, the teacher designs the curriculum for the students based on the core subjects. This implies that the teacher enacts the curriculum and sets the standards within which the students learn. Therefore, the teacher may undermine the students’ interest in the study. Consequently, the students begin to play a more passive role in their learning because they are forced to meet specific standards of learning. Moreover, Kaygin et al (2017) strongly criticised the essentialist philosophy by claiming that it contributes to culture lag because it emphasizes passing on cultural knowledge through academic disciplines. This implies that the students are forced to think within the larger culture’s mindset, curtailing their creativity.

In conclusion, essentialism presents a good educational philosophy to adopt because it holds various benefits that are most important to the modern generation. For instance, essentialists hold that direction, control and guidance to the young by adults is the necessary form of dependence that is inherent in the human species. Similarly, while children should have the opportunity to develop self-discipline, imposed discipline is a means to this end. Even in the larger society, and in many nations, freedom is always a form of conquest and not a gift.

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